A Longitudinal Examination of Children's Developing Knowledge of Measurement: Mathematical and Scientific Concept and Strategy Growth from Pre-K through Grade 5

The project proposes a longitudinal study that investigates the development of an understanding of measurement across seven grades-from pre-K through Grade 5. Specifically, the project will establish clear cognitive accounts of the development of students' strategic and conceptual knowledge of measurement on increasingly demanding sets of length, perimeter, and area measurement tasks.

Project Email
jbarrett@ilstu.edu
Project Evaluator
Richard Lesh
Full Description

The Children's Measurement Project examines children's developing knowledge from PreKindergarten through Grade 5 as they develop the capacity and strategies they need to measure geometric space (length, area and volume), investigating number concepts, early algebra, or variability. We investigate ways children learn to use measures as evidence for scientific or mathematical claims. We began by examining the literature on learning trajectories and progressions to interpret existing research on children's understanding of length, area and volume. Our work engages both Rasch modeling and learning/teaching experiments within clinical and classroom contexts to collect data for longitudinal accounts of children's development of measurement concepts and strategies. The work is being conducted as a collaboration of Illinois State University and the University at Buffalo (State University of New York). We are beginning the fourth year of our project (2010).

Project Publications and Presentations:

Barret, J.; Clements, D.; Sarama, J.; Cullen, C.; Witkowski, C. & Klanderman, D. (2010, May). Addressing the Challenge of Learning and Teaching Measurement: Curricular, Learning, and Teaching Analyses (Barrett et al.). Presented at 2010 AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.

Smith, J.P.; Dietiker, L.; Chang, K.; Mosier, A.; Gonulates, F.; Clements, D.; Battista, M.; Barret, J.; Cullen, C. & Zhou, W. (2010, May). Assessing the Alignment of Written Curricula and State Standards for Length Measurement (Smith et al.). Presented at 2010 AERA Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.

Barret, J.; Confrey, J.; Maloney, A.; Knuth, E.; Clements, D.; Sarama, J.& Daro, P. (April 2010) Defining and Implementing Learning Trajectories as Research Tools (Barrett et al.). Presented at 2010 NCTM Research Precession.

Barrett, J. E. (2009). Length Measurement Learning Trajectory: Validation of Learning Trajectories with Longitudinal Research. Presented at Consortium for Policy Research in Education and Friday Institute for Educational Innovation. Raleigh, NC.

McCool, J. K. & Barrett, J. E. , 2010-10-28 "Incorporating a Measurement Learning Trajectory into a Teacher's Toolbox for Facilitating Student Understanding of Measurement" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Online <PDF>. 2012-06-19 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p428027_index.html

Cullen, C.J.&  Barret, J.E. (2010). Strategy use indicative of an understanding of units and length. Unpublished.

Cullen, C. , Witkowski, C. , Miller, A. L., Barrett, J. E., Clements, D. H. and Sarama, J. , 2010-10-28 "The Key Components for Measurement Tasks" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Online <APPLICATION/PDF>. 2012-06-19 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p422400_index.html

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Project Materials