Building a solid foundation at a very young age and getting learners engaged in Mathematics always remain a challenge for every Mathematics teacher. Finding ways on how to make them involved and searching solutions to finally end the negative notion on the said subject becomes a mantra in educational setting. The old adage which emphasizes the importance of involving the learners in a situation in which they will construct their own knowledge in Mathematics through manipulative inquiry is proven effective by many experts in the field of education. That’s why teachers find every way to stimulate learners’ interest to get involved in class discussions that will lead to increase their mathematics achievement.
It is absolutely true that teacher will never be effective without the use of materials to be used in teaching. Traditionally, teachers usually have manila papers and sticks to point out the most important concepts that pupils have to remember. In the contrary, students of this generation found this boring and ineffective. Through the use of real objects which are developed through teachers’ creativity and resourcefulness were used to bear in mind the important representation of each object for better understanding and remembering afterwards.
With this new technological generation of students, teachers are challenged to teach in a way that involves students. This is also what the new curriculum is expected to be manifested among educators as facilitator and to learners as independent and constructors of knowledge and their own self of learning. Using various objects and realia helps the learners figure out the real picture of a problem or a situation.
Teaching Mathematics is not about preparing students for a world that is static and fixed, but it concerns getting students ready to cope with changes and challenges in their lives. Traditional direct instruction in Mathematics generally focuses on mastery of content with less emphasis on the development of mathematical skills and attitudes; students are the receivers while the teacher the dispenser. In most classroom contexts, teachers are preoccupied with academic activities in pursuit of the schools’ successes; often in the form of their students gaining as many A's as possible. This scenario does not help students learn in a meaningful manner (Shamshudin, et.al, 2013).
The implementation of the K to 12 curriculum causes drastic changes in the entire Philippine educational system. One of the major changes brought about by the K to 12 reform was in learning approach in Mathematics. They adopted the spiral progression approach wherein learning is a process of building upon previously learned knowledge. Through this, students are able to master the desired competencies by revisiting the subject several times and relating new knowledge or skills with previous one. Moreover, students’ progress in their learning as it entails going from simple to more complex knowledge or skills (Luistro, 2012).
With this strong move to spiral progression, it is very vital to build a good foundation at a very beginning of the learners’ journey in attaining the basic competencies in Mathematics. Arming students’ to become proficient in the basic knowledge in Math may give them a different kind of feeling and excitement to start changing their perspective in Mathematics. Since Mathematics is considered to be the most difficult subject that almost all people think, having mastery on the said subject could raise the level of confidence which is very important as they started building or even re-creating their dreams.
It has been observed that learners are performing low in some of the learning competencies in Mathematics. Thus, teachers need to conduct repetitive instructions in order for the learners to acquire mastery on the said concept. When the learners were asked to perform activities they previously discussed, the learners were anxious on what to do and also seem to be bothered on how they are going to behave or act in front of their classmates.
These challenges and observations served as the turning point of the as an educator to test the effectiveness of manipulative materials to sharpen learners’ mathematical skills to acquire the basic competencies. This strategy serves as an important ingredient to improve performance of learners and motivate them to develop positive attitude and behavior towards the subject. Using the said strategy might help other mathematics teachers to make Math lessons engaging, fun and easy to learn. This might also help to tighten the gap between abstract and concrete ideas in Mathematics.
The application of manipulative materials may be able to shed light on the usual problem in Math and might ignite the fire of the hearts of every learner to love Mathematics.