Effect of Physical and Virtual Manipulatives on the Mathematical Achievement of Junior High School Students in the Topic of Transformation in Ghana

Abstract

There is a general perception that mathematics is difficult and many Junior High school students seem to struggle through mathematics lessons. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical (using mathematical set instruments) and virtual (using Geogebra software) manipulatives on the mathematical achievements of Junior High school students in the topic of Transformation (which is made up of rotation, reflection, enlargement/reduction by scale factor and translation). The topic was previously taught to the students by their teachers from their various schools. The researcher adopted a convenient sampling technique (with a sample size of 78 students) by making use of grade nine students (from 6 different Schools) who had enrolled in vacation classes at Ideal College of Ghana. Pretest-posttest control group experimental model, which is one of the quasi-experimental research designs, was used in the study. The students were randomly assigned to three different groups which consisted of two experimental groups and one control group. The pretest administered to all the groups showed that the mathematical achievements of the three groups were not significantly different. The data passed normality test and so ANOVA was applied in the analyses of pretest and posttest scores. One of the experimental groups was treated with physical manipulative and the other with a virtual manipulative. The control group was taught using the traditional method of teaching. One of the findings of the study showed that the use of manipulatives were significantly effective in increasing the achievement scores of the experimental groups. Another important finding showed that scores of low achievers were significantly improved when they were treated with manipulatives. Virtual manipulative proved to be more effective comparatively in increasing the achievements of grade nine students. It was recommended among many others that low achievers in mathematics should be given the opportunity to study with manipulatives.