IndoMS. J.M.

E
Vol. 3 No. 1 January 2012, pp. 41-54

Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

Abstract
Learning the concept of perimeter and area is not easy for students in
grade 3 of primary school. A common mistake is that students think
that if the area is the same, the perimeter also has to be the same. It is
difficult for them to understand that for a given area, there are many
possibilities of perimeter and vice versa. When student are not aware of
this relation they might confuse about the concept in their continuation
of learning process. This research was conducted to study if it would
support students’ understanding of the concept of perimeter and area if
we let them explore the relation between perimeter and area in the very
first phase of the learning process.
Design research was chosen as the method to study this issue and the
three basic principles in The Realistic Mathematics approach were
applied in this study to support the learning process of perimeter and
area. Real life context such as picture frames was choosen in
developing a sequence of learning line to reach the learning goal of
perimeter and area. The partipants of this research were students and
mathematics teacher of grade 3 in one of the elementary school in
Surabaya. Two classes were taken to involve in the first cycle and
second cycle respectively.
The teaching experiment shows that the class activities such as making
photo frame, measuring photo paper with sticky paper and arranging
shapes with wooden matches are activities which can be used to reveal
the relation of perimeter and area. From those activities students build
their own understanding that in fact area and perimeter are not in one to
one correspondence, they found that for the given area they might find
different perimeter or vice versa. They also found the reason why they
multiply length and width to count the area of rectangular or square
shape from sticky paper activity. Somehow some students were found
still struggle with their understanding of area and perimeter. They often
simply count the area and perimeter but when it comes into comparing
the area or perimeter they still struggle to differentiate between area
and perimeter.

Keywords: Perimeter, Area, Relation between perimeter and area,

Understanding

Abstrak
Belajar konsep perimeter dan daerah tidak mudah bagi siswa di kelas 3
sekolah dasar. Sebuah kesalahan umum adalah bahwa siswa berpikir
bahwa jika daerah tersebut adalah sama, perimeter juga harus sama.
Sulit bagi mereka untuk memahami bahwa untuk daerah tertentu, ada
banyak kemungkinan dari perimeter dan sebaliknya. Ketika siswa tidak
menyadari hal ini hubungan mereka mungkin bingung tentang konsep
dalam kelanjutan mereka proses pembelajaran. Penelitian ini bertujuan
41
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

untuk mengetahui apakah itu akan mendukung pemahaman siswa

tentang konsep keliling dan luas jika kita membiarkan mereka
mengeksplorasi hubungan antara perimeter dan daerah dalam tahap
pertama dari proses pembelajaran.
Desain penelitian dipilih sebagai metode untuk mempelajari masalah
ini dan tiga prinsip dasar dalam Pendekatan Matematika Realistik yang
diterapkan dalam penelitian ini untuk mendukung proses pembelajaran
dari perimeter dan daerah. Konteks kehidupan nyata seperti bingkai
foto yang dipilih dalam mengembangkan urutan belajar line untuk
mencapai tujuan belajar dari perimeter dan daerah. Para partipants
penelitian ini adalah siswa dan guru matematika kelas 3 di salah satu
sekolah dasar di Surabaya. Dua kelas diambil untuk terlibat dalam
siklus pertama dan siklus kedua masing-masing.
Percobaan menunjukkan bahwa kegiatan mengajar kelas seperti
membuat bingkai foto, berukuran kertas foto dengan kertas lengket dan
mengatur bentuk pertandingan dengan kayu adalah kegiatan yang dapat
digunakan untuk mengungkapkan hubungan perimeter dan daerah. Dari
kegiatan tersebut siswa membangun pemahaman mereka sendiri yang
notabene luas dan keliling tidak dalam satu sampai satu korespondensi,
mereka menemukan bahwa untuk daerah diberikan, mereka mungkin
menemukan perimeter yang berbeda atau sebaliknya. Mereka juga
menemukan alasan mengapa mereka mengalikan panjang dan lebar
untuk menghitung luas bentuk persegi panjang atau persegi dari
aktivitas kertas lengket. Entah bagaimana beberapa siswa ditemukan
masih berjuang dengan pemahaman mereka tentang luas dan keliling.
Mereka sering hanya menghitung luas dan keliling tetapi ketika datang
ke membandingkan daerah atau perimeter mereka masih berjuang
untuk membedakan antara luas dan keliling.

Keywords: Perimeter, Area, Hubungan antara perimeter dan area,

Pemahaman

Perimeter and area become one of the interesting topics to be discussed since those
two are very relevant to the real world. The concept of perimeter and area is not an
easy thing to learn. Romberg (1997) states that a common difficulty regarding
perimeter and area is to understand that for a given area, many perimeters are
possible, and vice versa. In addition, it is frequently found that pupils mix the
concepts of area and perimeter. They often tend to think that two figures with the
same area also have the same perimeter (TAL Team, 2004). From an observation in a
primary school in Indonesia, it was found that some pupils had counted the perimeters
to answer the questions about areas (Fauzan, 2002).
Pupils are familiar with the concept of length since they were in grade 2 of primary
school. For pupils who have a good understanding of perimeter as a special
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Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

application of length that measures the distance around a figure, they will be
accustomed to finding perimeters where the length of every part of a figure is given
and they just had to add all the given numbers but for those who do not have an
adequate understanding of perimeter will find it difficult to deduce the length of the
side when it was not stated explicitly (Kai Kow, 2006). Therefore it is important to
embed a good understanding of perimeter for students on their early years of
introduction in perimeter.
Different from perimeter, in fact, area is a more difficult concept for the students on
their first year of introduction to area. Perimeter is in line with the concept of length
which is known as linier measurement but area is not about length, it is about the
whole surface that covers a shape. Understanding the attribute of area involves giving
a quantitative meaning to the amount of bounded two-dimensional surface (Cross et
all, 2009). Understanding of area measurement involves learning and coordinating
many ideas (Clement & Stephan, 2004), such as transitivity, the relation between
number and measurement, and unit iteration operating in area measurement.

Research Methods
There are some elements will be discussed in this chapter regarding the research
methods used in this research.

Research Design
In designing the research methodology, the researcher use the three phases of
conducting a design experiment from Gravemeijer & Cobb (2006), namely
preparation and design, teaching experiment, and Retrospective analysis.

Data Collection
For collecting the data of the research experiment, researcher will use video
recording, interview, students’ work and also field note.

Validity and Reliability

The validity and the reliability from the result of the research to strengthen the quality
of the research are described as follows,
Validity
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

In order to validate the research internally then it was expected that during this
research, the sufficient data to see how students reasoning about their understanding
of the concept of area and perimeter will be gain. It will include video recording of the
whole lesson series, students’ works, record of the interview and also field note.
Externally, the validation will be seen from the generalization of the research whether
it will appropriate to implement research for the population where the samples were
taken.
Reliability
Reliability in this research will be seen from three ways, namely Data Registration,
Track ability, and Inter subjectivity

Result of The Research

The research was conducted in 3rd grade of elementary school in Surabaya.We have 2
cycles of HLT implementation. Two classes were taken to participate in different
cycles respectively. The first cycle consists of 6 random students from grade 3C.
Those 6 students are Andre, Dilla, Dio, Farel, Ryan, and Salma. Different from the
first cycle where we only take 6 students, for the 2nd cycles, we take the whole class of
3B. The class consists of 28 students, 10 girls and 18 boys. Since cycle two was the
revision of cycle one then for the following we will focus on discussing the result of
the research in cycle 2.
During the teaching experiment, we thoroughly observed the learning process of
students in learning perimeter and area and its relation. Somehow we also paid
attention on teacher’s role during the class experiment. Some finding related to the
elements in perimeter and area and its relation need to be analyzed further and
clarified so it can come into the generalization of the learning process of perimeter
and area.

Pre-test
Pre-test was conducted to know the students understanding towards the subject that
will be given. From the result of pre-test we can see how far the knowledge of
students about perimeter and area. It is very acceptable that students in grade 3 do not
have the understanding about the term ‘perimeter’ and ‘area’ yet because indeed it is
new for them. The result of this pre-test also help us to redesign our HLT so it will as
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Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

much as possible be in line with the needs to support the students in their learning
process of understanding perimeter, area and its relation.

Introducing the term perimeter

The idea of choosing the fencing frame activity as the first activity along the series
was under the consideration that grade 3 students have learned the length
measurement in grade 2. It was expected that by starting the learning series with
something that already accustom for the student then it will give good stimulation to
go further on the learning series. Fencing activity indeed helps students to come into
the terms perimeter as the outer part of the shape and how to count it. We found that it
was not an easy task for students in grade 3 to describe perimeter in the words.
Somehow from the class activity and class discussion we can see that students are
able to build their own understanding about perimeter. They can show how they
compare the perimeters of the frames. They can show which part of the shape known
as perimeter. We can conclude here that students in grade 3 do not have to be really
able to describe the meaning of perimeter in certain words. Their understanding can
be seen from how they work on counting and comparing perimeter and their
reasoning.

Counting perimeter with non-standard unit and introducing the term ‘area’
In this activity we start seeing that perimeter was learned together with area. When the
students arranged the ice cream sticks to form a certain shape then teacher directs
them to be aware that there is a region within the shape that they’ve created.
Somehow the sense of perimeter seems to be stronger than area in this activity.
Students seem busy in arranging the sticks and come into how many sticks they’ve
spent for each shape somehow they do not really pay attention on the region within
the shape unless the teacher asked them about. Teacher’s question related with
counting perimeter become a good support for students understanding especially for
them who still have less understanding of perimeter from the previous activity which
using ropes as the context. To build students awareness on area then teacher also post
question about the region within the shape. Indeed some students seem struggled in
this activity because they pay more attention on working with sticks and put aside on
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

the counting perimeter and awareness on region within the shape. This students need
to be supported so that they will have the same understanding as their other friends.

Comparing the area

Area comparison of some shapes which can be compared directly seems to be good
starting point. This type of comparison is the simplest one for students. Pupils have no
problems in comparing these kinds of shapes only by seeing them or put them as
stacks. The idea of area was in fact already embedded in students mind as well. They
can compare the areas by saying one is bigger or smaller than the other even though
they do not have the idea of counting the area yet. Stepping into indirect comparison
where the students use sticky paper as measurement unit then students starts to learn
how to count the area. They start to have the sense of area as the number of sticky
papers they use to cover the whole surface of photo paper. Somehow when it comes
into counting perimeter by using the sides of sticky paper as measurement unit then
some confusion were there. For some students, the side of sticky paper used as
measurement unit of perimeter is still quite abstract. First they use sticky papers to
count the area but then they use its side to count the perimeter. These students still
need further support on their understanding about perimeter and area.
Two plane figures with the same area can have different perimeter or vice versa
The use of wooden matches and grid paper was really good support for students
learning after some confusion in the previous learning with sticky paper. First of all
wooden matches are something separated from the grid paper. Students will notice it
as 2 separate things. Grid paper to represent the area counting and wooden matches
along the side of the grid paper to represent the perimeter counting.
By using wooden matches and grid paper teacher tries to build awareness that for the
given area it might have different perimeters and vice versa. As the example
mentioned above that for 10 wooden matches, for instance, students can create
different shapes with different areas as well.
The wooden matches and grid paper are real and make sense for students, so they do
not find it difficult to come into more formal level where they no longer use wooden
matches but draw it on grid paper. Drawing the shape on a grid paper was quite
similar with arranging wooden matches so students are still able to recognize this
pattern of work.
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Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

Form the shape with odd number of wooden matches

Exploring the ideas of arranging the shapes from wooden matches in fact can be very
broadening. After working with the same number of matches or the same number of
square grids but different number of matches then the teacher try to explore to the
possibilities of forming rectangles or square from odd number of wooden matches. In
this activity all students involve with their design respectively and indeed they have
the idea that it was impossible to form the rectangles and square with odd number of
matches in the contrary it have to be even number. Somehow the students did not
come into the awareness yet that the opposite side has the same number of matches.
They have those ideas after the teacher direct the students to see the sides of the
shapes. To come into the idea of formal calculation also still a long run. It seems that
students need more time to explore the idea of odd wooden matches.

Exploring the perimeter and area of the shapes other than rectangle and square
The perimeter and area exploration of the shape other than rectangle and square was
important for grade 3 students. In their daily life they do not just face rectangular
shape only but also other shapes including irregular one. By giving a chance for the
students to explore the shape other than rectangle and square than we help the student
to build their awareness about the concept of perimeter and area for any shapes.
Indeed the student’s understanding about the concept of perimeter and area might be
more in rectangle and square form somehow we already gave a preliminary
knowledge about different shapes that available and need to be consider by them as
well.
Starting with parallelogram with ice cream sticks and grid paper seems to be good
choices before come into irregular shape with grid paper. In fact ice cream sticks were
less abstract compare to ropes to be form as the shapes. With the parallelogram and
rhombus we can lead the students to the shape other than rectangle and squares but
also still in the coverage of the relation between area and perimeter where in the same
area it might be some possibilities of perimeter.
The use of ropes as the tools to form any irregular shapes seemed does not really help
to come into the idea of the relation between perimeter and area. It happen because
the ropes it selves were not quite handy tools to be formed as the shape. Students
more focus in deciding what shape to be formed and how to form it rather than realize
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

that each of them use the same length of ropes to form different shapes and different
area. Indeed teacher also bring the discussion about it to the class, somehow we figure
out that the students still struggle with it.

Post-test
The result of this post-test more or less can give description about students’ progress
from their initial knowledge. Statistically comparing the result of pre-test and post-test
indeed we see some improvement for some students but some other also still struggle
with the concept of perimeter and area.
For instance the different acceptance about the concept of area and perimeter, most of
the student can count and compare the area of two different shapes; somehow many
students still struggle to compare the perimeter of two different shapes. It might be
happen because the idea of area in this learning series seems more real for students to
be put in their logic. Even though perimeter seems to be a very simple measurement
but when we put together with area, student might get it more abstract compare to
area.
Even thought the main consideration in this paper is about the process of students
learning but at least from this post-test we also can briefly conclude that indeed those
representations of numbers (see appendix) can support the argumentation previously
about the development of students’ learning process.

Discussion
The relation of perimeter and area become the means in this research to support
students’ understanding about the concept of perimeter and area. Based on the aim of
this research, the learning series was arranged as such so that perimeter and area were
studied side by side along the learning series. The key principles of RME serve as a
basis for the whole learning series in this research. We will elaborate how that key
principles underlay the activities in this research.

Guided Reinvention or Mathematizing

The first key principle of RME is guided reinvention or mathematizing. The following
are the elaboration of teacher’s role in guided reinvention or mathematizing.
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Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

1. Providing students an opportunity to present their idea

During the teaching experiment we figure out that teacher posed the questions below
in order to provoke students to present their idea.
- “What is perimeter according to you?”
- “What did you use to measure perimeter?”
2. Stimulating social Interaction
Teacher should be able to stimulate social interaction among students. Teacher can
provoke this interaction through pair work, group work or class discussion. It was
proven in the observation that those students who rare to share their ideas in the class
discussion were able to share it in the pair or group work. Another strategy to
stimulate social interaction was posing appropriate question, as one of the question
posed by the teacher during the teaching experiment below,
“Kiki said we can use hand span to count the perimeter, how about the others?”
Along the lesson series teacher also arranged group activities where students work in
their group to cooperate in solving the problem and sharing ideas. As the discussion in
one of the group during the teaching experiment below when one student try to
respond to their friends answer.
Teacher : (talking to the group) So how you count this perimeter?
Rizky : (tagging each side of sticky paper) one, two,…seventeen
Aang : (knowing that Rizky’s tagging was not synchronic with his
counting) you wrong!
Teacher : this is how you suppose to count (tagging each side of sticky
paper) one, two, so now you try
Arya : (tagging each side of sticky paper) one, two,… (he did skip
counting)
Aang : you wrong, you missed one line. (he showed to the group how to
count the perimeter correctly)

3. Connecting activities
During the teaching experiment we figured out a discussion where teacher try to relate
the previous activities with the next activities, as the conversation below.
Teacher : ”what tools can you use to measure perimeter?”(students
mention ruler, hand span, ropes, pencil case etc)
Teacher : (show a circular shape) “what tools can be used to measure
this shape?”
Meizar : ribbon
Teacher : how about this (show rectangular shape)
Rizky : ruler
Teacher : (repeated again for circular shape) so can we use ruler to
measure the perimeter of this shape?
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

Students : no..

From the conversation we can see that teacher try to relate the knowledge of students
about length measuring tools with counting perimeter. Teacher tried to bring the
students to their awareness that not every shape can be counted with the same tools.
Teacher also wanted to make ropes as a tool that make a sense for students in the next
activities that will be conducted.
4. Eliciting the mathematical concept
One of the examples of transforming a concrete experience into mathematical concept
during the class experiment was when the teacher tried to bring the idea of region
within the boundaries into measuring area.
“ Do you think the region within the boundary has quantity?”
By posing a question about quantity, teacher try to direct the students to the idea that
if the region has quantity then it can be measured, the next question for students will
be “How can I measure the quantity of this region?” Other finding during the teaching
experiment that shows how teacher tried to elicit the mathematical concept was when
students use sticky paper to count the area of the photo paper below

Teacher : what is the area of the shape?

Aang : (counting the square one by one) twelve
Teacher : do you have any other way than count it one by one
Aang : this is 4 right (pointing to the first row), then this three (pointing to
the last coloumn) so four × three equal to twelve.

5. Asking for clarification

During the observation of teaching experiment we found several discussions when
teacher tried to clarify students’ answer.
Teacher : which one has the cheapest price s? (show 3 different
rectangular shapes and stated that the smallest its area the cheapest its price
will be )
Students : B (the biggest one)
Teacher : how can you decide B?
Students : It’s the smallest
Teacher : How can you know B is the smallest? Aang, come here,
show how you get B.
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Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

In the discussion above teacher try to get the clarification from students about their
answer. This becomes one of the ways for the teacher to see students’ ability in
expressing their idea as the benchmark of their understanding.

Didactical Phenomenology
In this research we helped the teacher to design the series of activities that reveal a
contextual problem in which students might come with a wide variety of solutions.
A situation that is experientially real for students is used as the base for mathematical
activity along the learning series. Some activities were chosen to fit the concepts of
perimeter and area and are also experientially real for students; for instance, arranging
shapes with wooden matches. From 10 wooden matches students can come with
different shapes but often with rectangular and square form. For rectangular and
square forms, to count the perimeter of the shapes, students might also come with
different strategies. From the observation during the teaching experiment some
students choose to count the number of wooden matches one by one, others choose to
see only two sides, they add it up then multiply it by two since they know that the
opposite sides has the same number of wooden matches.

Self-developed model
The whole series of activities were intended to be able to support students in making
their self-developed model to understand the concept of area and perimeter. Creating
picture frame from ice cream sticks, in fact, help students make a very simple
preliminary description about perimeter and area. The inner part is area and the outer
part (i.e ice cream sticks) is the perimeter. With their own simple description they use
to memorize in their mind what area and perimeter are.
Starting to count the number of square grids to count the area and also arranging
wooden matches in square grid paper then students accustom with the square grid unit
in counting area. As they have to count the area of shape made from ropes, the first
idea they have is to put it on the grid paper so that they can count its area. Students are
also familiar with counting perimeter with wooden sticks unit or use one side of the
square grid. They accustom with certain model that they use in counting perimeter
and area and use it in solving problem.
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen

Learning perimeter and area side by side along the lesson series makes them
accustomed to see both aspects of perimeter and area in any shapes. When they were
asked about the different between two shapes, their answers mostly go into the
similarities or the difference of its perimeter and area even though some of them also
pay attention to the different form of the shapes. The fact that two shapes with the
same area might have different perimeters and vice versa seems help the students to
be aware that area is not depending on its perimeter and vice versa.

Conclusion
The teaching experiment shows that the class activities such as making photo frame,
measuring photo paper with sticky paper and arranging shapes with wooden matches
are activities which can be used to reveal the relation of perimeter and area. From
those activities students build their own understanding that in fact area and perimeter
are not in one to one correspondence, they found that for the given area they might
find different perimeter or vice versa. They also found the reason why they multiply
length and width to count the area of rectangular or square shape from sticky paper
activity. Somehow some students were found still struggle with their understanding of
area and perimeter. They often simply count the area and perimeter but when it comes
into comparing the area or perimeter they still struggle to differentiate between area
and perimeter.

References
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A.R.Bunker (1967), Understanding and teaching mathematics in the primary school.
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Mathematics Learning in early childhood, The national Academies Press-
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Daintith. John, Rennie. Richard (2005), The facts on File Dictionary of Mathematics,
Market House Book Ltd
Depdiknas. (2006). Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan Sekolah Dasar. Jakarta:
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Douglas H. Clements, Julie Sarama (2004), Engaging young children in mathematics,
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, Publisher
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Learning The Concept of Area and Perimeter by Exploring Their Relation

Fauzan, A. (2002). Applying Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) in Teaching

Geometry in Indonesian Primary Schools. Enschede: PrintPartners Ipskamp.
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Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australia
Olsen. Stieg Mellin (1981). Instrumentalism as an educational concept- Educational
Studies in Mathematics, vol. 12. No. 3, Aug. 1981
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Destina Wahyu Winarti

State University of Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
Email: d3571na@yahoo.com

Siti Maghfirotun Amin

State University of Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
Email: amin3105@yahoo.com

Agung Lukito
State University of Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
Email: gung_lukito@yahoo.co.id

Frans Van Gallen

Freudenthal Institut-Utrecht University
Email: f.vangalen@uu.nl/frans@fi.uu.nl,
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Destina Wahyu Winarti, Destina Wahyu Winarti, Siti Maghfirotun Amin, Agung
Lukito, Frans Van Gallen