The Effects of Concrete and Virtual Manipulatives on Solving Algebraic Equations in Students With Disabilities

An alternating treatments design was used to analyze the effects of concrete and virtual manipulatives on the duration and number of correctly solved linear equations by three middle school students with cognitive disabilities. Participants physically manipulated algebra tiles to solve an equation during the concrete manipulative condition. During the virtual manipulative condition, participants used a Chromebook to manipulate the virtual algebra tiles presented on the BrainingCamp website. All participants exceeded their average baseline accuracy scores using both forms of manipulatives to solve one and two-step algebraic equations. Comparing the two treatment conditions, two of the three participants had higher average scores for accuracy using the concrete manipulatives than the virtual manipulatives. One of the three participants solved algebraic equations in a shorter duration of time with concrete manipulatives. The data suggest both concrete and virtual manipulatives can successfully support students with disabilities to solve algebraic equations.