Content, context, and representation: Children's measurement experiences and understandings at the start of school

This study considered the ways in which children's understandings about measurement content develop, the different contexts in which children engage with measurement, and the ways in which children can represent their experiences and understandings. Utilising Bronfenbrenner's ecological theoretical perspective, this study considered the measurement learning which occurs in contexts outside of the classrooms, and the ways in which children are able to represent their measurement experiences and understandings in a meaningful manner.An important focus for this study was foregrounding the voice of children in research. Children's representations of their understandings”in the forms of drawings, photographs, and narratives”were utilised so as to allow the children to make their own sense of measurement concepts and draw on a variety of experiences and understandings.The research project was conceptualised as a longitudinal study of a cohort of children as they entered and experienced their first year of school. The participant children in this study were in attendance at two schools in a town in regional NSW, with the schools selected to represent the typical variance of the town's population. At the commencement of the study, the participant children were in their prior-to-school year, and during the course of the research these children were followed through the transition to school and their first year of formal schooling, known as Kindergarten in NSW.The children completed a series of drawing tasks on two occasions “ once at the commencement of Kindergarten, and again at the end of their first year at school. The children were asked to draw pictures related to particular measurement concepts, and provide narratives about their drawings.