Browsing by Author "Lukkaroinen, Marjukka"

This master’s thesis concerns itself with teaching multiplication in a kinesthetic way. The aim of this study was to increase the amount of kinesthetic activities in a school day and to familiarize with the concept of teaching kinesthetic multiplication. Several studies have shown the positive effects which exercise has on studying and, through that, on learning. In favor of utilizing exercise along with other teaching methods speaks the fact that exercise as one teaching method is concrete as well as it is active, characteristics which support the development of mathematical concepts. In addition, exercise can in many occasions be indirectly beneficial for learning skills and on the learning results. This study aims to create useable and inspiring educational material for kinesthetic multiplication for third graders. Multiplication is a central area of mathematical studies in the elementary school, which proves that there is cause for supporting the learning of multiplication. The material for this study also supports well the new, activity-based National Core Curriculum for Basic Education, as well as helps achieving the goal of increasing the amount of sports and activities in schools. This study was carried out as a design-based research in which participated three class teachers and their classes. Two cycles of design were used when creating this design-based research. The subject of this design work was the educational material for teaching kinesthetic multiplication. Based on a material package that I designed, I held 15 lessons, teaching kinesthetic mathematics for three school classes during four weeks. After the experimental teaching period the educational material was further developed based on the received feedback from teachers as well as from interviews. SWOT analysis was used in the analysis of the data. Based on the results of this design-based study, kinesthetic mathematics as well as teaching kinesthetic multiplication are functional teaching methods on the third grade of elementary school. This argument was supported by both the theoretical problem analysis and the empirical problem analyses. As this study was not an intervention research, it could not be concluded whether the pupils learned multiplication better with the help of the material I created or with the help of active mathematics, or whether they could have learned multiplication better with the help of some other method. According to the results of this study, the most central benefit of kinesthetic mathematics for learning was that the pupils became motivated towards practicing multiplication. Based on the experimental teaching period, other benefits of active mathematics were, among others, positive experiences of exercising, excitement about exercising, improved ability to focus through active practices as well as increased ability to work in a group.