Number Sense and Number Nonsense: Understanding the Challenges of Learning Math

Great book. It was a very helpful read and something I’ll keep in my collection.

I utilize "Number Sense and Number Nonsense" in a graduate class focused on training teachers to work with bright children with learning struggles. The book is a rarity in that it combines school-based research with an understanding of how children learn math. It seems to me that the authors understand that the future of quality education will rely on a deep understanding of the profile of each student, rather than solely on the demands of a prescribed curriculum. A direction suggested logically but subtlely in "Number Sense and Number Nonsense" requires that teachers understand both the profiles of their students and how to brain makes sense of math. All over this country, we have teachers who do not have a strong number sense (how quantities relate to each other, how to flexibly build models of what numbers mean) placed in front of children who deserve excellent math education. This book reveals how devastating this can be for America's children (especially those who do not learn math easily), and it recommends a more promising pathway forward.

Very useful survey of what is known about mathematics cognition and mathematical learning disorders. It is careful, comprehensive, and well-referenced. Most important to me, the authors understand the limitations of research design, the problem of defining "intelligence", "disorder", etc, and the difficulty of teasing out environmental, social, and emotional factors. This is important research, work that should be better known.

One of best researched, easy to read books on math difficulties. Many other books of this kind focus on promoting a particular teaching method. Often they aren't representative of the scientific literature, choosing only those studies that support their particular theory. Others are focused narrowly on special education. This book is the first I've read that helps the reader to get an overview of how mathematical thinking develops in children and the specific ways things can go awry.

The authors primarily attempt to synthesize the scant literature on learning mathematics. They should have waited for more literature to be published or used their time to do their own study because they pretty much repeat the fact that "more future research is needed" over and over. Further, their writing is full of jargon. Their message gets lost in the arduous task of translating their writing into useful, everyday language. This book provides very little practical value to busy educators working with students with disabilities. Do not waste your money on this book.

I deal daily with elementary school students and number sense problems. I have done more research on my own than the writers of this book in to actually teaching students. If you are a beginner into the number sense problem this book is a good place to start; however, If you are looking for strategies to solve the problem look else where.

Current research in fairly simple language. Not as dense as Dehaene's "The Number Sense," but fairly comprehensive. A must-read for math educators.

I have over twenty years experience as a teacher. This book provides the most astute compilation of foundational mathematics learning that is currently available. A must-read for any educator.