Investigation of the Performance and Use of Strategy Among Elementary School Children in Estimating Measurements of Length, Area, and Volume
Author: Hsin-Mei E. Huang (Department of Learning and Materials Design, University of Taipei)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 61, No. 3
Date：September 2016
Pages：131-162
DOI：10.6209/JORIES.2016.61(3).05
Abstract：
A set of measurement estimation assessments was developed to investigate the ability of elementary school children to estimate length, area, and volume measurements and their use of strategy in this context. The participants were 948 fifth- and sixth-graders who were recruited from elementary schools in Taipei and New Taipei City, Taiwan. The results showed that grade level and measurement attributes significantly influenced estimation performance and the number of strategies used in estimation. More than 87% of the children could indicate a strategy for estimating measurements. They frequently used body parts or objects that are convenient measurement units. On average, the sixth-graders outperformed the fifth-graders on the measurement estimation assessment. The students demonstrated higher performance in the subscale of length estimation than in the subscales of area and volume estimation. Multiple strategies were more commonly used for estimating volume than for estimating area and length. Participants also used a wider variety of strategies for estimating area than for estimating length. The influence of grade level on the degree of estimation strategy was observed only in the case of area estimation. Furthermore, the sixth-graders used more estimation strategies than the fifth-graders did.
Keywords：area, length, measurement estimation, strategy, volume
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References：
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