PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' COGNITIVE SKILLS ON USING MANIPULATIVES IN TEACHING MATHEMATICS

With the recent curriculum reform in mathematics education in our country, manipulatives have become an important tool in teaching mathematics. As a result, both teachers and prospective teachers need to develop knowledge and skills to select and use manipulatives appropriately. The current study aims to explore prospective elementary teachers' knowledge and skills about manipulatives and describe their difficulties regarding the use of manipulatives. For this purpose, the journals and projects completed by prospective teachers and observations on classroom discussions during the teaching methods courses were analyzed. The results of the study revealed that even though prospective teachers have positive attitutes towards using manipulatives, they do not have a clear idea about how manipulatives help students understand mathematical concepts. In particular, they had difficulty in guiding students to establish connections between the concepts and manipulatives. Based on these findings, the ways to help prospective teachers develop knowledge and skills were discussed.