Quality Management of Mathematics Manipulative Products to Support Students' Higher Order Thinking Skills

The Indonesian 2013 curriculum requires the learning process to provide opportunities for the students to develop their higher order thinking skills. Many studies believe that the use of manipulatives are effective to foster it. However, we found that the manipulatives only available for the classroom use, while the students need to also exercise using individual manipulatives outside the class. This study aims to explain the production quality management of individual manipulatives such that they can be highly accessible for students. This study was a development research consisted of eight steps -- manipulatives identification, product design, preparation, production, simulation and expert validation, limited testing and revisions, packaging, and marketing. In the simulation and validation stage, 55 teachers and 60 principals were involved as the participants, while during the testing, we involved 92 junior high school students and 58 children. The results suggested that we have successfully produced 14 types of individual manipulatives ready to sell. Moreover, the participants also gave positive responses -- at an average of 94% -- that the individual manipulatives could support the development of higher-order thinking skills.