Students' development of strategies for turn and angle measure

We studied a group of fourth grade students identified by their classroom teachers as having 'above average ability' in mathematics who were participating in 'pull-out' enrichment sessions. We sought to test, using observational and microgenetic methods, hypotheses regarding students' measurement strategies that have been generated post hoc by other research teams. These above-average mathematics students did not show initial difficulties with turn commands previously reported in mixed populations. They created strategies to accurately determine the correct direction of turn and to estimate the amount of turn. They did follow a similar developmental order as students in previous work: They synthesized and integrated two schemes, turn as body movement and turn as number. Analyses extending this work revealed a process of psychological curtailment in which students gradually replace full rotations of their bodies with smaller rotations of an arm, hand, or finger.