Finding a Common Discourse: How do School Psychologists and Teachers Conceptualize Number Sense?

Gould, Kelsey Lynn

Finding a Common Discourse: How do School Psychologists and Teachers Conceptualize Number Sense?

dc.contributor.advisor	Drefs, Michelle
dc.contributor.author	Gould, Kelsey Lynn
dc.contributor.committeemember	LeFevre, Jo-Anne
dc.contributor.committeemember	Davis, Brent
dc.date	2024-11
dc.date.accessioned	2024-07-05T19:24:34Z
dc.date.available	2024-07-05T19:24:34Z
dc.date.issued	2024-07-03
dc.description.abstract	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.
dc.identifier.citation	Gould, K. L. (2024). Finding a common discourse: how do school psychologists and teachers conceptualize number sense? (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1880/119110
dc.identifier.uri	https://doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/46706
dc.language.iso	en
dc.publisher.faculty	Graduate Studies
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.subject	number sense
dc.subject	math education
dc.subject	school psychology
dc.subject	mathematics development
dc.subject	professional collaboration
dc.subject	teacher knowledge about number sense
dc.subject	conceptual metaphor theory
dc.subject.classification	Education
dc.subject.classification	Education--Mathematics
dc.subject.classification	Psychology
dc.title	Finding a Common Discourse: How do School Psychologists and Teachers Conceptualize Number Sense?
dc.type	doctoral thesis
thesis.degree.discipline	Education Graduate Program – Educational Psychology
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.thesis.accesssetbystudent	I do not require a thesis withhold – my thesis will have open access and can be viewed and downloaded publicly as soon as possible.