Cross-cultural Study of Understanding of Scale and Measurement: Does the everyday use of US customary units disadvantage US students?

Abstract

Following a sociocultural perspective, this study investigates how students who have grown up using the SI (Système International d'Unités) (metric) or US customary (USC) systems of units for everyday use differ in their knowledge of scale and measurement. Student groups were similar in terms of socioeconomic status, curriculum, native language transparency of number word structure, type of school, and makeup by gender and grade level, while varying by native system of measurement. Their performance on several tasks was compared using binary logistic regression, ordinal logistic regression, and analysis of variance, with gender and grade level as covariates. Participants included 17 USC-native and 89 SI-native students in a school in Mexico, and 31 USC-native students in a school in the Midwestern USA. SI-native students performed at a significantly higher level estimating the length of a metre and a conceptual task (coordinating relative size and absolute size). No statistically significant differences were found on tasks involving factual knowledge about objects or units, scale construction, or estimation of other units. USC-native students in the US school performed at a higher level on smallest known object. These findings suggest that the more transparent SI system better supports conceptual thinking about scale and measurement than the idiosyncratic USC system. Greater emphasis on the SI system and more complete adoption of the SI system for everyday life may improve understanding among US students. Advancing sociocultural theory, systems of units were found to mediate learner's understanding of scale and measurement, much as number words mediate counting and problem solving.