Kindergarten Children's Interactions with Touchscreen Mathematics Virtual Manipulatives: An Innovative Mixed Methods Analysis

The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of mathematical practices evident during children's interactions with touchscreen mathematics virtual manipulatives. Researchers analyzed 33 Kindergarten children's interactions during activities involving apps featuring mathematical conten...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational Journal of Research in Education and Science Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 646 - 666
Main Authors Tucker, Stephen I, Lommatsch, Christina W, Moyer-Packenham, Patricia S, Anderson-Pence, Katie L, Symanzik, Jürgen
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published International Journal of Research in Education and Science 2017
Subjects
Computer Oriented Programs
Educational Technology
Handheld Devices
Interaction
Interviews
Kindergarten
Learning Activities
Learning Processes
Manipulative Materials
Mathematics Instruction
Mixed Methods Research
Multivariate Analysis
Number Concepts
Pretests Posttests
Teaching Methods
Video Technology
Visualization
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Summary:The purpose of this study was to examine patterns of mathematical practices evident during children's interactions with touchscreen mathematics virtual manipulatives. Researchers analyzed 33 Kindergarten children's interactions during activities involving apps featuring mathematical content of early number sense or quantity in base ten, recorded during one-to-one task-based interviews. Iterative analysis involved applying learning progression rubrics to video data, using hierarchical clustering to visualize the progressions via heatmaps with dendrograms, and returning to video data to investigate emergent patterns. Results indicated that overall, children's mathematical practices aligned with research on development of mathematical understandings, but that individual children's mathematical practices changed little within a given activity. The study extends existing research by shedding light on children's interactions with touchscreen mathematics virtual manipulatives and supports the use of these analysis and visualization techniques.
ISSN:2148-9955
DOI:10.21890/ijres.328097