Kindergartners’ performance in length measurement and the effect of picture book reading

Abstract

This paper addresses: firstly, kindergartners’ performance in length measurement, the components of their performance and its growth over time; secondly, the possibility to develop kindergartners’ performance in length measurement by reading to them from picture books. To answer the research questions, an experiment with a pretest–posttest experimental control group design was carried out involving nine experimental classes and nine control classes. The children in the experimental group participated in a 3-month picture book program that, among other things, spotlighted the measurement of length situated in meaningful contexts. Before and after the intervention, the children’s performance in length measurement was assessed in both groups. The responses of 308 kindergartners (4- to 6-year-olds) from two kindergarten years (K1 and K2) were analyzed. Analysis of the pretest data showed that the measurement tasks included in the test were not easy to solve. However, the children belonging to K2 did better than the younger children belonging to K1. Within children’s performance, three components could be identified: holistic visual recognition, ordering and unitizing. Finally, the effect of the intervention was investigated by comparing the performances of the experimental and control group in the pretest and the posttest. We found a weak but significant effect of reading picture books to children on their general measurement performance. However, this effect was only found for K1 children on the component of holistic visual recognition.

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