How Long Is It? Difficulties with Conventional Ruler Use in Children Aged 5 to 8
- PDF / 696,692 Bytes
- 9 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 17 Downloads / 149 Views
How Long Is It? Difficulties with Conventional Ruler Use in Children Aged 5 to 8 Ariadna Gómezescobar1 · Silvia Guerrero2 · Raquel Fernández‑Cézar1,3
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract The ruler is the standard measuring instrument used for measuring lengths. However, measuring lengths with a ruler is a challenge for children. For this reason, this study explores how children who have not received specific school instruction on its use, measure lengths with a conventional ruler. The relative object-ruler position, the strategy to justify the measurement, and the combination between them are analysed. Additionally, the possible influence of the grade and the transition from Kindergarten to Primary School is also studied. To achieve this aim, 99 children were asked to measure a cardboard strip in both a free and a directed situation. The results showed that in free measurements children tend to situate the object in the 2 hash mark of the ruler, the reading of the endpoint was identified as the most used strategy, and the combination of this strategy with lining up the object at 0 was the most commonly used in correct measurements. On the other hand, the results also showed marginal significant differences between age groups in such a way that children in the last year of kindergarten measured better than those in the first year of primary school. To conclude, the educational implications of these results are discussed. Keywords Conventional ruler · Length measurement · Kindergarten education · Primary school · Measurement strategies
Introduction Measuring lengths is a common task in daily life (Northcote and Marshall 2016). The importance of measurements in mathematical education is stated in different documents and laws (LOMCE 2013; NCTM 2000), but despite the recognised conceptual difficulty that length measurements entail for children (Bragg and Outhred 2000a, b, 2004; Chamorro and Belmonte 1991; Cullen and Barrett 2010; Gómezescobar et al. 2017; Ho and Lowrie 2013; Kamii 1995; Kotsopoulos et al. 2015; Levine et al. 2009; Sisman and Aksu 2016; Solomon et al. 2015), both teaching and research are not as robust in the field of measurement as in that of arithmetic * Raquel Fernández‑Cézar [email protected] 1
Department of Mathematics, Didactics Area, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain
2
Department of Psychology, Developmental and Education Area, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain
3
Faculty of Education of Toledo, Castilla La Mancha University, Campus Real Fábrica de Armas. Avda. Carlos III s/n, 45071 Toledo, Spain
(Barrett et al. 2012). This is why this paper aims to increase knowledge about children’s notions of measurement. Length is a one-dimensional property that limits the space between the two ends of an object. Like all magnitudes, it can be compared and quantified. For Piaget et al. (1960), the notions of conservation and transitivity are key issues for the understanding of length measurement. Subsequently, Lehrer (2003) removes the focus from the mea
Data Loading...
