TACTILE CONSTRUCTION OF MATHEMATICAL MEANING: BENEFITS FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED AND SIGHTED PUPILS
This research explores how tactile learning activities can enhance mathematics education for both visually impaired and sighted students in primary classrooms. By moving toward a universal design approach, the authors argue that exploring shapes through touch helps all learners uncover hidden geometric details that vision alone might overlook. The study highlights how these inclusive practices challenge ableism by valuing diverse sensory perspectives rather than treating disability as a deficit. Findings suggest that when students engage with multimodal tasks, they develop a more versatile and comprehensive way of thinking mathematically. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that such integrations of different perspectives benefits the entire class while fostering a more equitable and supportive learning environment. The study focuses on a grade 5 lesson where students used Wikki Stix (flexible wax and yarn tools) to explore shapes through touch while their eyes were closed. |
| Wikki Stix |
BIGGEST STOP! I really appreciated how this study not only focused on tools and tactics that can help deepen mathematical understanding, but it also challenged societal injustice and hit a huge social justice issue - ableism. If we can shift towards such ways of inclusive education, we are not only teaching on a deeper level and creating more knowledgeable beings, but we are also de-stigmatizing and creating better members of society!
STOP #2: I really loved the flow from week one into this article. The focus on different perspectives was really enlightening and I feel will be and already is a huge part of this course. The emphasis in this article was on how different perspectives through senses allows for deeper understanding.
The researchers conclude that universally designed tactile tasks benefit the entire class by allowing every pupil to develop a broader range of ways to think mathematically. By inviting all students to experience mathematics through the same sensory tools, educators can create a more inclusive environment that values diverse forms of meaning-making.
QUESTION: Can you think back to a time in your educational path (before this week) where you learned math with your hands?
Stylianidou, A., & Nardi, E. (2019). Tactile construction of mathematical meaning: Benefits for visually impaired and sighted pupils. In M. Graven, H. Venkat, A. Essien, & P. Vale (Eds.), Proceedings of the 43rd Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 3, pp. 343–350)
I remember building paper planes in secondary 2 and linking the paper planes built to surface area and potentially ratio (for example, the ratio of the surface area and how far the plane went). We also build solids and created equations to find their volume while building the solids. I remember how easy it made it to understand these concepts. Interestingly, my secondary 2 math teacher had a visually impaired child. I wonder if he brought how his son was learning into the classroom. What I do know is that he was the least traditional math teacher I had, and the one who made me rediscover my passion for math that faded away throughout my elementary schooling. There must be a connection between using multisensory approaches and mathematics for human flourishing!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing Noemi. That is a wonderful story. I did a "experiment" with my grade 9 students and solids. Where you filled plastic 3D solids with water and compared the prisms to the pyramids with congruent bases while measuring the amount of water going in. This allowed for students to understand why pyramid formulas are all divided by 3, and the concept of volume itself, we compared how 1mL was equivalent to 1cm^3 by also measuring the solids and comparing the amount of water that fit in it.
DeleteHi Taylor! As with Noemi's new posts, I am really looking forward to reading these blog posts a few days from now (when others have had a chance to respond too). A small but important formatting suggestion: you may have written these two most recent posts in Word or some other format, and then pasted them into your blog posts (which is a great way to do things!) But there is one additional step at the end to make sure the text is readable and doesn't flow way off the edge of the screen -- or come out as dark text against a dark background, or text with a white box background (easy to read, but not exactly the format you might expect). Here's the technique:
ReplyDeleteOnce you have pasted the text in, highlight it all, and then go to the top right hand corner of the ruler bar on screen, click on the three dots, and choose the symbol of a T with a diagonal bar through it. That removes external formatting and fits the formatting to the blog. Let me know if that works for you, and if it makes the text come out the colour you want for your blog! Thanks.
Oh thank you so much! I could not figure out how to fix it... I believe it looks much better now!
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