Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Mathematical Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmathb Where is Difference? Processes of Mathematical Remediation through a Constructivist Lens Jessica Hunt a , Ron Tzur b, ⁎ a North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, United States b Colorado University – Denver, 1201 Larimer St, Denver, CO 80204, United States ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Constructivism Student-teacher interaction Mathematics Intervention Learning difference ABSTRACT In this study, we challenge the deficit perspective on mathematical knowing and learning for children labeled as LD, focusing on their struggles not as a within student attribute, but rather as within teacher-learner interactions. We present two cases of fifth-grade students labeled LD as they interacted with a researcher-teacher during two constructivist-oriented teaching experi- ments designed to foster a concept of unit fraction. Data analysis revealed three main types of interactions, and how they changed over time, which seemed to support the students’ learning: Assess, Cause and Effect Reflection, and Comparison/Prediction Reflection. We thus argue for an intervention in interaction that occurs in the instructional process for students with LD, which should replace attempts to “fix”‘deficiencies’ that we claim to contribute to disabling such stu- dents. 1. Introduction In the study reported here, we examine the interactions between a researcher-teacher and two children labeled as having learning disabilities (LD) during a series of tutoring sessions designed to support and extend each child’s knowledge of unit fraction concepts. This examination contributes to the ongoing debate about ways to effectively support mathematics learning of students with LD. Our approach, which is not commonplace in the literature about instructional interventions for students with LD in special education, draws on constructivism to define knowing as individual cognition and learning as the interplay between the cognition and inter- personal interactions that unfold in a shared instructional space. We focus on teacher-child interactions, particularly the verbal communication patterns of the teacher’s response to each girl’s mathematical activity (e.g., her actions, her statements, etc.), and how those interactions may foster the intended learning in each girl. Our study can contribute to understanding reasons, and possible remedies, for difficulties and struggles children often experience in mathematics over their school age years (Hecht & Vagi, 2010). For some children, the difficulties become persistent and compound into unique learning challenges. These challenges can occur across mathematical domains (Geary, 1993) or in one domain foun- dational to later mathematics performance, such as number sense or rational number sense (Mazzocco & Devlin, 2008). Regardless, the challenges permeate these children’s mathematical experiences, and often lead to barriers in accessing high level mathematics, such as algebra (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). To address these challenges, systems are often put into place in schools to afford supplemental instructional opportunities in an effort to amplify children’s learning (Fuchs & Fuchs, 2006). Within these systems, a common goal rests in the desire to remediate, or make better, the children’s difficulties that seem to emerge in the regular classroom. In this way, remediation is the process by which teachers work to augment mathematical conceptions, while intervention http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmathb.2017.06.007 Received 10 January 2017; Received in revised form 14 June 2017; Accepted 19 June 2017 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jhunt5@ncsu.edu (J. Hunt), ron.tzur@ucdenver.edu (R. Tzur). Journal of Mathematical Behavior 48 (2017) 62–76 0732-3123/ © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. MARK