How Physical and Virtual Manipulatives Affect Preschoolers’ Conceptual Understanding Regarding the Sinking and Floating of Objects?

Comparing the impact of physical and virtual manipulatives in different science domains among preschoolers

“…Overall, this study complements our previous work regarding the engagement of preschoolers with VM/PM during science experimentation (Pavlou et al, 2018;Zacharia et al, 2012). It also indicates that findings in this body of work concerning older students probably hold true for preschoolers as well (i.e., the effect of haptic sensory feedback as discussed in the first two conclusions above) and vice versa (i.e., the probable effect of misconceptions, as discussed in the third conclusion above).…”

“…The authors conducted a pilot study (Pavlou et al, 2018) to investigate preschoolers' understanding of the factors affecting the behavior of objects in water (i.e., sinking/floating) by comparing their conceptual understanding before and after their participation in experiments conducted in VM and PM, respectively. Their findings showcased that both types of manipulatives had a relatively minor effect on preschoolers' understanding, but VM were more effective than PM.…”

“…For the balance beam domain, most preschoolers had an initial informal experience (they were able to provide an operational definition of the balance beam) and hence, we excluded the few children with no prior knowledge. Based on this selection, we aimed at confirming the findings of the Zacharia et al (2012) and Pavlou et al (2018) studies, which showcase that haptic sensory feedback for preschoolers might not be a prerequisite for children with an initial understanding of the domains of balance beam and sinking/floating, respectively. Second, we aimed at extending the Zacharia et al (2012) and Pavlou et al (2018) studies for another domain for which the concept of mass should be multimodally grounded to support learning (i.e., the springs domain) and specifically, to explore whether PM is a prerequisite if participants do not have any prior knowledge with the domain and, hence, haptic sensory feedback is the modality, which can facilitate the development of the relevant knowledge.…”

“…For this subject domain, the learning goal was to understand that the objects' material determines their behavior in water (i.e., glass and metallic objects sink, wooden and plastic objects float). The interview protocol for this domain was an adaptation of the interview protocol developed by Pavlou et al (2018). The pretest and posttest concerned the comparison of a pair of objects (one set of fruits and three sets of spheres that differed either in size, in material or both) shown on cards in four tasks (an indicative example is provided in the Supporting Information S1: Materials).…”

“…From a young age, children differentiate objects based on their “felt weight” (Driver et al, 1994). Thus, the haptic input available in the PM condition in the study by Pavlou et al (2018) might have acted as a barrier for preschoolers holding that misconception, given that children tend to focus on only one dimension (e.g., mass, volume, size) to decide whether an object will sink or float (Elmali & Simsek, 2021; Hardy et al, 2006; Hsin & Wu, 2011; Smith et al, 1985).…”