The effects of using manipulative in mathematics course on students' academic achievement and motivation

The aim of this study is to determine the effects of using manipulative on students' achievement and motivation in Mathematics Course. It was also aimed to reveal perceptions about the implementation process. The study was conducted on fifth grade students in Malatya at Yaşar Öncan Elementary School during 2017-2018 academic year. In the study, there are two groups, one experimental and one control group. In the experimental group, manipulative assisted mathematics teaching was used and in the control group traditional intructional method was used. There are 22 students in the experimental group and 23 students in the control group. Applications were carried out in the sub-fields of learning "Fractions" and "Operations with Fractions" in mathematics course. Mixed method was used in the study in which quantitative and qualitative research designs were used together. The quantitative data of the research were evaluated with achievement test and motivation scale; qualitative data were collected by interview forms. The quantitative dimension of the study was carried out in accordance with the quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. In the qualitative dimension, after the application, interviews were conducted with the students selected according to different achievement levels from the experimental group The success test developed by the researcher consists of 42 questions. The average difficulty of the achievement test was .58 and the KR-20 reliability coefficient was .92. Fractions success test was applied to both experimental and control groups as pretest, posttest and retention test. Mathematical motivation scale developed by Tahiroğlu and Çakır (2014) was used in order to determine the motivation of the students regarding the mathematics course. The scale is a five-point Likert type and consists of five sub-dimensions: appreciation, interest, desire and need, self-esteem, success and orientation to goals. KMO value of the scale was .876, Bartlett test result was 7943.182 and Cronbach Alpha coefficient was .91. SPSS-21 statistical program was used in the analysis of quantitative data, and content analysis was used in the analysis of qualitative data. As a result of the research, the pretest and posttest mean scores of the experimental group with manipulative assisted mathematics teaching and the control groups using traditional teaching methods were statistically different in favor of posttest scores, but there was no statistically significant difference between the posttest scores of the experimental and control groups. Also, there was no statistically significant difference between the retention scores of the experimental and control groups. As a result of the tests, there was no statistically significant difference between the postmotivation-premotivation scores of the experimental group and the control group. At the same time, there was no statistically significant difference between the postmotivation scores of both groups. A statistically significant difference was found in favor of the control group between the postmotivation scores of the self-confidence subscale of the motivation scale of the experimental and control groups. In the qualitative dimension of the research; opinions about the effect of the application, the feelings they felt before and during the application, the problems they experienced during the application and the situations they enjoyed, the use of manipulatives in other subjects in mathematics course, in other courses, the effects of feelings and thoughts in mathematics course and how the practice should be done differently. According to the results of the application in other subjects and courses; It is proposed to apply the issue without time constraints in a way that does not put the essence of the subject in the background.