DreamBox Learning’s instructional philosophy

Our math curriculum simultaneously develops conceptual understanding, computational fluency, and problem-solving ability. We believe that all children can become proficient, flexible, mathematical thinkers when their learning environment is engaging, personalized, and responsive to their developing mathematical ideas and strategies. We provide children with opportunities to develop the full range of skills and logical thinking, from learning the basic facts for computation, to developing problem-solving strategies.

Developing mathematical strategies and proficiency

The DreamBox Learning environment is rich with digital manipulatives for developing mathematics proficiency through first-hand experience. Students choose from developmentally-appropriate challenges that encourage them to try out their own strategies. At the same time, we provide many opportunities for developing and practicing important skills such as efficient computation and automaticity with the basic math facts. DreamBox provides students with tailored instructional support as they develop deep understanding of key math concepts, ensuring effective learning results.

An appropriately-challenging experience

We have designed an adaptive online environment, with initial and continuous assessment to ensure a child is always working at the right place in the curriculum. DreamBox tracks every mouse click in order to offer the appropriate hints and instructional feedback, pacing, sequence, and level of difficulty of the lessons, and much more. Every aspect of the experience is adapted to the learning needs of every child, to keep them appropriately challenged and having fun.

A highly individualized response to student errors

Good teachers know it’s a judgment call when and how best to intercede when a child makes a mistake. At DreamBox, we have developed powerful technology to emulate the strategies of great teachers, to appropriately adapt and respond to individual student needs. We adjust the number and type of math problems in the game depending on a child’s responses. Did he get a problem correct the first time, or did he need a second chance? Was the incorrect answer within a reasonable range? Was the problem solved in a reasonable amount of time? Based on the answers to these and other questions, we give hints of varying degrees to help the child solve a problem. And all of this data is used to determine how comfortable a child is with a particular objective. Should she continue to practice this objective, practice a prior objective or move on to new one?

At DreamBox, we analyze the full range of each student’s online behavior, doing real-time assessment to determine if a student should skip content he already knows, or if reinforcement in a particular area of the curriculum is needed. If so, the lesson sequence is adjusted on the fly to provide more practice-based lessons. By combining the latest educational research with the expertise of our board-certified teachers, we’ve developed a technology that constantly adapts to optimize learning for each child.

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