Discuss the concept of numerically powerful students and identify ways that teachers might promote numerical power in their instruction.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Responses should include:
• Numerically powerful students use procedural strategies accurately and now how to make sense of numerical and quantitative situations.
• Teachers who promote numerical power in their instruction implement the following:
o provide sufficient opportunities to develop meaning for numbers and operations before teaching computational algorithms or basic facts
o provide frequent opportunities to estimate and use mental math strategies
o encourage multiple solution approaches
o encourage students to communicate their reasoning
o solicit and address students’ ideas
o create an atmosphere of sense-making
o develop concepts and skills through problem-solving
o provide opportunities to demonstrate numerical reasoning during instruction and practice
o assist students in connecting numbers to the quantities that the numbers are used to measure
o encourage students to develop logic and reasoning as verification.
• The characteristics of a numerically powerful student provide a backdrop to the mathematical skills all students need to develop.
Learning Objective: Describe the types of difficulties students with high-incidence disabilities may encounter in learning mathematics and accompanying strategies to facilitate student learning.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Number Sense and Numerical Power