Mathematics and Number Sense

2. According to (Gersten & Chard, 2001), Number sense refers to a student’s
“fluidity and flexibility with numbers.”
This means that the child:
1. Has sense of what numbers mean
2. Understands their relationship to one another
3. Is able to perform mental math
4. Understands symbolic representations
5. Can use those numbers in real world situations
6. Solve mathematical problems

3. According to the National Council of Teachers (USA, 1989),the five
components which characterize number sense are:
• number meaning
• number relationships
• number magnitude,
• operations involving numbers
• referents (the thing that a symbol (such as a word or sign) for numbers and
quantities. (Operations/Symbols)

4. • These skills are considered important because they
contribute to general intuitions about numbers and lay
the foundation for more advanced mathematical skills.

5. ABOUT NUMBER RELATIONSHIP
• Having good number sense means having a great understanding of the
many relationships that exist among numbers.
• You need to know how numbers are interconnected and how they can be
used in meaningful ways.

6. Researchers have conducted many studies which shows that students with strong
number sense can perform the following :
• Think and reason flexibly with numbers
• Use numbers to solve problems
• Spot unreasonable answers
• Understand how numbers can be taken apart and put together in different ways
(Decomposing numbers)
• See connections among operations
• Work Sums mentally
• Make reasonable estimates
• Recognize patterns

7. HOW TO IMPROVE NUMBERSENSE
• Research best practices and incorporate them
• Create math centers in the classroom
• Play lots of mathematical games
• Do hands on activities to reinforce math concepts
• Incorporate other subject areas/ For example: The creative arts: Drama, Music, Dance, Storytelling,
Nursery rhymes etc. To make math relatable
• Use concrete, visual then abstract concepts ( Enactive, Iconic and Symbolic)
• Discuss various strategies for computing ( Provide various methods for solutions)
• Encourage students to discuss their processes ( Let students explain thinking)
• Work with “manipulatives” like blocks and rods to understand the relationship among amounts.
• Do exercises in which they match number symbols to quantities.
• Get a lot of practice estimating.
• Learn strategies for checking an answer to see if it’s reasonable.
• Talk with their teacher about the strategies they use to solve problems.
• Get help correcting mistakes they make along the way

8. In order to master mathematics, there are core concepts that a student must learn and
master. These concept help to improve students’ understanding of mathematics in
general. To perform well at mathematics, students need to know and understand these
core areas; the foundation.
TIMES- TABLES ( Multiplication)
PLACE VALUE
TYPES OF NUMBERS
NUMBER PATTERNS
DIVISIBILITY RULES
THE FOUR OPERATIONS
MATH LAWS
PART - PART WHOLE CONCEPT
INVERSE RELATIONSHIP
THE UNITARY METHOD
KEY/CLUE WORDS (4 OPERATIONS)
PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES
FRACTIONS, DECIMALS, PERCENTAGE
GEOMETRY
ALL FORMULAE

9. Our Scheme for Mathematics focuses on:
Fluency: Accuracy
Efficiency
Flexibility
Reasoning/Critical Thinking
Problem Solving
‘It is better to have 5 ways of
answering one
question than one way of
answering 5 questions!’
– Singapore Maths

10. When solving word problems, it is often not
the calculation that children can’t do – rather
they are not sure which calculation they
need to do.
(NCETM, 2013)