Number sense of final year pre-service primary school teachers
Date
2014-06
Authors
Courtney-Clarke, Magret
Wessels, Helena
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS OpenJournals
Abstract
Number sense studies have indicated that the development of number sense should be the
focus of primary school mathematics education. The literature review revealed that learner
performance is linked to teacher subject knowledge and that teachers’ confidence in doing
and teaching mathematics influences the way they teach and their willingness to learn
mathematics. This study was motivated by the poor performance of Namibian primary school
learners in both national and international standardised assessment tests and explored the
number sense of 47 final-year primary school pre-service teachers (PSTs) in Namibia. The data
in this mixed method research design were obtained from a number sense questionnaire, a
written computations questionnaire, a mental calculations questionnaire and the McAnallen
confidence in mathematics and mathematics teaching survey (MCMMTS). Six PSTs, randomly
selected from the 47 participants, were interviewed to determine their use of number-sensible
strategies. The overall results of this investigation revealed that the final year primary school
PSTs demonstrated limited number sense and possessed very few of the indicators of number
sense. Unexpectedly, the confidence survey showed that they were confident in their ability
to do and to teach mathematics. This study exposed one reason for the low standards of
performance of Namibian learners in mathematics and the lack of improvement over the last
few decades. It indicates a need for teacher training institutions to identify the mathematics
that teachers should know and the ways in which teacher understanding of subject content
has to be transformed to enable them to develop the number sense of primary school learners.
Description
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
The original publication is available at http://www.pythagoras.org.za
Please cite as follows:
Courtney-Clarke, M. & Wessels, H. 2014. Number sense of final year pre- service primary school teachers. Pythagoras, 35 (1), doi:10.4102/pythagoras.v35i1.244.
The original publication is available at http://www.pythagoras.org.za
Please cite as follows:
Courtney-Clarke, M. & Wessels, H. 2014. Number sense of final year pre- service primary school teachers. Pythagoras, 35 (1), doi:10.4102/pythagoras.v35i1.244.
Keywords
number sense, pre-service primary school teachers, mathematics education
Citation
Courtney-Clarke, M. & Wessels, H. 2014. Number sense of final year pre- service primary school teachers. Pythagoras, 35 (1), doi:10.4102/pythagoras.v35i1.244.