Personal Number Sense and New Zealand Pre-Service Teachers

Abstract

This study investigated the results of a personal number sense assessment completed by 1253 students enrolled in the first year of pre-service teacher education between 2010 and 2013. The personal number sense assessment consisted of 10 short questions requiring solutions to addition and subtraction problems. Problems were selected to promote mental calculations using strategies that implied the use of number sense. Analysis of the data revealed that the scores gained by the pre-service teachers were not necessarily consistent with the University entrance requirements for numeracy. Findings suggest that personal number sense could make a difference to the outcome of pre-service teachers’ final grades for the first year mathematics education course. The implications of these findings for initial teacher education providers are presented.