Do Manipulative Help Pre-Service Teachers in Understanding Mathematics?

In a mathematics instruction, the use of manipulatives has long been debated. Some researcher support the use of manipulatives as a long-range pedagogical tool. However, some researchers advise manipulatives cannot be used as a tool guaranteed to be successful. The session presents an attempt to answer this question by investigating efficacy of manipulatives in facilitating understanding of probability concepts with pre-service teachers. The findings are based on a study with twenty-five pre-service teachers who participated in the study. The study employed a pretest and posttest design. The results revealed that the manipulatives were partially successful in promoting learning of the concepts. Manipulatives are effective instructional tools that are effective in actively engaging students in learning and instruction, but should be used with precaution and under complete guidance. The features in the study that may have contributed towards the success and educational implications of the findings will be discussed