Teach Primary Issue 18.7

A s an NQT in 1995 (it was painful to type that!), I set up my first classroom with a rolling blackboard and packs of chalk that might seem positively Victorian to ECTs in 2024. On the blackboard there was a set grid for ‘doing maths’. When it came to teaching mathematics, our resources were relatively straightforward. There were various ‘manipulatives’, used primarily for children who struggled with maths. I remember experimenting with these – trying to figure out their uses – but I can’t recall much except for boxes and boxes of rulers. At the time, I didn’t know much about the origins of these manipulatives or their creators; they just seemed to be a standard part of the classroom setup. It wasn’t until later that I discovered the rich history behind them – something that has since become instrumental in my own development of maths resources. Dienes blocks One notable creator is Zoltan Dienes, a Hungarian mathematician and refugee who made a significant impact on maths education with his development of Dienes blocks, also known as base ten blocks. In the 1960s, he introduced these manipulatives with the belief that concrete models were crucial for understanding mathematical complexities. His blocks, representing units, tens, hundreds, and thousands, were designed to simplify the base ten system. Dienes was convinced that hands-on experiences could bridge the gap between concrete and abstract thinking, offering students a solid foundation in number sense and place value. His resources became widely used, demonstrating the global appeal of concrete learning. Dienes’ beliefs would be borne out in research projects worldwide. Cuisenaires, Multilinks and beyond As my teaching career was getting started in the 1990s, a group of educators were developing Numicon, a tool that is today widely used to help children understand the number system. Meanwhile, I rods, where each rod’s length corresponds to its value, and preserve the colour coding that helps children visually and physically understand numerical relationships. The idea was to combine these features with the familiar holes of Numicon but in a way that offered a linear concept of number rather than in frames. The linking system had to allow numbers to be connected end-to-end and from above, enabling children to ‘build’ number walls and lines, thus adding a new dimension to their understanding of numbers. And so, n-bars were born, deeply rooted in the legacy of Learning the history of manipulatives made me a better teacher, says Ian Connors investigated other influential tools, such as Cuisenaire rods – created by Georges Cuisenaire in the 1950s to help visualise mathematical relationships – and Multilink cubes, invented by Philip R. Moore in the 1970s to use for a variety of maths concepts. A few years ago, I began to explore some new ways to represent numbers concretely. My love for LEGO, both as a child and a father, inspired me to think creatively about how ‘numbers’ could be connected and built, similar to how LEGO bricks link together. I wanted to retain the proportionality of Cuisenaire WITH MATHS Getting to grips “I began to explore new ways to represent numbers concretely” 44 | www.teachwire.net