Evaluating Children's Developing Tool and Measurement Target Unit Coordinations on Number Line Problems

• In Event: Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood

Abstract

Linear measurement studies have illuminated children’s challenges in using informal (e.g., string) and formal tools (e.g., rulers), and how understandings of linear units develop in measurement activity. However, we need to better understand how coordinations between tools and measurement targets can be advanced or constrained by different tools and problems. Seventy-five 2nd and 4th graders were presented one tool (ruler, short or long paper strip), and asked how they placed numbers on five number line problems that varied in pre-labeled units. Students’ videotaped strategies were coded into five ordinal levels according to tool-target coordination abilities. Findings illustrated different distributions by grade, tool, and problem, and provide insights into problem contexts that may better characterize children’s developing understandings of linear measurement.

Author

• Bona Kang, Oakland Unified School District