Learning to Quantify Relationships Among Weight, Size, and Kind of Material

摘要

In a 1-hour teaching interview, 20 children (aged 7 to 11) discovered how to tell whether objects might be made of the same material by using ratios of measures of weight and size. We examine progress in the children's reasoning about measurement and proportional relations, as well as design features of instruments, materials, and tasks crafted to enable such progress. Findings are discussed in light of theories and research about cognitive development and learning.