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Manipulatives in Mathematics Name Institutional Affiliation Manipulatives in Mathematics Concrete vs. Virtual Manipulatives in the Mathematics Classroom “I hear, and I forget, I see, and I remember, I do, and I understand.” That is according to Confucius. The application of manipulatives in math classrooms is a long tradition that has continually proven beneficial to both teachers and students. This notion is supported by Boggan, Harper and Whitmire (2010) who insinuate that manipulatives are very useful in teaching and beneficial to students. There are two main categories of manipulatives used by math teachers currently. They consist of concrete manipulatives and virtual manipulatives. As conceptualized by Boggan et al. (2010), concrete manipulatives are physical objects such as coins, clocks, cards, and MAB blocks, which are used to facilitate easy learning. On the contrary, virtual manipulatives are an emerging technologically-based field with 3-D models of concrete manipulatives. They perform the same function as concrete manipulatives. Scholars are divided over, which is effective between concrete and virtual manipulatives. By rooting for the former, this discussion indicates that concrete manipulatives are useful because they aid engagement during math lessons, which is a necessary precursor towards understanding better. As such, they should be used prevalently to guide math learning. Compared to the virtual ones, concrete manipulatives aid better understanding for math students. A study carried out by Mendiburo (2010) shows that students tend to understand better when they use physical manipulatives as opposed to the virtual ones. Within her study,
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