Differentiated Instruction and Students Who Struggle with Addition and Subtraction

Abstract

How can the implementation of differentiated instruction help students who struggle with addition and subtraction? Differentiated instruction, based on student learning styles, can help provide students with a developmentally appropriate education. Providing students with varied methods to add and subtract allows them to understand concepts through their preferred method. Lev Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (Subban, 2007) supports the fact that students are developmentally unique at different stages and should be instructed at their level of understanding. The essential key to my study is to determine how students can conceptualize addition and subtraction in a way that allows them to comprehend these skills.