UTILIZATION OF THE CONCRETE - REPRESENTATIONAL - ABSTRACT SEQUENCE OF INSTRUCTION IN IMPROVING BASIC MATHEMATICS SKILLS FOR STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

UTILIZATION OF THE CONCRETE - REPRESENTATIONAL - ABSTRACT SEQUENCE OF INSTRUCTION IN IMPROVING BASIC MATHEMATICS SKILLS FOR STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

Le Thi Tam tamlt@vnies.edu.vn The Vietnam National Institute of Educational Sciences 52 Lieu Giai, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam
Summary: 
Basic mathematics skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are the core and most important skills in the elementary mathematics curriculum. Students with intellectual disabilities often have great difficulty in acquiring and applying these computational skills when learning mathematics. The following study examined the effects of using the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) sequence of instruction on improving the basic mathematics skills for students with intellectual disabilities, who study in inclusive schools. The results showed a significant improvement for the experimental group of students, who had opportunities to work with manipulative and visual exercises. In addition, practice time is considered as an important predictor of students’ performance in math. These results may help to change the way to support students with intellectual disabilities to obtain mathematical concepts in the inclusive primary school.
Keywords: 
The concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) sequence of instruction
students with intellectual disabilities
basic mathematics skills
Refers: 

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