Gestural Number Sense: Subitizing, Composing, Counting, and Estimating

• In Event: Student Mathematics Learning Pre-K–12

Abstract

Traditional approaches to number sense insufficiently accommodate embodiment, including gestures, which can support learning when conceptually congruent. This study examined weekly video recordings of 66 4-6-year-old students regularly interacting with the multi-touch number sense app Fingu for 3-5 weeks. Iterative qualitative analyses included multiple phases of microgenetic learning analysis, analytic memoing, and eclectic coding. Four main types of gestural number sense emerged in this context: gestural subitising, gestural composing, gestural counting, and gestural estimating. These are conceptually congruent, embodied versions of number sense, and could support reconceptualizing number sense to account for embodiment.

Author

• Stephen I. Tucker