Traditional/Concrete Manipulatives
Confucius(551–479 BC) once said “I hear and I forget.I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” In relation to what Confucius said, certain people have organized or devised ways on how to incorporate “manipulatives” with learning. Friedrich Froebel have developed “Froebel’s Gifts” as an encouragement for the development of construction and symbolism. Providing children with a collection of extremely simple abstract playthings, encouraged them to combine objects to construct more complex forms (Wilson, 238).In 1967, Maria Montessori, in way of expanding Froebel’s idea, stated that the goal of education should be “to find activities that are so intrinsically meaningful that we want to throw ourselves into them”. Montessori believed that learning is aided with deep concentration and that deep concentration is with working with both the hands thus Montessori birthed the new generation of manipulative materials that put children in control of the learning process. (Lillard, 2008) Most practitioners and researchers argue that manipulatives are effective because they are concrete. By "concrete," they probably mean objects that students can grasp with their hands. This sensory nature ostensibly makes manipulatives "real," connected with one’s intuitively meaningful personal self, and therefore helpful. (Clements, 1999) Some concrete manipulatives are made and are sold like some on these links: Adena Montessori Kids Advance Montessori Montessori Children's House |
Advantages and Disadvantages (Hunt, Nipper, & Nash, 2011)
ADVANTAGES
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DISADVANTAGES
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