Measurement of Length: The Need for a Better Approach to Teaching

Kamii, Constance; Clark, Faye B.

doi:10.1111/j.1949-8594.1997.tb17354.x

Cited by 49 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Understanding measurement is difficult for young children as evidenced by their low scores on state mandated achievement tests (Kamii & Housman, 2000). One reason for this difficulty may be due to the way in which measurement has been traditionally taught as empirical procedures in how to use measurement tools, such as rulers, with little focus on children's ability to reason about measurement problems (Kamii & Clark, 1997;Clements & Bright, 2003). The purpose of this study was to analyze what measurement means to first grade students.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study was informed by constructivist theory and research on children and measurement (Kamii & Clark, 1997) as well as by hermeneutic phenomenological theory focusing on the importance of children's lived experiences (van Manen 1990). Children's lived experiences refer to the everyday events in children's lives, some of which may involve measurement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

First Graders’ Understanding of Measurement

Castle

Needham

2007

Early Childhood Educ J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study focused on the meaning of measurement to a group of 16 first grade students. A university professor and the teacher of the students partnered together using qualitative analysis of field notes, student interviews, and student work samples gathered from September through May of a school year. Findings indicate students' knowledge of measurement including transitivity, unit iteration, conservation of number and length, and social knowledge of measurement terms and tools increased over the year. Researchers identified six themes of students' measurement understanding including that children's literature played a motivating role in student-initiated measurement activities. Recommendations call for first grade measurement activities focused on what it means to measure rather than on how to measure. Researchers caution that educators using mathematics curriculum and assessment should not assume that primary grade students understand conservation and unit iteration.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Graders’ Understanding of Measurement

Castle

Needham

2007

Early Childhood Educ J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Students must make sense of the 'part' of the unit left over after the 3 complete units are counted. This is different than just counting discrete objects like fingers or cubes (Kamii & Clark, 1997). When counting units of length, the student begins to develop a model for the continuous nature of rational numbers (e.g.…”

Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Comparative measurement is the process of using a known measurement from one part of an object to find an unknown measurement on either that same object or a different object. This is sometimes referred to as transitivity (Kamii & Clark, 1997). For measurement, it is important that young children understand that many different attributes can be measured (e.g.…”

Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Professional Development Program to Improve Math Skills Among Preschool Children in Head Start

Brendefur

Strother

Thiede

et al. 2012

Early Childhood Educ J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of providing early educators professional development experiences and activities to improve the mathematical skills of preschool children in Head Start around four domains of mathematics. Because of the need to provide necessary mathematical experiences to young children to improve their early understanding and skills and provide the foundation for future success in mathematics, we provided the treatment group of early educators with professional development and center-based activities to promote four critical areas in mathematics. By randomly selecting Head Start centers to participate as the treatment group or control group, we were able to examine the effects of the professional development and set of activities on preschool children's knowledge over a sixmonth period. We found children in the treatment group were more fluent and flexible with number concepts, were better at solving contextual problems, and had better measurement and spatial abilities than children in the control group.

show abstract

“…Time may be a part of routinized activity across a day, but the clock that indicates the time is a complex measuring tool featuring multiple related units. Prior calls have challenged an instructional focus on procedural uses of measurement tools (like rulers or protractors) without highlighting the quantitative referents underlying their procedural uses (Kamii & Clark, 1997;Moore, 2013;Stephan & Clements, 2003). Nonetheless, despite everyday applications of time, research on how students come to understand standard tools for and concepts related to time as a measure remains minimal.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Time as a measure: Elementary students positioning the hands of an analog clock

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Elementary students have difficulty with the topic of time. The present study investigated students' actions to position hour and minute hands on an analog clock to indicate particular times of the day. Using one-on-one interviews with students in Grades 2 and 4 (n = 48), we analyzed whether students were more accurate for one hand indicator (hour or minute) versus the other as well as their solution approaches as they positioned each hand. We first present a quantitative analysis of student performance to document whether hour and minute hands posed differential challenges for students as they positioned hands to indicate particular times. Results indicate the hour hand is significantly more challenging to position accurately than the minute hand. Students' solutions reflected varied approaches, including consideration of the quantitative hour-minute multiplicative relationship, attention to part-whole relations, and matching numbers from the provided time to numerals on the clock. We discuss implications for theory and instruction, including the relationship of time to length measure learning trajectories and the current treatment of time in K-12 mathematics standards for the United States.

show abstract

Measurement of Length: The Need for a Better Approach to Teaching

Cited by 49 publications

References 2 publications

First Graders’ Understanding of Measurement

First Graders’ Understanding of Measurement

A Professional Development Program to Improve Math Skills Among Preschool Children in Head Start

Time as a measure: Elementary students positioning the hands of an analog clock

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About