Teachers' Use of Instructional Analogies With Manipulatives in the Second-Grade Classroom

• In Event: 72.049 - Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 72.049-13 - Understanding Effective Instructional Practices in Mathematics Education

Abstract

The classroom practices of six second-grade teachers were examined to document the extent to which they supported their students’ analogical reasoning with manipulatives. Twelve mathematics lessons that involved manipulatives were videorecorded. The data were coded for (a) opportunities to make relational comparisons between representations (manipulatives and other), and (b) the presence of six cognitive supports shown in previous research to enhance children’s analogical reasoning. During the lessons, the teachers provided several opportunities for relational comparisons, supported most often with the use of familiar sources and spatial cues to highlight the structural similarities between two representations of the same mathematical idea. Explicit comparisons in the form of verbal explanations, linking gestures, or relational language, were observed relatively less frequently.

Authors

• Aryann Blondin, Concordia University

• Anna Tomaszewski, Concordia University - Montreal

• Helena P. Osana, Concordia University