The Number Sense

"Dehaene is the godfather of a new wave of thinking about math instruction. More and more neuroscientists believe we’re born with “gut number sense”, an ancient and unlearned sense of numbers. All kinds of animals have it, pigeons have it, monkeys have it. It’s an evolutionary skill, the ability to quickly size up bunches of bananas and know which one contains the most. Gut number sense is the ability to rapidly estimate numbers and add, subtract or even divide in your head. Gut number sense is the rebar for math. It’s not the ability to execute algorithms, it’s the underlying understanding of basic principles. When schools teach math they tend to ignore that number sense. Dehaene argues that the way math is taught must be better aligned with the way we naturally absorb arithmetic. We know that kids have varying degrees of gut number sense. We know that the kids who have the strongest gut number sense end up doing very well in math. But researchers now are investigating what role gut number sense should play. This wave of research is cresting and it will start coming into the classroom and if you read The Number Sense you will understand what has inspired the new wave of math instruction. Progressive thinkers are already trying to build on top of the math sense we’re born with, by giving equal emphasis to the concepts behind the algorithm and the execution of the algorithm. In countries where kids perform much better on math tests, they don’t see math as a talent, they see it as a muscle that you build. Research bears that out; it shows that practice builds math ability."