Physic

Book 1

Mathematics

Measurement

First Steps in

• Understand Units • Direct Measure

Improving the mathematics outcomes of students

FIRST013 | First steps in Mathematics: Measurement - Book 1 © Department of Education WA 2013

First steps in Mathematics: Measurement - Book 1 Understand units; Direct measure © Department of Education WA 2013 First published in 2005 Revised edition ISBN: 978-0-7307-4485-6 SCIS: 1593620

FIRST013 | First steps in Mathematics: Measurement - Book 1 © Department of Education WA 2013

Diagnostic Map: Measurement

What is the Diagnostic Map for Measurement?

How students currently think about measurement attributes and units will influence how they respond to the activities provided for them, and hence what they are able to learn from them. As students’ thinking about measurement develops, it goes through a series of characteristic phases. Recognising these common patterns of thinking should help you to interpret students’ responses to activities, to understand why they seem to be able to do some things and not others, and also why some students may be having difficulty in achieving certain outcomes while others are not. It should also help you to provide the challenges students need to move their thinking forward, to refine their half-formed ideas, to overcome any misconceptions they might have and hence to achieve the outcomes.

Most students will enter the Matching and Comparing phase between 5 and 7 years of age.

Most students will enter the Measuring phase between 9 and 11 years of age.

During the Emergent Phase

Students initially attend to overall appearance of size, recognising one thing as perceptually bigger than another and using comparative language in a fairly undifferentiated and absolute way (big/small) rather than to describe comparative size (bigger/smaller). Over time, they note that their communities distinguish between different forms of bigness (or size) and make relative judgments...