Teaching Division Online to Students via a Virtual Manipulative Instructional Sequence

Abstract

The global Covid-19 pandemic forced teachers to support students online in multiple academic subjects, including mathematics, including students with disabilities and those at-risk. And yet, to date, limited research exists examining teaching mathematics to students with disabilities online. The current study explored the use of the virtual-representational-abstract (VRA) instructional sequence paired with the system of least prompts (SLP) to support three elementary students with either a developmental disability or at-risk in mathematics to solve division with remainder problems. All three students learned to solve the targeted division with remainder problems with at least 75% accuracy and 85% independence across virtual, representational, and abstract sessions. Further, all three students maintained their accuracy for up to two weeks following the completion of intervention. The study holds implications for virtual manipulative-based instructional sequences, which to date focused on secondary students, and for teaching mathematics to students with disabilities online.