Examining a Virtual Number Line Intervention to Teach Fractions to Children With Mathematics Difficulties

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Innovative Approaches to Mathematics Instruction for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

Providing multiple representations of mathematical ideas is an established strategy shown to support students in making connections between high-level concepts. One assistive technology that provides students with such representations is manipulatives. Virtual manipulatives in particular possess a growing research base for supporting students with special needs. However, their prospective benefits across many curricular domains are still unknown, including critical skills such as computations with fractions. This presentation will review a single-subject study examining an intervention featuring explicit instruction and a virtual manipulative number line to teach computations with fractions to three middle school students with mathematics difficulties. All three students’ data exhibited a functional relation between the intervention and their accuracy performance. The implications of these findings will be addressed.

Authors

• Rajiv Satsangi, George Mason University

• Soyoung Park, University of Central Florida