Young Children's Emerging Understandings of the Measurement of mass

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE DESCRIBES InSIgHTS into young children's emerging understandings of the measurement of mass. Findings from a teaching experiment that delivered lessons offering rich learning experiences regarding concepts of mass to children of six to eight years of age (Years 1 and 2) suggest that, while the basic idea of direct measurement may look simple, the learning of mass measurement can involve complex mental accomplishments for young children. The lessons are described briefly to communicate the opportunities for exploration that they provided. Examples of children's actions and reasoning as they experimented, theorised, and challenged each other in their learning are also described. Complexities and accomplishments in these young children's emerging understandings are highlighted and discussed.

The case for a sub-element ‘measuring matter’ within the Australian national numeracy learning progression

“…They perceive a property such as hardness, rather than an underlying property like density (Smith, 2007). When visually comparing two objects, they will often think the object with the larger volume is heavier (MacDonald, 2010;McDonough et al, 2013). 'Heaviness' and 'heaviness for size' (which is density) are conflated to one undifferentiated weight concept.…”

“…When hefting two objects to compare their weight, the object made from denser material is often perceived as weighing more (Smith et al, 2006). When placing objects in water, the object that sinks or sinks faster is perceived as being heavier (MacDonald, 2010;McDonough et al, 2013). For materials such as air, 'weight' and 'space occupied' cannot readily be perceived (Skamp, 2020a;Smith, 2007) so students at Level 1 do not see weight and volume as essential properties of all matter.…”