Effectiveness of using structured aids in learning number concepts for middle primary school children

This study set out to evaluate the effectiveness of using Blockaid material for the teaching and learning of number concepts and of operations in middle primary school. Blockaid is base 10 material designed to model number in multiple representations. The different representations facilitate the modelling of procedures which follow the same steps of the formal algorithms of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The hypothesis is that the external connections formed through the manipulation of structured materials aids the construction of internal cognitive networks by the learner in the building of conceptual knowledge. Knowledge formed in this way is rich in relationships and leads to better understanding of number and operational concepts. While the results of the study indicate that the procedures with Blockaid improved performance only with subtraction, more than the traditional direct instruction approach, the implications are that with improved modelling better procedures can be devised using structured materials to improve teaching and learning of all operations. Ongoing research is needed the evaluate the benefits of using of multi-representational materials, rather than single unit structures, to represent the base 10 number system. Further research should focus on establishing better procedures for modelling the operations of multiplication and division. These operations seem to involve higher levels of processing load than addition or subtraction