Showing papers in "Educational technology research in 2016"
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TL;DR: This article showed that the ability to compare areas and volumes of objects develops in a u-shaped manner with age and the percentage of correct answers decreased with age, which is consistent with the results of SENA and SMITH (1990) with tasks that were identical in his experiment.
Abstract: The 2008 course of study (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology 2008), which is the curriculum development guideline for schools, stipulates that teachers should enhance pupils’ abilities to acquire concepts for quantity and measurement through an abundance of experience to compare the lengths, areas, and volumes of objects around them. Regarding area, pupils learn that they can compare the areas of objects by piling one object on top of another. They also learn that when the piling strategy is not available, they may compare areas by counting and comparing the numbers of plates that they spread on top of the compared objects. With volume, pupils learn that they may compare volumes of objects by putting a smaller box into a bigger box, pouring water into one container and out of another, or examining how many times they may ladle water in a container using a cup. The key question here is when do children acquire the above-mentioned strategies with which they compare areas and volumes. The development of a child's performance in various domains, such as concepts, language, cognition, and sociality tends to change in a u-shaped manner: rising, descending, and rising once again with age (SHIMIZU 2002; AOKI 1989). MARATSOS (1973) was the first to demonstrate that children's ability to compare areas develops in a u-shaped manner. He asked children whose ages ranged from three to five years to compare the areas of a pair of rectangles. The results showed that the percentage of correct answers decreased with age. Given that adults have sufficient ability to compare the areas of rectangles, he suggested that the area comparison ability develops in a u-shaped manner. SENA and SMITH (1990) conducted a replication of a study by MARATSOS (1973) with tasks that were identical in his experiment. The results of their study were partially consistent with those of Maratsos (1973). Children whose ages ranged from three to five years, exhibited age-related decreases in correct answer rates in the area Age-Related Changes in Performance and Strategies in an Area and Volume Comparison *