Integrating Manipulatives to Improve Fraction Concepts

Many students are overwhelmed by mathematics because the language is too difficult, the teaching strategies are insufficient or they have lost motivation. With a recent emphasis on meeting the Common Core expectations, using manipulatives to eliminate misconceptions in the mathematical classroom has become even more prevalent. I explored the misconceptions that many students struggle with and provided possible methods of eliminating them at all levels for learning. During this investigation, I studied the effect of manipulatives on students’ understanding of fraction concepts and the students’ conceptions of the unit of reference when working with fraction word problems. I learned that students can increase achievement with the integration of various representations of manipulatives with fraction concepts. Specifically, students dramatically increased their conceptual knowledge of the unit of reference by manipulating several tools, including number lines, fraction bars, pizza fraction party, estimation rope and others