Young children’s actions on length measurement tasks: strategies and cognitive attributes

ABSTRACT

Researchers often develop instruments using correctness scores (and a variety of theories and techniques, such as Item Response Theory) for validation and scoring. Less frequently, observations of children’s strategies are incorporated into the design, development, and application of assessments. We conducted individual interviews of 833 prekindergartens to Grade 3 children using 70 length measurement assessment items, recording both correctness and strategy use. We performed qualitative analyses of children’s strategies to validate or refine our hypotheses of how items align with strategies, and the concepts and procedures underlying them. We then used these analyses to refine: (a) our definitions of those strategies, concepts, and procedures; (b) the items in the assessment instrument; and (c) the alignment of both. The results will form the foundation of a Computer-Adaptive Test for length measurement, which we intend to validate in future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• learning theory
• learning trajectories
• elementary math
• measurement

Notes

1. In this view, learning trajectory has three parts: (a) a goal, (b) a developmental progression, and (c) instructional activities. To attain a certain mathematical competence in a given topic or domain (the goal), students learn each successive level (the developmental progression), aided by tasks (instructional activities) designed to build the mental actions-on-objects that enable thinking at each higher level (Clements & Sarama, 2004, p. 83).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Douglas H. Clements

Douglas H. Clements is the Kennedy Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Learning and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Denver. He has published over 166 refereed research studies, 27 books, 100 chapters, and 300 additional works on the learning and teaching of early mathematics; computer applications; creating, using, and evaluating research-based curricula; and taking interventions to scale.http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Douglas_Clements.

Holland Banse

Holland W. Banse is an assistant professor in Early Childhood Education in the Human Development and Family Studies Department of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. Her research foci include supporting young dual language learners' content learning, early childhood mathematics education, and the intersection of those two areas. She is also a former preschool and prekindergarten teacher.

Julie Sarama

Julie Sarama is Kennedy Endowed Chair in Innovative Learning Technologies and Distinguished University Professor at the University of Denver. She taught preschool to high school, child with disabilities to gifted. She directs projects funded by the NSF and IES and has authored over 77 refereed articles, 6 books, 55 chapters, and over 80 additional publications. Her interests include development of concepts, implementation and scale-up of interventions, and professional development. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Julie_Sarama

Curtis Tatsuoka

Curtis Tatsuoka, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics, Departments of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences and Neurology, Case Western Reserve University.