Investigating the development of mathematical thinking in fifth- to eight-grade students with integration, behaviour and learning difficulties qualitative examination of expert opinions

Abstract

Developing thinking is among the unresolved yet essential aspects of successfully developing fifth- to eighth-grade students classified as experiencing integration, behaviour or learning difficulties. Of the various school subjects, it is the mathematics lesson in which thinking skills are most likely to be developed (Molnár and Csapó, 2019). Thus this paper investigates the question of whether developing mathematical thinking is among the objectives of special education sessions in Hungary, either explicitly or implicitly. In the first half of the study, we (a) summarize the aims required for successful mathematics instruction and (b) provide an overview of the main factors in mathematics achievement and of research on problems that lie behind learning difficulties in mathematics, which are rooted in mathematics instruction. We conducted a document analysis of expert opinions on students classified as experiencing integration, behaviour or learning difficulties at a school with four distinct target groups to determine what points of reference an examination of mathematical thinking and recommendations on developing it might provide in the work of special education.  The findings show that the difficulties and gaps discussed in the literature can also be observed in these documents. Based on the expert opinions we analysed, it is clear that in the practice of the special education services under examination, when mathematics skills were studied and recommendations were made, the primary focus was on the concept of number and on the skills required to complete arithmetic operations. Mathematical thinking is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for appropriate development in these areas. At the same time, further factors and conditions are lacking in the expert opinions, without which an expert proposal for a complex developmental plan cannot be drafted. This study wishes to spark a debate in the field by drawing attention to the potential reasons for these gaps and the stumbling blocks to success in practice.