The findings run counter to what Dr. Kaminski said was a "pervasive assumption" among math educators that concrete examples help more children better understand math.But if the Ohio State findings also apply to more basic math lessons, then teaching fractions with slices of pizza or statistics by pulling marbles out of a bag might prove counterproductive. "There are reasons to think it could affect everyone, including young learners," Dr. Kaminski said.
Dr. Kaminski said even the effectiveness of using blocks and other "manipulatives," which have become more pervasive in preschool and kindergarten, remained untested. It has not been shown that lessons in which children learn to count by using blocks translate to a better understanding of numbers than a more abstract approach would have achieved.
Extremely interesting quote: "Dr. Kaminski and her colleagues Vladimir M. Sloutsky and Andrew F. Heckler did something relatively rare in education research: they performed a randomized, controlled experiment."
The thing this article fails to explain adequately about this study is that it doesn't suggest that teachers should stop using "concrete examples." Instead, it suggests that teaching methods that rely solely on "concrete examples" don't seem to work as well as those that teach the abstract concepts first.
Don't get me started on the inadequacy of 95% of the "journalism" out there....
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