Concrete Manipulatives: Conceptual And Procedural Knowledge

According to Tracy Huber (2008, 1) “A teacher’s most essential job is to help students gain and retain knowledge —to take true ownership of what they have learned.” Through this quote we can interpret that learners need support such as concrete manipulatives to perform the necessary task in order to grasp the concepts. However concrete manipulatives have an important part to play in a learners schooling life especially towards maths. In my essay below I will explain the conceptual and procedural knowledge, the history of manipulatives, my understanding of concrete manipulatives, ways in which manipulatives can support students, how manipulatives help students gain conceptual knowledge and how a grade 3 teacher can teach Cuisenaire rods in equivalent

Learners use manipulatives to find out solutions to mathematic problems. These concrete manipulatives are items such as abacus, counters, base ten blocks, pattern blocks, geoboards, ten frame cards, UNICEF blocks, sticks, coins, etc. Some learners also use their fingers to solve maths problems. There are many advantages of using concrete manipulatives in maths. Concrete manipulatives allow for learners to understand concepts before creating connections. Concrete manipulatives also encouraged to be used with learners wo have learning disabilities which makes them understand key concepts even better (Deborah 2004:11). As learners progress in mathematics, they also go through the different stages of using concrete manipulatives. Stage 1 is known as the Concrete Stage; Learners use concrete manipulative extensively when participating in mathematics tasks. For example learners use a lot of counters to perform addition and subtraction bonds. Stage 2 is known as the Representational Stage; learners use pictures to represent the concrete manipulatives. Learners focus on how they visualise and communicate the concept through a pictorial level. For example; Learners will have to draw picture to work out a mathematical sum. Stage 3 is known as the Abstract Stage; learners use mathematical symbols such as numbers to express the concept in symbolic language. For example; learners will add 7+4 to give an answer of 11 (Research on the benefits of manipulatives