DOCTORAL RESEARCH
Content, context, and representation:
Young children’s measurement understandings at
the start of school
Description
This study is about finding out the experiences with, and
understandings of, measurement which children possess as
they commence school. Utilising an ecological theoretical
perspective, this study considers the measurement learning
which occurs in contexts outside of the classroom, and the
ways in which children are able to represent their
measurement experiences and understandings in a
meaningful manner. This emphasis upon making the
mathematics meaningful is particularly important at the start
of school, as children bring with them a range of informal
mathematics knowledge which has been developed in outof-school contexts.
measurement. The fact that children are coming to school
Research questions
Reflecting the three themes of content, context, and
representation, the following research questions guided the
design and implementation of the study:
1. How does measurement learning develop during the
early years? (Content)
2. What experiences with measurement do children have
in prior-to-school and out-of-school contexts? (Context)
3. Can representations evoke children’s understandings
about measurement? (Representation)
“I am measuring Mrs MacDonald. I use a pencil to draw a line
against a measurer with a giraffe on it – at my house. She is 6
metres tall!”
Methods
The research project was conceptualised as a longitudinal
study of a cohort of children as they enter and experience
their first year of school. The study explores the children’s
experiences with, and ideas about, measurement held
during this period. Qualitative in nature, data in the forms of
drawings, photographs, and narratives were collected over
a 15 month period, as the children experienced the
transition to school and their first year of formal schooling.
The data was analysed according to both content
knowledge development and degree of contextual richness
in order to uncover any emerging relationships between the
development of content knowledge and the richness of
contextual information.
Policy implications
Data gathered in this study has shown that children
commence school with sophisticated understandings about
with these skills is a positive outcome because it means that
the children will be confident with the curriculum material
they will encounter in the classroom setting, and their
familiarity with the content will enable them to achieve
success in their formal learning. However, it must also be
considered how these children can be extended beyond
their existing understandings so that their classroom
engagements will be stimulating and developmental.
Findings to date
This research has shown that representations in the form of
photographs, drawings and narratives are useful means of
accessing children’s real world measurement experiences.
Activities such as these provide teachers with an entry point
to children’s prior experiences and understandings of a
mathematical concept—in this case, measurement—which
can be used as the basis for more formalised mathematics
instruction. The results have indicated that the more
children are able to contextualise the measurement concept,
the more sophisticated their measurement understanding
becomes.
Contact
Ms Amy MacDonald
RIPPLE, Charles Sturt University, Locked Bag 588, Wagga
Wagga NSW 2678
Telephone: +61 2 6933 4925
Email: amacdonald@csu.edu.au