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Strategies of Number Sense in Pre-service Secondary Mathematics Teachers

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Abstract

This paper presents some results of an investigation on the number sense of a group of pre-service secondary teachers from Spain. The objective of this research was to analyze students’ use of strategies associated to number sense and compare them with those obtained in a previous study with pre-service primary teachers in Taiwan, (Yang, Reys & Reys, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 7, 383–403, 2009). Pre-service secondary teachers showed lower success than pre-service primary teachers in a number sense test. Nevertheless, these last based their reasoning mainly on rules and algorithms, while pre-service secondary teachers used more strategies of number sense. In an attempt to delve into the low success shown by of Spanish pre-service secondary teachers, some students were interviewed. Those interviews showed that a deeper work on number sense in the training of these students is needed.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the project EDU2011-29324: Modelos de competencia formal y cognitiva en pensamineto numérico y algebraico de alumnos de Primaria, de Secundaria y de profesorado de Primaria en formación. Ministerio de Ciencias e Innovación. Madrid. Funding from FONDECYT 3140597 project and PIA-CONICYT Basal Funds for Centers of Excellence Project BF0003 are gratefully acknowledged. Chile.

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Correspondence to Rut Almeida.

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Almeida, R., Bruno, A. & Perdomo-Díaz, J. Strategies of Number Sense in Pre-service Secondary Mathematics Teachers. Int J of Sci and Math Educ 14, 959–978 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-014-9601-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-014-9601-6

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