Rebuilding manipulatives through digital making in teacher education

Ana Barbosa; Isabel Vale; Ana Barbosa; Isabel Vale

doi:10.3934/steme.2025025

STEM Education

2025, Volume 5, Issue 4: 515-545. doi: 10.3934/steme.2025025

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Research article Topical Sections

Rebuilding manipulatives through digital making in teacher education

Ana Barbosa ^{1,2
,
,},
Isabel Vale ^{1,3
,}

1.
Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Rua Escola Industrial e Comercial Nun'Álvares, 34, 4900-347, Viana do Castelo, Portugal; anabarbosa@ese.ipvc.pt, isabel.vale@ese.ipvc.pt
2.
inED, Centro de Investigação e Inovação em Educação, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal
3.
CIEC, Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

Academic Editor: Hepu Deng

Received: 26 February 2025 Revised: 23 April 2025 Accepted: 08 May 2025 Published: 28 May 2025

The integration of digital making and computer-aided design (CAD) technologies, using 3D printing, in mathematics education has opened new opportunities for creating manipulatives that enhance conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. Here, we explored how pre-service elementary teachers engage with the engineering design (ED) process while using Tinkercad and 3D printing to create customized manipulatives for mathematics education. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted with thirteen pre-service teachers enrolled in a master's program in Mathematics and Science Education at a Portuguese higher education institution. We employed multiple data sources, including classroom observations, participants' artifacts, written reports, and visual records, to capture the learning processes and challenges faced by the participants. Our findings indicated that participants developed a deeper understanding of content knowledge by analyzing mathematical properties and structures in the design of manipulatives, although some struggled with mathematical precision and curricular alignment. The iterative nature of ED reinforced technical knowledge, as participants engaged in CAD modeling and 3D printing. Despite initial difficulties, they refined their models through iterative redesign, recognizing the importance of spatial reasoning and precision. Pedagogical knowledge emerged as participants reflected on the educational use of manipulatives, proposing classroom applications and recognizing digital making's potential for active learning. However, some tasks lacked clear curricular connections, highlighting the need for further pedagogical scaffolding. Overall, the study underscores the potential of integrating ED, CAD environments, and 3D printing into teacher education to foster interdisciplinary STEAM learning and problem-solving skills.
- STEAM education,
- engineering design,
- digital making,
- manipulatives,
- CAD,
- 3D printing,
- teacher education
Citation: Ana Barbosa, Isabel Vale. Rebuilding manipulatives through digital making in teacher education[J]. STEM Education, 2025, 5(4): 515-545. doi: 10.3934/steme.2025025

Related Papers:

Abstract

The integration of digital making and computer-aided design (CAD) technologies, using 3D printing, in mathematics education has opened new opportunities for creating manipulatives that enhance conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. Here, we explored how pre-service elementary teachers engage with the engineering design (ED) process while using Tinkercad and 3D printing to create customized manipulatives for mathematics education. A qualitative exploratory study was conducted with thirteen pre-service teachers enrolled in a master's program in Mathematics and Science Education at a Portuguese higher education institution. We employed multiple data sources, including classroom observations, participants' artifacts, written reports, and visual records, to capture the learning processes and challenges faced by the participants. Our findings indicated that participants developed a deeper understanding of content knowledge by analyzing mathematical properties and structures in the design of manipulatives, although some struggled with mathematical precision and curricular alignment. The iterative nature of ED reinforced technical knowledge, as participants engaged in CAD modeling and 3D printing. Despite initial difficulties, they refined their models through iterative redesign, recognizing the importance of spatial reasoning and precision. Pedagogical knowledge emerged as participants reflected on the educational use of manipulatives, proposing classroom applications and recognizing digital making's potential for active learning. However, some tasks lacked clear curricular connections, highlighting the need for further pedagogical scaffolding. Overall, the study underscores the potential of integrating ED, CAD environments, and 3D printing into teacher education to foster interdisciplinary STEAM learning and problem-solving skills.

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Author's biography Dr. Ana Barbosa is a professor of Mathematics Education at the School of Education of Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo in Portugal. She specializes in Child Studies, in the area of Elementary Mathematics. She is a researcher at the Centre for Research & Innovation in Education (inED). Among other topics, her research interests focus on didactics of mathematics, problem solving, visualization, algebraic thinking, active learning, outdoor mathematics education, and STEAM education; Dr. Isabel Vale is a professor of Mathematics Education at the School of Education of Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo in Portugal. She specializes in didactics of mathematics. She is a researcher at the Research Centre on Child Studies (CIEC-UM). Among other topics, her research interests focus on didactics of mathematics, in particular, problem solving—patterns, creativity, visualization, connections in mathematics education, and teacher training. More recently, she is interested in the design of tasks and teaching strategies in diverse contexts that are more favorable to active learning of mathematics, such as STEAM education and learning outside the classroom

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