LD Blog

There are several blogs that appear to be sustaining some overlapping discussions (debate?) about the benefits of different instructional practices for students with Learning Disabilities in college calculus classes. There are advocates of putative “constructivist” and “direct instruction” approaches. It makes for pretty interesting reading, though sorting through the redundancy and superfluous content was a tad daunting. Here are some of the sources:

• “KtchenTableMath” is an interactive site maintained by Carolyn Johnston and Catherine Johnson whose purpose is “to have fun, to share ways of teaching kids math, and to support people who want to help kids learn math.” They became interested in instruction because of their children’s needs for help with arithmetic and mathematics. Here’s a link to the entry in their twiki.
• Another source is maintained by Kimberly Swygert, who is a statistician for a private testing company that makes high-stakes tests. Here’s the link to the entry in her blog, “Number 2 Pencil.”
• Robert Talbert, who teaches math and computing at Franklin College, has a blog called “BrightMystery.” His contributions to the multi-site discussion are available via this link (perhaps the starting point) and this link.