THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY ON MATHEMATICAL WORD PROBLEM SOLVING FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: A META-ANALYSIS

This meta-analysis aimed to investigate the effectiveness of instructional technology on mathematical word problem solving for elementary and middle school students with disabilities. This study examined specifically digital technology such as computers and tablets. From the article identification based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 21 studies were included in this study. The 21 included studies consisted of seven group design studies and 14 single-case design studies. This study computed an overall effect and analyzed moderators of group design studies (Hedges’ g) and single-case design studies (between-case standardized mean difference) in the same analyses. The overall effect of instructional technology on word problem solving across 21 studies was large (Hedges’ g = 1.18, 95% CI = 0.84, 1.52). The study characteristics, including publication years, intervention settings, intervention agents, technology devices, technology types, and mathematics topics, were found to moderate the effects of interventions. The four studies, which assessed the generalization of word problem solving skills learned from the instructional technology to the standardized assessments, showed a near moderate effect (Hedges’ g = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.09, 0.9). Limitations of this study and directions for research are discussed.