IDENTIFYING AND INTERPRETING SUBJECTİVE WEIGHTS FOR COGNITIVE AND PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF MATHEMATICAL LEARNING DISABILITY: AN APPLICATION OF A RELATIVE MEASUREMENT METHOD

Abstract

This study utilizes an evaluation model AHP (analytic hierarchy process) which prioritized the relative weights of three general subtypes of mathematical disability (MD), Semantic Memory, Procedural, and Visuospatial in order to analyze and explain underlying cognitive and performance features of FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) benchmarks and corresponding items for grades 6-8 in all mathematics categories. For this purpose, extensive review of the literature has been conducted on mathematical disability to determine subtypes of learning disability in mathematics. Afterwards, a multi-step AHP approach is adopted to obtain the relative weights of criteria (subtypes of learning disability) by linking the independent evaluations of four content area experts for each benchmark. The results indicate that semantic memory deficiency is the dominant subtype of mathematical learning disability on vast majority of benchmarks. Another important finding of this study is that effect of visuospatial deficiency increases from grade 6 to grade 8. In addition, effect of procedural deficiency does not show big variability among reporting categories, although it has the highest effect on number categories. 

Keywords

• AHP,FCAT,subtypes of mathematical disabilty

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