Taiwanese junior high school students' mathematics attitudes and perceptions towards virtual manipulatives

The relationships between adolescents' mathematics attitudes and perceptions towards virtual manipulatives by analyzing the questionnaire responses of 580 Taiwanese high school adolescents who engaged in the problem-solving activity using virtual manipulatives, is discussed. The sample in this study included 580 ninth graders coming from eight junior high schools in Taiwan. The students' mathematics attitude was assessed by using the Mathematics Attitude Scale (MAT) developed by Aiken. The Computer Network Attitude Inventory developed by Tsai and Lin was modified into a Virtual Manipulative Perception Inventory (VMPI) to assess the participants' perceptions towards virtual manipulatives. The regression results indicated that adolescents who were less fearful of learning mathematics and believed more strongly that mathematics is an important course tended to be more satisfied with the use of virtual manipulatives. Adolescents who believed more strongly that mathematics is important had a tendency to consider more firmly that virtual manipulatives are beneficial for problem-solving processes.