Development of children's understanding of length, area and volume measurement principles

This study investigated the concurrent development of children’s understanding of length, area, and volume measurement in Grades 1-4. From a 45-minute interview, an attempt was made to derive three parallel scores assessing understanding of each of five measurement principles: the need for congruent units, the importance of using an appropriate unit, the need to use the same unit when comparing objects, the relationship between the unit and the measure, and the structure of the unit iteration. Valid comparisons could only be made across three of these five principles. On the others, student scores increased with grade, with length preceding area and area preceding volume in most cases. The results have several implications for teachers.8 page(s