Human Development colloquium: Jason Chow (CHSE)

Supporting Contexts, Individual Differences, and Systems to Improve the Impact of Math Instruction and Intervention

Abstract: In this talk, I will introduce my program of research focused on the importance of language skills in early educational success and later social, behavioral, and learning outcomes. I will then focus on a specific line of inquiry focused on the developmental relations between language and mathematics and some intervention studies aimed at supporting children with varying language skills learn math concepts. Descriptive studies reveal differential relations between language domains and math outcomes, and these findings were supported via data from a comprehensive meta-analysis on the relations between language and mathematics. Intervention studies show that a brief, class-wide math equivalence intervention can improve math problem solving performance, and nonsymbolic problem representation may compensate for low language skills in the context of classroom instruction. This talk will conclude with an overview my next projects in this line of research and how this line of inquiry fits into my broader research program.

Short Bio: Jason Chow is an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland in the Departments of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education and Hearing and Speech Sciences. His work focuses on language, social, and behavioral development, peer networks, supporting teachers and speech-language pathologists/therapists, mathematics development and intervention, implementation and sustainability of early learning and social/behavioral interventions, and meta-analysis. His work is supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences and Office of Special Education Programs and the American Psychological Association. He is a visiting Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore School of Medicine and a Researcher in the Centre for Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology. He currently serves as an Associate Editor of the Elementary School Journal, Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, and Remedial and Special Education. He teaches courses in special education, research methods, grant writing, and meta-analysis.