Effects of Allowing Four-Year-Olds to Manipulate Teaching Materials on Their Learning of Space and Quantity Concepts

Do preschoolers who are allowed to manipulate three-dimensional materials learn comparative concepts better than those who are not allowed to manipulate these same materials? Forty-one children were pre- and post-tested with equivalent forms of the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts. Between pre- and posttesting, Group I (manipulative group) was trained in space and quantity concepts with the use of three-dimensional materials they were allowed to manipulate, Group II (nonmanipulative group) was trained with the use of the same materials they were not allowed to manipulate, and Group III served as a no-treatment control. Results generally indicated that the manipulative and nonmanipulative treatments were equally effective at facilitating the formation of space and quantity concepts and both performed better than the no-treatment control group. However, informal observations also suggested that children preferred those learning situations in which they could manipulate materials over those in which manipulation was not allowed

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