Number Sense Definition

Number Sense Definition In mathematics education, number sense can refer to "an intuitive understanding of numbers, their magnitude, relationships, and how they are affected by operations." Many other definitions exist, but are similar to the one given. Some definitions emphasize an ability to work outside of the traditionally taught algorithms, e.g., "a well organised conceptual framework of number information that enables a person to understand numbers and number relationships and to solve mathematical problems that are not bound by traditional algorithms".

There are also some differences in how number sense is defined in math cognition. For example, Gersten and Chard say number sense "refers to a child's fluidity and flexibility with numbers, the sense of what numbers mean and an ability to perform mental mathematics and to look at the world and make comparisons."

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Researchers consider number sense to be of prime importance for children in early elementary education, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics has made number sense a focus area of pre-K through 2nd grade mathematics education. An active area of research is to create and test teaching strategies to develop children's number sense. Number Sense also refers to the contest hosted by the University Interscholastic League. This contest is a ten-minute test where contestants solve math problems mentallyno calculators, scratch-work, or mark-outs are allowed. This problem is posed in a second-grade classroom. Children are working in groups to figure out how to solve it using strategies that work for them: One group counts out thirteen cubes, takes away six of them, and counts the remaining seven cubes. In another group, one child draws thirteen marks on a piece of paper, another child crosses out six marks, and another child counts the seven marks that are left. Another group uses a "double" to reason that 12 minus 6 is 6, so 13 minus 6 is one more than that, or 7. In another group, children are discussing how this could be related to a "ten" fact that they already know: "13 take away 3 is 10, take away 3 more to get 7." In still another group we hear someone counting out loud, "13 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7" and someone else is holding up a finger each time the next number is said until she has six fingers showing. All of these groups of children are using strategies that reveal the different ways the children are thinking mathematically as well as their flexibility with numbers.
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This intuitive feel for numbers and their relationships can be called number sense, an important component of the elementary mathematics curriculum WHAT IS NUMBER SENSE? :- Number sense "describes a cluster of ideas, such as the meaning of a number, ways of representing numbers, relationships among numbers, the relative magnitude of numbers, and skill in working with them."1 Number sense is not a discrete set of skills to be taught for three weeks in October or something that only those that are "good at math" have. It is a part of childrens daily mathematical lives and slowly grows and develops over time. In a problem-centered mathematics curriculum, number sense is closely tied to problem solving, as the children described above show. These children have learned, over time, that they are capable of solving problems and that they can play with numbers to make sense of a problem. They have used their growing number sense to develop strategies to help them solve problems. WHAT TYPES OF STRATEGIES DO CHILDREN DEVELOP? :- As children become problem solvers, certain types of problem-solving strategies often emerge in their work. Trafton and Thiessen, in Learning Through Problems: Number Sense and Computational Strategies, describe some strategies that are commonly seen among children in the primary grades. They give examples of how a child might use these strategies to solve the equation 29 plus 14: Partitioning numbers using tens and ones. "First I added the 20 and 10 and got 30. Then I added the 9 and 4 and got 13. Then I added the 10 from 13 to 30 and added 3 more and got 43. Counting on or back from a number. "First I counted on from 29 by tens and went 29, 39. Then I counted on 4 more 40, 41, 42, 43." Using "nice numbers." Nice numbers are multiples of 10 or other numbers that are easy to work with. "I know that 30 plus 15 is 45, but 29 plus 14 is 2 less than that, so its 43."

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