Number Sense

A four and a seven years old when asked if they would rather have four or five sweets, did not pick up the larger number. However, when an adult was asked the same question, “of course I would select five sweets.” 

 

It seemed that comparing numbers which are close together is difficult, even when both children could easy count the number of sweets in the diagrams as shown in Figure 1 above. And yet, they picked up the larger number when comparing numbers which are far apart as shown in the Figure 2 below. This was an interesting observation and made me ponder why.

An article attached provided me with an understanding of such mathematical difficulty in children, particularly on magnitude comparison.  This showed that while both children have learnt to count, they do not realize that counting numbers are connected by size especially in a “one-more than” situation. How then can I teach them so that they realize the linkage between mathematical procedure (counting) and mathematical relationship (magnitude comparison)? Is number sense teachable? Number sense is “a skill or kind of knowledge about numbers rather than an intrinsic process.” Thus, number sense should be teachable (Gersten, et al, 2005). Some suggestions provided by the article to develop number sense are making sense of quantity and use of mental number lines. For me, I think that the “one more” concept can be reinforced.

This single observation showed me the importance of connecting counting and relative size as they are learning numbers and such linkage is essential in the development of the number sense even at this early stage.

Reference

Gersten, R., Jordan, N.C. and Flojo, J. R. (2005) ‘Early identification and intervention for  students with mathematics difficulties’, Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38, 293 – 304.