Young children’s number sense development: Age related complexity across cases of three children

• Main Author: Zuhal Yılmaz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kura Publishing 2017-06-01
• Series: International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education
• Subjects: Number sense; Counting; Young childrenIntroductionNumber sense is perceived as one of the hardest concepts to define in mathematics (Case; 1998; McIntosh; Reys; Bana; & Farrell; 1997). This struggle has led to various definitions of number sense in the literature. Early definitions of number sense referred to the understanding of numbers and operations; and utilizing this understanding to solve complex problems (Burton; 1993; Reys; 1991). One widely referenced definition of number sense is “a person’s general understanding of number and operations along with the ability and inclination to use this understanding in flexible ways to make mathematical judgments and to develop useful strategies for handling numbers and operations” (McIntosh; & Reys; 1993; p.3). Recent definitions of number sense refer to operating with quantities and number-word systems (Aunio et al.; 2006); and having a robust thought about numbers and perceiving the meanings and relations among numbers Correspondence details: Zuhal Yilmaz; Yeditepe University; Faculty of Education; Department of Elementary Mathematics Education Istanbul; Turkey. Phone: [phone] Ext. 1585.E-mail: [e-mail]; Young children
• Online Access: https://iejee.com/index.php/IEJEE/article/view/291/284

Children start to develop number sense even well before they start the school. Developing number sense serves as an intermediate tool for learning conventional mathematics taught in schools. This number sense has three key areas: number knowledge, counting and arithmetic operations. As a result, the aim of this study was to examine aged related complexity of number sense development of young children’s aged four, six and seven under two key areas: number knowledge and counting. Semi structured task based clinical interviews were employed to examine number sense development. Five different assessment tasks were employed with three children. Children’s responses were analysed to identify their level of number sense understanding and difficulties with developing number sense. Findings were reported under two categories: first children’s ability to understand number concept and their ability to accomplish number word sequences and second counting. Findings of the study indicated a significant age related complexity and improvement in both two aspects of number sense. Older children with more experience developed better number sense than the younger children.