How to Use Concrete Materials to Teach Math Concepts

Using concrete materials like blocks to teach math concepts is a common thing in classrooms today. But some research suggests that you might want to move them to more abstract representations earlier. Sometimes colors or pictures can be distracting and sometimes all the details of the concrete materials can stop the kids from actually seeing the math. There's another stream of research around concreteness fading, which suggests also that you need to introduce concepts concretely but quickly fade to more abstractrepresentations.

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