Investigating Number Sense Among Students

Number sense can be described as good intuition about numbers and their relationships. Individuals with good number sense tend to exhibit the following characteristics when performing mental computations; sense-making approach, planning and control, flexibility and appropriateness sense of reasonableness. This is a very important skill to be mastered by every individual to enable them to handle numerical problems in their daily life. Students rarely face problems with algorithms. Unfortunately, many studies have showed that students have poor understanding in making sense on numbers when tested on their competency in number sense component. This study aims to investigate if there is a relationship between student performance in number sense and mathematics achievement and to explore the components of number sense that students are weak in. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.