Eric.ed.gov – Testing Instrumentation Validity for Measuring Teachers’ Attitudes toward Manipulative Use in the Elementary Classroom

In this study a survey instrument was developed to test elementary teachers’ attitudes towards incorporating manipulatives in their math lessons frequently. Though the benefits of using math manipulatives has been reported, there seems to be a disconnect between the benefits of manipulative use and the number of teachers integrating them in their lessons on a daily basis. In this study a total of 22 regular education teachers in kindergarten through sixth grade and five learning support teachers in grades first through sixth from a rural elementary school were given a survey instrument to test its validity and reveal some trends in teachers’ views on manipulative use as well as possible causation for their views. Findings from the study show that though many teachers feel comfortable using and incorporating manipulatives into their lessons, many have not had adequate preservice or inservice training in their use. Therefore, the lack of daily use of incorporating manipulatives may be connected to the lack of adequate training that teachers have received. Survey instrument is appended. (Contains 7 tables and 2 figures.)