Learning Progression

The mathematical skills and knowledge that children gain through a combination of everyday experience and classroom teaching are shown here as a learning progression from EMERGING to CONSOLIDATING and EXTENDING, illustrating how children's understanding of mass measurement develops across their early years of schooling from Foundation to Year 3.

Informal, everyday experiences of measuring mass - from weighing food at a supermarket to measuring ingredients to bake a cake - make a significant contribution to a child's understanding of the concept of mass.

Coming to school with an informal understanding of mathematical concepts, developed in everyday situations, is a positive outcome because it means that children will be confident and familiar with the material they encounter in the classroom, enabling them to achieve success in their formal learning.

Engaging in everyday mathematical thinking and activities also contributes to the development of essential 21st Century skills (4Cs) of Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking.

EMERGING

Learners at this level can UNDERSTAND the concept of MASS.

This means they can:

Identify the attribute of mass
Describe mass in everyday language (light/heavy/same as)
Order masses (light, lighter, lightest)

CONSOLIDATING

Learners at this level can APPLY their knowledge of MASS in new situations.

This means they can:

Use balance scales to determine if the mass of different objects is more, less or about the same
Use informal units to compare objects - directly and indirectly - to decide which is heavier/lighter
Recognise that to compare objects, the unit of measurement must be the same size

EXTENDING

Learners at this level can EVALUATE new understandings of MASS.

This means they can:

Measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of mass

Recognise and use grams and kilograms to measure mass

Go to Learning Activities

These three stages, emerging - consolidating - extending, reflect the learning progression that your child goes through as their mathematical understanding develops during their early years of schooling from Foundation to Year 3.

The stages are not necessarily matched to specific year levels as learning progresses at different rates for different topics and concepts. Your child may be happy to tackle extending activities in some topics, but is more confident with emerging or consolidating activities in others.

Our Learning Activities page has engaging examples of activities that your child will experience in the classroom to develop their mathematical understanding and foster 21st century skills.

The EMERGING - CONSOLIDATING - EXTENDING stages are underpinned by the Australian Curriculum, the Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP), Bloom's Taxonomy and other academic resources.

More information on these resources can be found below.

Australian Curriculum

F-3 Content Descriptions for Mass Measurement

Learning mathematics creates opportunities for and enriches the lives of all Australians. The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics aims to ensure that students are confident, creative users and communicators of mathematics, able to investigate, represent and interpret situations in their personal and work lives, and as active citizens. The following statements outline the content in Mass Measurement that students learn from Foundation to Year 3:

Foundation: Students use direct and indirect comparisons to decide which is longer, heavier or holds more, and explain reasoning in everyday language (ACMMG006) (VCMMG078)
Level 1: Students measure and compare the lengths, masses and capacities of pairs of objects using uniform informal units (ACMMG019) (VCMMG095)
Level 2: Students compare masses of objects using balance scales (ACMMG038) (VCMMG116)
Level 3: Students measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of mass (ACMMG061) (VCMMG140)

Note: Equivalent Victorian Curriculum: Mathematics links are also included here.

Early Numeracy Research Project (ENRP)

The Early Numeracy Research Project shows that there are 5 progress in the development of mass measuring skills for children:

1. Awareness of the attribute and use of descriptive language

- The child shows awareness of the attribute and its descriptive language.

2. Comparing, ordering, and matching with the attribute

- The child compares, orders, and matches objects by the attribute.

3. Quantifying accurately, using units and attending to measurement principles

- The child uses uniform units appropriately, assigning number and unit to the measure.

4. Choosing and using formal units for estimating and measuring, with accuracy

- The child chooses and uses formal units for estimating and measuring, with accuracy.

5. Applying knowledge, skills and concepts

- The child can solve a range of problems involving key concepts and skills.

According to ENRP, the foundation year was able to compare mass, year 1 mostly were able to quantify masses, and over 40% of year 2 were using standard units successfully. Meanwhile, it is expected that year 2 students can measure and compare length and capacity using uniform informal and familiar metric units, and measure mass using balance scales with familiar metric units. While year 3 can use direct and indirect comparison to order and compare objects by length, and develop ‘real life’ benchmarks for familiar metric units of length, mass, and capacity including centimeter, meter, kilogram, and liter.

In the meantime, the Mathematics Online Review shows more detailed tasks that ENRP has involved and the development of children’s growth points while learning Mathematics (inclusively Mass Measurement), in relation to the Victoria Curriculum through the achievement standard, content description, and levels. Foundation years' Growth Point (GP) is 1 where there is awareness of the attribute of mass, and use of descriptive language by identifying measurement attributes in practical situations, in addition to comparing lengths, masses, and capacities of familiar objects. Year 2 refers to GP2 which is comparing, ordering, and matching with the attribute of mass; and GP3 which is quantifying mass accurately, using units and attending to measurement principles, whereas students use informal units of measurement to order objects based on mass. Lastly, GP4 lies in Year 3 which is choosing standard units for estimating and measuring mass, with accuracy where students use metric units for mass measuring.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy ranges from knowing and understanding the content to more sophisticated ways of evaluating and analysing materials. It can be used to assist in describing levels of thinking to students and encourage them, to help extend and develop their thinking skills.

Based on this approach and perspective, children demonstrate their growth in terms of building higher-order thinking skills, on the foundation of lower-order cognitive skills.

In that sense, EMERGING refers to "understand", CONSOLIDATING refers to "apply", and EXTENDING refers to "evaluate".

Additional Resources

According to Reys et al., major progressions of children developing mass measuring skills involve:

Identifying the attribute being measured
Comparing objects and events
Measuring with informal units
Measuring with standard units including the concept of repeated units
Apply measurement to real-life contexts

Generally, children in the foundation year level are able to compare length, mass, and capacity directly and indirectly. After that, they will be able to start using informal units (year 1), followed by metric units (year 2). From year 3 onwards, they will be able to estimate mass using real-world benchmarks, then they can use familiar metric units such as kilogram and liter to measure.

In the meantime, Cheeseman et al. challenged the traditional approach of learning progressions in measurements and found that students do not necessarily need to be introduced to informal units for an extended period. From the results, it is proved that students are capable of learning and successfully using formal units as soon as year 2. However, it is emphasised that meaningful and memorable contexts are significantly helpful when introducing children to formal units at an earlier stage.

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