EAI: Improving Math Performance with Engaging Problems

Department of Early Childhood, Rehabilitation Counseling, & Special Education. College of Education, University of Kentucky.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Brian Bottge and the Department of Early Childhood, Special Education, & Rehabilitation Counseling at The University of Kentucky, have been developing and testing an instructional method called Enhanced Anchored Instruction (EAI). The core of EAI is a 10 to 12-minute video (anchor) that poses an interesting overall problem. The video format is an important advantage for students with MD because they often have math and reading difficulties, which limits their ability to comprehend standard word problems. They have also developed an instructional unit to teach students rational number concepts and computing fractions, which they need for computing data in the video and applied problems.