MANIPULATIVE MATERIAL AND REPRESENTATIONAL MATERIAL

The aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of manipulative material and representational material in the conceptual additive field development of learning. Two classes were used, one with 35 children, the other one with 34, in the age group of 8 to 13 years and attending the 3rd year of primary school. A pre-test, an intervention of teaching and post-tests were applied. The Theory of Conceptual Fields underpinned the development of two education strategies: one of them based on the use of manipulative material and the other one on representational material with the diagrams of Vergnaud. The results show that there are no significant differences in the performance of the two classes. The two strategies show advantages in the creation of meanings to the children.