Brightly colored beads slide across metal dowels as the students add and subtract to calculate a solution to the math problem.

Just a typical elementary school classroom – except that it’s a classroom at Eastern Kentucky University and the students are education majors working on strategies to use with students who struggle in mathematics.

Becky Reister, a math interventionist employed with Madison County Schools at Kit Carson Elementary, is on hand to offer professional development to 84 students enrolled in Elementary Math Methods – working with them on intervention strategies they can use with students in their own classrooms and helping them actually create tools to take into those classrooms.

The students left the class with additional tools and knowledge on instruction strategies that meet RTI (Response to Intervention) guidelines for the needs of struggling students, but also with ten frames, bead boards, numeral rolls and a variety of games to implement into their math instruction. During the class, they watched videotapes of children using these tools, called manipulatives, and strategies – allowing them see firsthand how they are used and how beneficial they are for students.

“Teachers are required to know how to meet all of the needs of every student in all content areas – especially math,” said Krista Althauser, who teaches the EKU course. “There is a tremendous amount of information and research on reading but not as much on mathematics. This professional development helps the students understand the urgency of being knowledgeable about teaching mathematics to all students and meeting their needs.

“While class time is structured around using the manipulatives, there is not time for them to be able to make them,” Althauser explained. “This professional development is designed so they not only learn how to use the manipulatives, but also get to make and take them when they leave.”

This was particularly helpful for the students.

“This meeting was enlightening and insightful,” said Sara Buckner, a sophomore special education major from Louisville. “I know math and I greatly understand it, but this makes me realize all kids don’t, and I gained from making the manipulatives to use to teach about the number 10.”

“The best thing was making my own supplies that I will be able to use in my classroom,” Elizabeth Howard of Richmond, a senior elementary education major, added.

“Test scores reflect the need for better qualified mathematics teachers,” Althauser said. “Forty percent of middle grade and elementary school mathematics teachers do not feel qualified to teach their content.

Furthermore, elementary teachers do not have to be math specialists. Only 7 percent of elementary teachers have minored or majored in mathematics education or mathematics, according to recent research conducted by Stiff.”

In addition, current reform efforts advocate a shift from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction, noted Althauser. This shift emphasizes the need for alternative ways to teach and assess student learning.

Ashlee Prewitt, a freshman elementary education major from Brodhead, said this session allowed her to gain “new, fun ways to teach kids number combinations and practice working with numbers.”