Browsing by Author "Gould, Kelsey Lynn"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Finding a Common Discourse: How do School Psychologists and Teachers Conceptualize Number Sense?
    (2024-07-03) Gould, Kelsey Lynn; Drefs, Michelle; LeFevre, Jo-Anne; Davis, Brent
    Children’s knowledge of number sense is foundational to their learning of more advanced mathematics. However, the specific conceptual and procedural skills that are assumed to comprise number sense are not necessarily the same across the fields of mathematics education and psychology (Osana & Proulx, 2018). The lack of consistency in how number sense is understood may influence the collaborative work between school psychologists and teachers who work collaboratively to support children’s mathematics learning. The goal of this study was to identify how school psychologists’ and teachers’ conceptualizations of number sense compare. To identify number sense conceptualizations, 16 participants (n = 8 school psychologists; n = 8 teachers) were presented with vignettes designed to elicit understandings of number sense based on Whitacre et al.’s (2020) notions of Approximate Number Sense (ANS), Early Number Sense (ENS), and Mature Number Sense (MNS), as well as the four grounding metaphors of arithmetic proposed by Lakoff and Núñez (2000). Questions associated with each vignette were used to prompt participants to share which aspect(s) of number sense they noticed. A template approach to thematic analysis was used to analyze interview transcripts. Overall, both similarities and differences were observed between groups. Teachers attended more often to MNS constructs whereas school psychologists noticed ANS constructs of number sense (specifically, innate nature of number sense) more often than teachers. Professional groups similarly attended to ENS constructs of number sense and to the four grounding metaphors of number. Taken together, this research provides support for the need to increase effort to promote a coherent, unitary understanding of number sense across the fields of school psychology and education to better support inter-professional collaboration in support of children’s mathematics learning.