Fostering Conceptual Mathematical Understanding through Multimodal Expression: A Lightboard-Based Distance Learning Intervention in Primary Education

Abstract

This extended abstract presents a research-in-progress on embodied, multimodal learning in primary school mathematics using a Lightboard (LB) for remote instruction. By leveraging this technology, the study aims to create an immersive teaching environment that bridges physical distance and supports conceptual understanding through multiple expressive modes. The theoretical framework draws on embodied cognition, immersive learning, and multimodal learning to investigate how students make meaning through coordinated use of gesture, speech, writing, and visual representations. Building on prior investigation that explored student attitudes toward LΒ use in primary classrooms, which revealed high levels of engagement and positive perceptions, this study shifts focus to the learning process itself. In this intervention, primary classes will engage in a series of mathematics lessons delivered synchronously via the LB. All sessions will be video-recorded and analyzed through qualitative, multimodal analysis, with attention to how students mobilize semiotic resources during problem-solving. Additional data will be collected through structured observation protocols and student reflections, tracing evolving patterns of meaning-making across the intervention. The LB’s transparent and interactive format is designed to strengthen instructor presence and immediacy, simulating key dimensions of face-to-face instruction within a remote learning context. This current research seeks to examine how such a multimodal, embodied approach can enhance mathematical understanding and broaden the expressive repertoire available to young learners, while also addressing practical considerations of implementation in digitally mediated classrooms.