Discovery of Number Sense

Discovery of Number Sense

Until very recently, there was very little awareness of either Number Sense or its importance. Children were supposed to start schooling with almost no prior knowledge of math. All the math, children had to learn, was supposed to be taught at school.

Math was considered a difficult subject. There were always some children who had difficulty with math. This difficulty was mostly attributed to a lack of intelligence or effort.

As the world became more technical & digital, the criticality of math education was realized. Research was undertaken as to why some children find even elementary math concepts very difficult to grasp.

Researchers realised that in some children, the difficulty could not just be attributed to a lack of effort or intelligence.

Neuroscience research seems to indicate that the part of the brain which is related to magnitude actually has two parts; one which judges how much and the other which judges how many.

Dr B Butterworth, author of “The Mathematical Brain” suggests that there seems to be a “numerosity module” or the "how many" area in our brain specialised for dealing with numerical representations.

Numerosity Module

Research also revealed that even at very young ages, much before the start of school, children could visually discriminate groups of things less than five.

This ability was called "number sense" and it was hypothesized that it originates from the “how many” area of the brain.

But due to evolutionary reasons, the “how many” area in our brains does not develop as much as the “how much” area.

The idea of under-development of "number sense" in the "numerosity module" helped educators to understand the math-learning-issues faced by many children.

It is only recently that these ideas have received a lot of attention from math educators and learning psychologists.

Research also led to the discovery of the condition of Dyscalculia which was found to cause severe difficulties in young children even in identifying numbers as small as 1 to 5 perceptually.

Research also led to the development of simple math tasks of subitizing & discrimination to identify dyscalculia in very young children.

Today math educators & psychologists agree that the skill of Number Sense is most critical to understanding math.

Number Sense in Animals

Research is proving that even other living beings like birds, insects, animals and fish have at least a rudimentary number sense.

Bees seem to have an understanding that the hexagonal shape provides the maximum area with a minimum perimeter! Hexagon also gives sufficient strength to the hive to support honey which is a very dense liquid. According to one study, bees can also grasp the concept of zero.

Some fish draw extraordinarily symmetric & complex diagrams on the ocean floor to attract mates. Dolphins seem to understand the concept of "less".

Birds seem to be able to identify numbers up to 4 or 5. When an egg is removed from its nest, from a collection of 4 or 5 eggs, the bird gets agitated. But when the collection of eggs in the nest is more than 6 or 7, the birds do not seem to be aware of the missing egg. So, their ability to subitize does not seem to extend beyond 5 or 6.

Pigeons can be trained to peck a certain number of times on a board.

Spider webs seem to be designed with geometrical principles which give them the needed strength.

It is only in humans that number sense develops into a very sophisticated skill.

It is only recently that scientists have started researching intelligence in animals. The research is likely to reveal the variety of intelligences animals have. Logico-mathematical intelligence would surely be a major aspect of animal intelligence. Their number sense is just the tip of the iceberg.