Understanding linear measure

This article provides strategies for enhancing tasks to offer students better opportunities to develop conceptual understanding of length measurement. Teachers are offered strategies that help move instruction beyond procedures

Conceptual Limitations in Curricular Presentations of Area Measurement: One Nation’s Challenges

Research has found that elementary students face five main challenges in learning area measurement: (1) conserving area as a quantity, (2) understanding area units, (3) structuring rectangular space into composite units, (4) understanding area formulas, and (5) distinguishing area and perimeter. How well do elementary mathematics curricula address these challenges? A detailed analysis of three U.S. elementary textbook series revealed systematic deficits. Each presented area measurement in strongly procedural terms using a shared sequence of procedures across grades. Key conceptual principles were infrequently expressed and often well after related procedures were introduced. Particularly weak support was given for understanding how the multiplication of lengths produces area measures. The results suggest that the content of written curricula contributes to students’ weak learning of area measurement

Facilitating effective mathematical teaching practices in preschool

Initial seeds for mathematics literacy are planted during early childhood. Children benefit when they are exposed to and provided with opportunities for math experiences that emphasize their holistic development and not just mathematics proficiency in isolation. This way of viewing and presenting mathematics to young children requires teachers who are equipped with strong mathematics teaching skills. This study examined a 21-hour professional development series for public school preschool teachers on early numeracy, geometry, mathematical reasoning, and teaching pedagogies. This professional development series aimed to help preschool teachers incorporate effective mathematical practices and increase their comfort level in teaching mathematics. Participants noted this professional development series impacted their ability to foster children’s early numeracy development, engage in math talk pose questions that helped children process early numeracy, and contextualize early numeracy through stories and/or word problems. The study demonstrates change takes time, and the impact of this professional development series is dependent on preschool teachers’ readiness and their perception of their teaching context needs

Conceptual Limitations in Curricular Presentations of Area Measurement: One Nation’s Challenges

Research has found that elementary students face five main challenges in learning area measurement: (1) conserving area as a quantity, (2) understanding area units, (3) structuring rectangular space into composite units, (4) understanding area formulas, and (5) distinguishing area and perimeter. How well do elementary mathematics curricula address these challenges? A detailed analysis of three U.S. elementary textbook series revealed systematic deficits. Each presented area measurement in strongly procedural terms using a shared sequence of procedures across grades. Key conceptual principles were infrequently expressed and often well after related procedures were introduced. Particularly weak support was given for understanding how the multiplication of lengths produces area measures. The results suggest that the content of written curricula contributes to students’ weak learning of area measurement

Exploring US textbooks’ treatment of the estimation of linear measurements

Learning to estimate a linear measurement is critical in becoming a successful measurer. Research indicates that the teaching of the estimation of linear measurement is quite open and that instruction does not make explicit to students how to carry out estimation work. Because written curriculum has been identified as one of the main sources affecting teachers’ instruction and students’ learning, this study examined how estimation of linear measurement tasks were presented to students in three US elementary mathematics curricula to see how much and in what ways these tasks were presented in an open manner. The principal result was that the length estimation tasks were frequently not explicit about which attribute of the object to measure and the requested level of precision of the estimate. Length estimation tasks were also left more open than other measurement tasks like measuring length with rulers

Curriculum and the role of research: report of the ICME 12 Survey Team

The survey team collected information on the development and use of curriculum from 11 diverse countries around the world. The data shows that a common set of mathematics learning goals are established in almost all countries. However, only a few countries report a substantial role for research in designing and monitoring the development of their curriculum. The data also suggests great variation among countries at the implementation level