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1. Mathematics
2. Mathematics K–6 Support Document for Students with Special Education Needs
3. Implementation
4. Strategies
5. Specific areas of difficulty
6. Difficulties in the application of strategies

Difficulties in the application of strategies

To support students experiencing difficulties in the application of strategies, teachers could guide students in their use of cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies.

Cognitive strategies

Cognitive strategies are plans or guides to support students to complete problem-solving tasks.

Examples of cognitive strategies that students may use individually or in combination are: visualising, verbalising, self-questioning, scanning, underlining or highlighting key information, using mnemonics, using visual or verbal prompts, using a set of procedural prompts or cues, to complete a task.

Examples of teaching strategies that support students in the use of cognitive strategies include: ⁴

• teaching cognitive strategies in small steps, explaining when to use and how to use them
• guiding student practice
• providing instructional scaffolding
• providing procedural prompts
• promoting self-monitoring and evaluation of strategy use.

Procedural prompts

Procedural prompts scaffold students’ use of cognitive strategies by breaking the strategy into small steps.

Example ⁷

Metacognitive strategies ⁷

Metacognitive strategies involve planning, monitoring and evaluating one’s thinking and are designed to support the effective use of cognitive strategies.

To support students in the use of metacognitive strategies, teachers should:

• emphasise the importance of metacognitive strategies for successful problem solving
• explain when and how to use metacognitive strategies
• model and scaffold the use of self-instruction, self-questioning and self-monitoring techniques
• model locating and correcting strategy errors
• provide students with opportunities to practise verbalising the metacognitive strategies that they use
• provide specific feedback on students’ use of metacognitive strategies.

Self-instruction involves a student telling himself/herself what to do before and during a task. For example:

• ‘I read the problem. If I don’t understand, I read it again.’
• ‘I underline the important information.’
• ‘I decide what steps and operations I need.’
• ‘I check my calculations.’

Self-questioning involves a student asking himself/herself questions before and while engaged in a task to:

• stay on task
• ensure a particular cognitive strategy is being used correctly
• check the solution.

For example:

• ‘What needs to be worked out?’ ¹³
• ‘What strategies are appropriate for solving this problem and why?’
• ‘Is this problem similar to any other problem that I have solved?’ ¹³
• ‘How does my answer compare to my estimate?’
• ‘Does my answer make sense?’

Self-monitoring involves a student evaluating whether he/she has used a particular cognitive strategy correctly. For example:

• ‘I check that my picture represents the problem.’
• ‘I check that my plan to solve the problem makes sense.’
• ‘I check that I have done the operations in the right order.’
• ‘I check that everything is correct – if not, I go back.’