Differentiated Instruction through the use of virtual manipulatives
Designing and implementing a learning environment that is available to all students and addresses diverse learning styles is the focus of differentiated instruction. The use of manipulatives, whether virtual or concrete, helps meet the needs of a variety of strengths, interests, and learning styles of students. Garcia et al (2013) discussed differentiated instruction in terms of manipulative use in the classroom. Not only do manipulatives allow students to work at their own pace (Garcia et al, 2013), but they enable students with different learning styles to find a manipulative that works for them. It is imperative when differentiating instruction that students be allowed to work at their own pace, are grouped properly with students of similar learning abilities, and are offered more than one type of learning task. Virtual manipulatives play a vital role in offering differentiated learning tasks for students. "A teacher can have a student who is working at a different mathematical level work independently using the virtual manipulatives to help him or her understand a particular mathematical concept while the teacher works on a different concept with another group of students" (Bouck and Flanagan, 2010, p. 190). This capability allows students to not only work with different manipulatives but to also work at a pace and level that is appropriate for their specific learning abilities. When it comes to selecting appropriate virtual manipulatives with the goal of differentiating instruction, a teacher must keep in mind each students needs and select a virtual manipulative appropriate for not only what the needs needs to learn but how the students learns best. "Differentiated instruction is an approach to planning and teaching based on the premise that teachers must consider who they are teaching as well as what they are teaching" (Little, 2009, p. 6). This may mean that educators need to find multiple forms of virtual manipulatives in order to truly differentiate instruction. The levels of learning approach to differentiated instruction involves the use of Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) (Little, 2009, p. 6). CRA involves utilizing manipulatives to help students master a concept. Once the students masters the concept via manipulative use, they may move on to a more pictorial representation on the concept. The overall effect of virtual manipulatives is determined by their use and their appropriateness for each students' individual needs. If used in the correct context have the power to create a highly differentiated environment for instruction.