Teachers’ Experiences with and Perceptions of Virtual Manipulatives following the COVID-19 Pandemic

While the use of virtual manipulatives is rising in classrooms, especially with the rise in distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still limited research regarding teacher experiences with and perceptions of virtual manipulatives. Most of the research regarding teacher perceptions of VM has focused only on short-term uses following professional development sessions and none has highlighted the experiences of teachers using them during emergency remote teaching during COVID-19. This session will cover a study in which the purpose was to explore teacher perceptions and experiences with virtual manipulatives following distance learning during COVID-19. To achieve this, the researchers conducted an online survey to gather data on educator’s (n=103) experiences, perceptions, and usage of virtual manipulatives. The qualitative and quantitative data show that educators feel that VM are a valid and feasible support of mathematics instruction when physical manipulatives are not available. Results regarding usage of virtual manipulatives including frequency of use, standards taught, and types used are presented and discussed. This presentation will leave participants with a greater understanding of how VM are being used in the classroom and online learning environments post-pandemic, and how teachers plan to use them in the future. Additionally, there will be discussion of barriers to use of virtual manipulatives in both classroom and online learning environments.