Diagnosis andClusteringOf Dyscalculia ThirdGradeStudents

Abstract

Severalstudentssu erfromdyscalculia.Manyresearchandstudieshave beencarriedouttotacklethisproblem.Mostoftheseresearchestriedto identifywhetherastudentsu ersfromdyscalculiaornot,withoutanyfur- ther detailsonthecase.Basedonresultsoftheidenti cation,researchers proposedsolutionsandwaystotreatdyscalculicstudents.Thisresearch tries totacklethedyscalculiaproblemamonggrade3studentsinSouth- ern DirectorateschoolsinPalestine.Theresearchattemptstousearti cial intelligentmethodsandtoolstoclusterstudentsaccordingtotheirdyscal- culia case,andproposedinformationtechnology-basedtreatmentforeach studentaccordingtohis/hercase.Ittriestogoafurtherstepintoidentify- ing whattypeofdyscalculicstudentonsensingnumber.Theapproachused in thisresearchisperhapsthe rsttouseAItoolstocluster;butnotclassify, dyscalculic students,andtriestobreak-downthedyscalculiaprobleminto three majortypesusingthisapproach.Toachievethis,anintensivelitera- ture reviewwascarriedout,thenanexamusedbytheMinistryofEducation and HigherEducationinPalestinewasmodi edandtestedbyexperts.The modi edexamwasappliedtogradethreestudentsatschoolsofbothgen- ders inHebronandYattadirectorates.Resultsoftheexamwerecodedand input toanAItoolRtool.Thetooluseshierarchicaltechniquescluster- ing. Weapplytwohierarchicaltechniquesalgorithms;theSinglelinkand WARDmethod.WARDalgorithmisanagglomerativehierarchicalcluster- ing procedure,wherethecriterionforchoosingthepairofclusterstomerge at eachstepisbasedontheoptimalvalueofanobjectivefunction.Single link istechniquelooksinthedistancebetweentwoclusterstobeequaltothe shortest distance.WARDalgorithmshowbetterresultthanSingleLink,af- ter calculatedtheCopheneticCorrelalationCo cient(CPCC).SingleLink is thelowestCPCC,whichis(0.46).ButWardhas(0.7)CPCC.Notonly wastheuseoftheclusteringtodetermineifthestudentisdyscalculicor not asthepreviouswork,butwealsouseWARDalgorithmclusteringmore deeply todeterminewhatkindofdyscalculiaastudenthas.Theresultwas clustered intosevenclusterssuchas(weaknessonthethreeskills,theab- sence ofanyweaknessinthethreeskills,studentswhohavezeromarkinthe exam). Resultsshowdi erencesamonggenderandamongdirectorates,and inconsistency betweenclusteringresultsandstudentsmathachievementin school.Basedontheresultsandtheliteraturereview,amodelhasbeenpro- posedforthetreatmentofdyscalculicstudents,whereitconsistsalsoofthe identi cationandclusteringstage.Themodelwasevaluatedby24experts, and theircommentsandsuggestionwereincorporatedinthemodel.