The impact on computational fluency through instruction in number sense

Abstract

In a second grade classroom in an urban school district in the Midwest, there was a lack of number sense in the students’ mathematics skills. District common assessments were given quarterly and each quarter the standard of number sense was low. Two points of view about teaching children mathematics were found in the research to solve the problem: (1) to teach math the way it has always been taught, or (2) a need for number sense instruction. This research project focused on the implementation of teaching number sense thirty minutes a day, four days a week for eight weeks. Madelyn Hunter’s model of direct instruction was used to teach number sense strategies. Results indicated that the post test gains in computational fluency can be predicted by the post test scores in number sense.