Young Children's Understandings of Length Measurement: Evaluating a Learning Trajectory

Szilágyi, Janka; Clements, Douglas H.; Sarama, Julie

doi:10.5951/jresematheduc.44.3.0581

Cited by 53 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The activities in Parkopolis were born from the scientific literature targeting critical STEM skills that predict later school success; such as, patterns [88,89], numeracy and spatial skills [90][91][92], geometry [93], measurement [94], and fractions [87,95]. See Parkopolis and fraction dice designs in Figure 9.…”

Section: Parkopolis: Can We Enrich Public Spaces Even Further By Builmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Landscapes: Playing the Way to Learning and Engagement in Public Spaces

et al. 2018

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Children from under-resourced communities regularly enter formal schooling lagging behind their peers. These deficits in areas such as language development, reading readiness, and even in the kind of spatial skills that predict later mathematical knowledge, may persist throughout their lifespan. To address such gaps, policymakers have focused largely on schooling as the great equalizer. Yet, children only spend 20% of their waking hours in school. How can developmental scientists and educators address this "other 80%" for the benefit of children's development? One answer is the Learning Landscapes initiative, which involves crafting carefully planned play experiences that focus on learning outcomes, particularly for children and families from under-resourced communities. Playful learning, a broad pedagogical approach featuring child-directed play methods, provides a unique way to foster learning and engagement organically within the built environment. Learning Landscapes already incorporates several well-documented projects. The Ultimate Block Party brought over 50,000 people to Central Park to engage in playful learning activities. Supermarkets became hotspots for caregiver-child interaction by simply adding prompts for caregiver-child interaction through signage in everyday "trapped" experiences. Urban Thinkscape transformed a bus stop and adjacent lot into a hub for playful learning while families were waiting for public transportation. Finally, Parkopolis is a life-size human board game that fosters STEM and reasoning skills in public spaces. This paper reflects on data from these projects while reflecting on lessons learned and future directions.

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Section: Parkopolis: Can We Enrich Public Spaces Even Further By Builmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Landscapes: Playing the Way to Learning and Engagement in Public Spaces

et al. 2018

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“…The activities in Parkopolis (Figure ) draw on research on early STEM learning, targeting skills such as patterns (Rittle‐Johnson, Fyfe, Loehr, & Miller, ), numeracy and spatial skills (Geary, Bailey, & Hoard, ), geometry (Verdine et al., ), measurement (Szilágyi, Clements, & Sarama, ), and fractions (Fuchs et al., ). Parkopolis also targets domain‐general learning skills like executive functioning (i.e., working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition; Diamond & Lee, ), approaches to learning (i.e., strategic planning, persistence, open‐mindedness, sustained focus, communication, and cooperation; Fantuzzo, Gadsden, & McDermott, ), and fluid reasoning (i.e., logical thinking and problem solving; Green, Bunge, Chiongbian, Barrow, & Ferrer, ).…”

Section: Learning Landscapes Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Landscapes: Where the Science of Learning Meets Architectural Design

Bustamante

Hassinger‐Das

Hirsh‐Pasek

et al. 2018

Child Dev Perspectives

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Rich learning opportunities in and out of school are critical for children to develop positively. Learning Landscapes is a new initiative that marries the fields of urban design and developmental science to bring playful learning opportunities to places where children and families spend time. Through this initiative, we have transformed parks, bus stops, grocery stores, and other public places into venues for playful learning interactions. In this article, we review the research on these projects, and map the vision and next steps of this initiative. By bringing learning opportunities to children and families who need it most, our goal is to equip parents and educators with the contexts and tools they need to support all children in developing the skills for success in school and life.

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“…Research in the area of length measure learning trajectories has identified key moments we might reasonably expect among typical students in instruction (Barrett et al, 2012;Sarama & Clements, 2009;Sarama, Clements, Barrett, Van Dine, & McDonel, 2011;Szilágyi, Clements, & Sarama, 2013). For example, Steffe (1991) identified the conceptual ruler that we might expect as early as Grade 3 (about Age 8), which refers to one's ability to mentally iterate units even when not available along a particular object being measured.…”

Section: Implications Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time as a measure: Elementary students positioning the hands of an analog clock

2018

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Elementary students have difficulty with the topic of time. The present study investigated students' actions to position hour and minute hands on an analog clock to indicate particular times of the day. Using one-on-one interviews with students in Grades 2 and 4 (n = 48), we analyzed whether students were more accurate for one hand indicator (hour or minute) versus the other as well as their solution approaches as they positioned each hand. We first present a quantitative analysis of student performance to document whether hour and minute hands posed differential challenges for students as they positioned hands to indicate particular times. Results indicate the hour hand is significantly more challenging to position accurately than the minute hand. Students' solutions reflected varied approaches, including consideration of the quantitative hour-minute multiplicative relationship, attention to part-whole relations, and matching numbers from the provided time to numerals on the clock. We discuss implications for theory and instruction, including the relationship of time to length measure learning trajectories and the current treatment of time in K-12 mathematics standards for the United States.

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Young Children's Understandings of Length Measurement: Evaluating a Learning Trajectory

Cited by 53 publications

References 55 publications

Learning Landscapes: Playing the Way to Learning and Engagement in Public Spaces

Learning Landscapes: Playing the Way to Learning and Engagement in Public Spaces

Learning Landscapes: Where the Science of Learning Meets Architectural Design

Time as a measure: Elementary students positioning the hands of an analog clock

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