The use of process mnemonics in teaching students with mathematics learning disabilities

This study investigated the effects of process mnemonic (PM) instruction on the computational skills performance of 13-to 14-year-old students with mathematics learning disabilities. Two experiments are described. In Experiment 1, 29 students were randomly assigned to one of four instruction groups: PM, demonstration-imitation (DI), study skills (SS), or no instruction (NI). In Experiment 2, instructors with no vested interest in the outcomes of the study were employed to teach 28 students who were assigned to PM, DI, or NI groups. Both PM and DI students made significant improvements in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. However, improvements were often greater for PM students. More importantly, the improvements made by PM students maintained better than those of DI students over six-week (Experiment 1) and eight-week (Experiment 2) follow-up periods.