I am currently researching the attitudes towards mathematics of 8-12 year old students (upper primary school). I suspect that a decline in positive attitudes towards mathematics may correspond to a decline in the use of manipulatives by these students when compared to their level of use in the early years of schooling. It might also be the case that digital manipulatives are being used in upper school classrooms as a substitute for concrete manipulatives.
I am interested in reading any research which may have been conducted on this topic and also the opinion of ResearchGate members on the role of manipulatives in upper primary mathematics classrooms.
I don’t know if this exactly what you are looking for, but you can have a look:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3535-8_36
and
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3558-7_22
Hi Menelaos,
Thank you for the suggested articles. I will add them to the reading list.
Regards, Kevin.
It is an interesting idea that less use of manipulatives in the later primary school grades may be related to a decrease in attitude towards mathematics. From my research (in progress) it appears that playing mathematics games, which can be seen as digital manipulatives, has a weak but significant positive influence on attitude towards mathematics (Grade 2 and 3). However, the playing of games did not prevent a decline in attitude over the years. What you should bare in mind, I think, is that not only attitude towards mathematics decreases when children get older, but also attitude towards other school subjects and towards school in general. Thus, at least part of the decrease in attitude towards mathematics is probably caused by a general decrease in school-related attitude. I think that it also has to do with a general more negative view towards things when children reach puberty.
Some literature on mathematics games and attitude:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.010
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11423-008-9086-5
see also this article on manipulatives:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/749423
Marjoke, I think that this is absolutely true. In my view digital manipulatives may be the answer, if of course, they could narrow down the dissonance between formal education and digital learning environments that children experience outside school.
Hi Marjoke,
Thank you for the two articles - I will add these to the reading list. I suspect that you are correct in relation to a drop in attitude towards school in the upper years of primary school. I will have to check the data to see whether the decline in attitude towards mathematics is greater than for other subjects which I think will be the case. Then I can argue that although attitudes to all subjects decline, attitudes towards mathematics decline more markedly and investigate why. Alternatively, I can argue that all subjects decline but I want to stop the decline in my interest area which is mathematics. Did you investigate the impact of games on students in upper primary grades?
Hi Kevin,
I know of some articles that investigated declines in attitudes towards different school subjects:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-0663.93.1.3
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00421
In the first of these it was indeed found that the decline for attitude towards mathematics was greater than for other subjects. In our study we also found this (compared to reading and school in general).
I did not investigate the effects of games in the upper primary grades. Unfortunately one cannot do everything at once ;)
Thanks Marjoke,
I will look at these as well. Hopefully I will be accepted for a presentation at PME in Vancouver in July next year. We are doing an analsysis of student atttituded to mathematics and, disappointingly, we are finding negative attitudes towards mathematics in evidence in 8 year old children.
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