A study on primary grade students’ errors when using

rulers

T.Mukunthan & P.SeneviratneDept. Early Childhood and Primary Education,

The Open University of Sri Lanka,11.12.2011 1

Outline of the presentation• Introduction

• Problem

• Objective

• Sample

• Methodology

• Findings & Conclusions•

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Introduction

Measuring the length using the ruler is an important skill to the students and the general public.

People are measuring the length of the objects several times in their day to day life.

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Introduction (Con…)

• Sri Lankan Primary Mathematics syllabi consist of six main topics –

• Numbers,• Mathematical Operations,( +, -, x, / ) • Measurement • Money, • Space and Shapes,• Data Handling.

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Introduction (Con…)• Out of these topics

measurement consists the following sub topics:

• (i) length and distance • (ii) weight • (iii) Capacity and

volume• (iv)Time • (v) Area.

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Introduction (Con…)Idea of length starts with• Comparing two lengths in Grade 1 (6

years) it develops as• measuring and comparing a length with an

arbitrary unit• measuring the given lengths using an

arbitrary unit, comparing and ordering them

in Grade 2, 6

Introduction (Con…)Introducing the concept of• standard measuring units, •estimating a length in metre •measuring a length in metre and in centimeter

start in Grade 3.7

• estimating and measuring in metre or centimeter,

• Introducing standard symbols - m and cm

• Addition and subtraction involving metre and

centimeter in Grade 4 8

Introduction (Con…)

• Introducing and millimeter.

• A simple calculation in length, • Involving the four mathematical operations

starts in Grade 5. 9

Problem

Many primary school• in-service advisors,• teachers and • parents noted that, the primary school

children cannot measure the length correctly. 10

objective• The objective of this study is to identify the errors in measuring length.

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Sample

The sample for the study consisted of 112 boys and 104 girls of Grade 4 from four 1 AB type Tamil medium schools in Colombo Education Zone.

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School Boys Girls

School 1 31 27

School 2 36 24

School 3 30 25

School 4 35 28

Total 112 104

Methodology

• The researcher asked the children to measure the length or height of following:

• pencil,• edge of a box,• width of class room window,• height of students’ chair and• distance between two given points. 13

Methodology

• After the measure the length or height they were asked to write those on a paper.

• The children return with lots of different answers even though they were measuring identical objects.

• The students were interviewed to identify the reasons for making such errors.

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The following types of errors were identified• (i) The children start to measure

from 1cm instead of 0 cm (24%)

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types of errors• (ii) The children have failed to measure in parallel direction (27%)

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types of errors(iii) The children start to measure from the

edge of the ruler ( when zero does not start at the end of the ruler they are using) (33%)

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types of errors (iv). The children have failed to mark

accurately before moving the ruler along when measuring lengths longer than the ruler(14%)

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types of errors(v) The children have read the number from the

other edge of the ruler when it has scales on both edges (processing in different directions) (2%)

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Summary & recommendation .There were four main types of errors identified in measuring the lengththe using the ruler.

The teachers, In-services Advisors and the Curriculum Developers have to consider the finding of this study when they teach or develop the curriculum 20

Thank You

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• Thank You

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