Tangibles for learning: a representational analysis of physical manipulation

Abstract

Manipulatives-physical learning materials such as cubes or tiles-are prevalent in educational settings across cultures and have generated substantial research into how actions with physical objects may support children's learning. The ability to integrate digital technology into physical objects-so-called 'digital manipulatives'-has generated excitement over the potential to create new educational materials. However, without a clear understanding of how actions with physical materials lead to learning, it is difficult to evaluate or inform designs in this area. This paper is intended to contribute to the development of effective tangible technologies for children's learning by summarising key debates about the representational advantages of manipulatives under two key headings: offloading cognition-where manipulatives may help children by freeing up valuable cognitive resources during problem solving, and conceptual metaphors-where perceptual information or actions with objects have a structural correspondence with more symbolic concepts. The review also indicates possible limitations of physical objects-most importantly that their symbolic significance is only granted by the context in which they are used. These arguments are then discussed in light of tangible designs drawing upon the authors' current research into tangibles and young children's understanding of number.

Designing learning representations around physical manipulation

“…This paper addresses this challenge by drawing together several arguments around physical action and learning, aiming to identify the implications for technology from what we do know, and the implications for further research for what we do not. This paper draws greatly on existing work discussing the learning benefits of tangibles [6,26,34,36]. However, the complex nature of this process raises the issue of developing effective approaches to tackle this question more precisely.…”

Mixing languages'

“…It has been shown that interfaces that are metaphorcongruent can be used more intuitively than interfaces that are designed contrary to image-schematic metaphors [4]. Also, by instantiating image-schematic metaphors in user interfaces the manipulation of abstract concepts can be made tangible and thus support learning in these domains (e.g., [11]). …”

TanProStory

“…TUIs (Tangible User Interface), as an interaction method that embraces the richness of human interaction with the physical world, can enhance learning and easily involve children in programming [7]., The Study of Sapounidis [8] compared children's performance with GUI and TUI, and the result showed TUI is more proper for younger children. We have seen little effort exploring OO programming using TUI.…”