Paper presented at 67th Annual Sessions, Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science 8.12.2011

1. Adults’ perception of
horizontality
(A Sri Lankan experience)
T.Mukunthan
DMW Munasinghe
Dept. Early Childhood and Primary Education
The Open University of Sri Lanka 1

2. Introduction
• Horizontality can be defined as:
the quality of being parallel to the horizon.
• The idea of horizontality and verticality
for example is the ability to predict the
inclination of the surface of a liquid in a
jar about to be tilted in specific ways.
(Piaget and Inhelder, 1973). 2

3. Horizontality can be defined as:
the quality of being parallel to the
horizon.
The idea of horizontality and
verticality for example is the
ability to predict the inclination
of the surface of a liquid in a jar
about to be tilted in specific
ways.
(Piaget and Inhelder, 1973).
in specific ways.
(Piaget and Inhelder, 1973).
3

4. Introduction (Cont.)
• Acquisition of many concepts is based on the
perception of horizontality.
 shapes
 angles,
directions and
 spatial concepts
involved with the idea of horizontality.
• Therefore, conception of horizontality is important
for children to perform successfully in mathematics.
4

5. Introduction (Cont.)
• Research specifies that many adults fail
to understand the principle of
horizontality.(Kalichman 1987, Kelly and
Kelly 1977, Rebelsky,1964).
• Therefore, this study attempts to find the
applicability of such conclusions to the
Sri Lankan context.
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6. Literature Review
• The idea of horizontality and verticality is
not acquired by children before nine to
ten years of age, the perception of
horizontality provides younger children
with a
‘rough but an adequate idea of the relation
between the horizontal and their own line
of vision and bodily positions’
(Piaget and Inhelder, 1973).
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7. Literature Review (Cont.)
• The significance given to this concept in
the mathematics syllabus in the National
school curriculum of Sri Lanka is
reflected in the competency:
‘Child will be able to identify and
distinguish between the Horizontal and a
vertical plane’ which is expected to be
developed in fifth graders.
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8. Literature Review (Cont.)
• ‘the simplest and most natural frame of
reference available to the child is most
probably that provided by the physical world
in the shape of the vertical and horizontal
axes’.
- Piaget (1950),
• He describes how children’s conception of
horizontality develops through three stages
(Piaget and Inhelder 1967).
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9. Literature Review (Cont.)
• In the first stage which lasts until about the age 4
or a little later, children are unable to distinguish
surfaces or planes, in the case of either fluids or
solids.
• At the beginning of the second stage which Piaget
calls sub-stage IIA the lines indicating surface of
liquids and solids are undefined;
• except when the bottle is tilted the child imagines
the movement of the water without any regard to
an external reference system. Liquid is simply
imagined as expanding or contracting. 9

10. Literature Review (Cont.)
• Therefore, horizontal and vertical axes
are still undiscovered.
• During the sub-stage IIB although the
child cannot draw water in a tilted jar as
level, he does not imagine water being
parallel to the base of the jar.
• However, during the transitional stage
from sub stage IIB to sub-stage IIIA child
is able to predict the level of the liquid
when it is parallel to the sides.
10

11. Literature Review (Cont.)
• During sub-stage IIIB it is possible to see the
vertical and horizontal gradually.
• they are applied logically and consistently to
all situations only at the beginning of sub-
stage IIIB.
• That is, children gradually discover that the
surface of water at rest in a container remains
horizontal despite the orientation of the
container at about the age of 9 (Piaget 1948).
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12. Literature Review (Cont.)
• Even though Piaget noted that, at about the age of
9 children achieve horizontal perception, findings
of many studies indicate that, many adults do not
have the horizontal perception of water.
• Pulos (1991) conducted a study in US on ‘Adults
Understanding of Conservation of Horizontality’.
He had selected 54 undergraduate students as his
sample. He noted that, 30% of the adults do not
understand the conservation of horizontality.
• Buton(1979) conducted a study of in US on
‘perception of horizontal and vertical by college
students’ with 87 adults and found that, 43.68% of
adults have not grasped the idea about horizontal.
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13. Objective and Hypothesis
of the study
Objective of the study
Main objective of the study was to identify Sri
Lankan adults, perception of horizontality.
Hypothesis
There is a significant difference in adults’
perceptions of conservation of horizontality.
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14. Methodology
• The method used in this study is qualitative
in nature.
• Experimental research design was used in
identifying the conception of horizontality in
adults.
• The sample of the study was 90 second year
students enrolled on the Diploma in Early
Childhood and Primary Education
Programme of the Open University of Sri
Lanka.
14

15. Methodology (Cont.)
• Instruments used in the study were rectangular
l
based glass bottle ( 1 ) half filled with
coloured water and an empty bottle of the
same brand.
• The bottle half filled with coloured water was
placed on the table in vertical position and the
empty bottle and a picture showing a half filled
bottle tilted at 45 in relation to the surface of
the table.
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16. Methodology (Cont.)
• The students were asked to showing a
line on the picture representing the
surface of the water in the half-filled
bottle which was tilted.
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17. Results and Discussion
• There were 26 (28.9%) of the students drew
the line horizontally and 64 (71.1%) of them
did not draw the line horizontally. Chi-
Squared test showed that
• Therefore the null hypothesis is rejected.
There is a significant difference in adults’
perceptions of conservation of horizontality.
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18. Conclusions / Recommendations
• Pre-school curricula mainly implemented in many Sri
Lankan pre-schools follow Piagetian concepts and methods
to provide experience (Talagala, 2004).
• Mathematics in the Key-stage I also is influenced by
Piagetian concepts.
• Piaget noted that children gradually discover that the
surface of water at rest in a container remains horizontal
despite the orientation of the container.
• But the findings of this study show that, there is a
significant difference in adults’ perceptions of conservation
of horizontality and that 71% of the adults’ do not have the
ability to represent horizontality. 18

19. Conclusions / Recommendations
• The results indicate that adults do find it
difficult to conceive horizontality.
• When compared with the findings of
Buton(1979) and Pulos (1991) the
percentage of Sri Lankan adults who did
not perform well in horizontality tasks is
higher.
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20. Conclusions / Recommendations
(Cont.)
• Since horizontality is important in
learning mathematics, geology and even
giving evidence in courts it is suggested
that greater emphasis should be made in
schools to develop the idea of
horizontality in students regardless of
grade or age.
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21. THANK YOU
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