Centre for Continuing Education

University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Term’s Essay on Educational Research on the Topic:

The relationship between the retentive ability of pupils who are taught
addition of numbers using concrete materials and those who are taught
without concrete materials.

Student Name: TENGEY EMMID VINCENT ANUM

Registration Number: PDE/VO/08/0029

Study Centre: HO POLYTECHNIC

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Introduction
Mathematics education is an essential activity for critical thinking as well as developing reasoning

and analytical capability in pupils. Mathematics is more than just the science of numbers taught by

teachers in schools. It plays a significant role in the lives of individuals and the society as a whole. It

is an essential discipline recognized worldwide, and it is for this reason students need to be equipped

with mathematics skills necessary for achieving higher education, career aspirations, and for

attaining personal fulfillment.

In education circles, there is much emphasis on the use of concrete teaching and learning materials

for teaching and learning activities and the challenge to develop reasoning skills of pupils is one of

the main priorities of education.

A look at pupils’ performance in Mathematics class exercises on one side and their performance in

tests/examinations on the other side reveals that their test/examination scores are to a large extent

poorer than their scores in class exercises. In an attempt to find an answer to this difference in

performance, it seems to me that the pupils are not able to retain what they have been taught. It

appears that when exercises are given at the end of the lesson, because the lesson is fresh in their

minds they do better; by the test/examination time(some days later) the lesson seems to ‘go away’.

My attempt therefore is to find out if it is the non-use of teaching materials that makes the pupils

forget the lesson so quickly, hence the study.

Literature Review
The meaning of ‘retentive’, as given by Online Dictionary is the ability or capacity to retain

knowledge or information with ease.

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Adeyinka Tella et al (2008) noted, the retentive ability is a term that refers to non-verbal, deductive,

inductive or analytical thinking. The retentive ability of pupils has, to a great extent, a relationship

with demographic variables and that some variables like age, class and gender significantly predicts

pupils’ reasoning ability. Pupils reasoning ability is an essential ingredient in evaluating the

academic performance of pupils and as they put it “pupils reasoning ability is a sine-qua-non to the

evaluation of their performance in learning”. They have indicated that pupils’ reasoning ability

develops with time as they grow.

An article on how to promote pupils’ reasoning skills in mathematics suggests that diagrams, table or

diagram with minimum information as well as concrete materials contribute immensely to pupils

reasoning ability as much as 70%.

In his Concrete materials and teaching for mathematical understanding, Patrick W. Thompson

(1994), suggested that the importance of concrete materials for teaching mathematics are relevant for

two reasons.

They enable teachers and their students to have grounded conversations. Their use provides

something “concrete” about which they can talk about. The nature of the talk should be how to think

about the materials and on the meanings of various actions with them. Such conversations are what

Hiebert and Wearne (1988) call the connecting phase of mathematical learning, “constructing strong

connections among ways of thinking about concrete situations and conventional mathematical

language and notation”.

The second reason for using concrete materials in teaching mathematics is that it provides something

on which students can act. The teacher goal is that students reflect on their actions in relation to the

ideas and task as they have conceived it.

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It has been established from this research that concrete materials can be an effective aid to students'

thinking and teacher’s presentation but effectiveness is contingent upon what the teacher wants to

achieve. To draw maximum benefit from students' use of concrete materials, the teacher must

continually situate his actions with the question, what do I want my students to understand?

Other studies chanced upon revealed mixed results for teaching mathematics with concrete

materials. Fennema (1972) argued for their use with beginning learners while maintaining that older

learners would not necessarily benefit from them. Labinowicz (1985) described the considerable

difficulties had by his study’s middle and upper primary students in making sense of base-ten blocks

and Resnick and Omanson (1987) reported that using base-ten blocks had little effect on upper

primary students' understanding or use of their already-memorized whole number addition. Wearne

and Hiebert (1991) report consistent success in the use of concrete materials to aid students’

understanding of decimal fractions and decimal numeration.

It is important to state that students’ participation in these lessons has much to contribute; just using

concrete materials is not enough to guarantee success. Teachers must look at the total instructional

environment to understand effective use of concrete materials.

In the light of the above review of literature, one question that has not been answered is that is there

any difference or relationship between the retentive ability of pupils who are taught mathematics

with concrete materials and those who are taught without them? It is in search of answers to this

question that this educational research is being undertaken.

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Perhaps a research of this nature might or might not have conducted in some other parts of the

world; giving that as it may, it is still important the outcome of this research outcome is necessary to

improving academic standards in our schools in Ghana. This study will also contribute to the body of

literature on teaching mathematics with concrete materials, for reference purposes.

Having underscored the relevance and the importance of this exercise, this study seeks to interrogate

the relationship between the retentive ability of pupils who are taught addition of numbers with

concrete materials and those who are taught without concrete materials. To achieve a good outcome,

this research question has been formulated:

Is there any significant relationship between the retentive ability of pupils who are taught

addition of numbers with concrete materials and those who are taught without them?

Methodology

The targeted group for the research was selected from Basic 3 in Mac-Tetteh Primary School and

Basic 4 in E.P. Primary School both in Dzodze of Ketu-North District in the Volta Region of Ghana.

From each of the selected schools 20 pupils were chosen at random from each class for the teaching

experiment. The ages of the pupils range from 8 – 10 years.

The number selected from Basic 3 was categorized into groups One & Two based on random

picking. Group one was administered a lesson on the topic, “Addition Involving Two-digit Whole

Numbers” using Dienes Base Ten Blocks and Abacus (concrete materials). The pupils were taken

through the examples below:

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1. 27

+35

62

2. 46

+37

83

The same lesson was administered without concrete materials to Group Two from the same selection

of Basic 3 pupils.

After these activities, the pupils were evaluated and assessed based on following class exercises.

1. 29 2. 44 3. 35

+56 +27 + 57

85 71 92

Refer to Table 1 for the result.

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Group One from Basic 4 was taught “Addition of Two Like Fractions” using Cut-Outs. The

following sample fractions were used.

1.

2.

Group Two in Basic 4 was also taught the same lesson without concrete materials. Both classes were

evaluated based on the questions below:

3 2 5
1. + =
6 6 6

3 1 4
2. + =
7 7 7

7 5 12
3. + =
9 9 9 = 13/9

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Analysis of Results

The results from the class exercises are presented as follows:

Table 1: Basic 3 Sample Group Basic 4 Sample Group

Concrete Materials Non-Concrete Materials Concrete Materials Non-Concrete Materials

Group One Group Two Group One Group Two

Pupil Result (6) Pupil Result(5)

Pupil Result (6) Pupil Result(5) A 6 A 6
A 4 A 5
B 6 B 6
B 5 B 5
C 4 C 4
C 5 C 4
D 4 D 2
D 6 D 5
E 6 E 4
E 5 E 3
F 6 F 4
F 6 F 6
G 6 G 6
G 3 G 6
H 3 H 4
H 5 H 4
I 5 I 5
I 6 I 5
J 5 J 6
J 6 J 4

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In order to test pupils’ retentive ability, they were evaluated four weeks after the lessons were taught,

for test purposes and the results collated are presented as below:

Table 2: Basic 3 Sample Group Basic 4 Sample Group

Concrete Materials Non-Concrete Materials Concrete Materials Non-Concrete Materials

Group One Group Two Group Two Group Two

Pupil Result (100) Pupil Result(100) Pupil Result (100) Pupil Result(100)
A 95 A 65 A 85 A 60

B 80 B 55
B 90 B 66
C 80 C 75
C 80 C 70
D 75 D 50
D 95 D 55
E 75 E 60
E 70 E 65
F 60 F 50
F 68 F 68 G 77 G 70

G 70 G 60 H 80 H 60

H 60 H 40 I 68 I 40

J 90 J 57
I 90 I 50

J 85 J 60

My observation was that, the performance in the class exercise showed not much difference between

the results of concrete materials group and non-materials group, probably due to the fact that the

lesson was fresh in their minds.

But, the results obtained from the test showed a very great disparity. The pupils who were taught

with concrete materials performed better than those without concrete materials. My cross checks

revealed that the concrete materials group could still remembers the lessons taught.

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The concrete materials group in both classes participated actively in lesson activities; showing much

interest in the lessons. They even continued to work when the class was over.

The concrete materials impacted the understanding of the lessons better in the lower class. This

observation confirmed the studies in the literature review from the research of Fennema (1972).

Discussion

The results reveal that a relationship exist between the retentive ability of pupils who were taught

addition of numbers using concrete materials and those who were taught without concrete materials.

This assertion lends credence to the outcome of findings from the test conducted.

It showed that pupils who used concrete materials in their activities had something “concrete” in

mind relating to the activity, making it easier for them to recall. The relationship between retentive

ability of pupils to the use of concrete materials tends out of the fact that pupils develop much

interest and attention in such lessons. The assertion that the use of diagrams and concrete materials

for teaching improve pupils’ reasoning skills is true to some extent.

Conclusion

To fulfill the mandate of education as mathematics teacher, it is almost obligatory, to use concrete

material for teaching mathematics, especially at the lower levels, if we are to develop pupils’

retentive ability.

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Concrete materials provide something on which students can act. Concrete materils can be an

effective aid to students' thinking and to your teaching. Its effectiveness is contingent upon the

objectives of the teacher.

To draw maximum benefit from students' use of concrete materials, the teacher must continually

situate his actions within his objectives.

References

C.B. Dueddu and A. Asare-Inkoon., “Methods of Teaching Primary School Mathematics”

Dienes, Z. (1960). Building up mathematics. London, Hutchinson Educational.

Fennema, E. H. (1972). “Models and mathematics.” Arithmetic Teacher 18: 635-
640.

Hiebert, J., D. Wearne, et al. (1991). “Fourth graders’ gradual construction of decimal fractions
during instruction using different physical representations.” The Elementary School Journal 91(4):
321-341.
Resnick, L. and S. Omanson (1987). Learning to understand arithmetic.
Advances in instructional psychology. Hillsdale, NJ, Erlbaum. 41-95.
Labinowicz, E. (1985). Learning from children: New beginnings for teaching
numerical thinking. Menlo Park, CA, Addison-Wesley.

Thompson, P. W. and A. G. Thompson (1994). “Talking about rates

conceptually, Part I: A teacher’s struggle.” Journal for Research in
Mathematics Education 25(3): 279-303.

Wearne, D. and J. Hiebert (1988). “A cognitive approach to meaningful

mathematics instruction: Testing a local theory using decimal numbers.”
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 19: 371-384

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