Essay - Manipulatives: What? Why? How? Manipulatives What? Why? How? Objective the...

manipulatives: what? Why? How?

MANIPULATIVES

WHAT? WHY? HOW?

OBJECTIVE

***** objective of this work is to research hands-on manipulatives use in mathematics. This work will explore the historical perspective, the effects on education, the supporting **********, and ***** research has been thus far conducted. Finally, this ***** will research the special benefits ***** using algebra tiles.

INTRODUCTION

One of the hottest topics among ***** educators and researchers is that of 'manipulatives'. Manipulatives serve in so many areas of *****struction of ma*****matics ***** are so helpful with the special needs ***** students that manipulatives, although being quite ancient in theory and even use are ga*****ing new respect in today's challenging and increasingly diverse classroom.

***** ARE MATH MANIPULATIVES?

***** manipulatives are traditionally concrete objects ***** one ***** able to manipulative that assists the individual in completion of math operations such as add*****g, subtracting, multiplying, division, and then on to more complicated ***** such as Algebra. One ***** the first manipulatives utilized in the mathematics classroom instruction was the abacus. This instrument is used in counting in numbers larger than ten human fingers can represent and historically were ***** by merchants for calculation purposes. The ***** preceded the inventions of ***** used for counting and continually evolved in its appearance since ancient civilization. The abacus is pictured in ***** figure below labeled Figure 1 and is the copy ***** a cover of ***** manual ***** Lee Kai-chen published in 1958 and ***** 4 decks *****in its design. Kai-chen claims that it is easier to perform both ***** and multiplication using ***** modified version ***** the abacus ***** ***** square roots of numbers and cubic ***** of ***** are much easier determined using th***** board.

Modified Version of Abacus

Source: Bagley (2004)

***** al***** include objects such as calcula*****rs, the slide-rule and compasses ***** in the Geometrical mathematics.

*****. 'WHY' USE MATH MANIPULATIVE?

***** work of Burns (1998) documents the fact that: "...two-thirds of Americans loathe or hate mathematics." (Furner and Quinn, 2001) A TIMSS study stated findings that as American students travel from the fourth through the twelfth grade in school they are "...doing po*****er in ***** as compared to other students around the world (Schmidt, 1998)." (Furner ***** Qu*****n, 2001) For this reason, it is critical that ***** mathematics teacher have a sound knowledge- education- and experience-base ***** draw upon in mathematics instruction. Th***** is most particularly so in today's highly technological society for practical purposes and to develop more positive d*****positions toward mathematics learn*****g. It is documented in the work of Bush, Lamb ***** Als*****a, (1990); Fullan (1983); Kessler (1985), McGalliard (1983); Silver (*****)***** and Thompson (1984) ***** "teaching behavior ***** profoundly or subtly affected by teachers beliefs concerning mathematics." (***** and Quinn, 1998)

***** (1984) states findings that the opinions and belief of the teacher impact their instructional practice and may be because of learning teaching methods that are inappropriate (Ferrini-Mundy, 1986) Ongoing research again and again emphasizes the need for teachers to re*****m education in promoting ***** instruction