The development of foundational number sense in England and Hungary : A case study comparison

Foundational number sense - being able to operate flexibly with number and quantity - is a predictor of later mathematical achievement. In this paper, drawing on lessons on number sequences to grade 1 children, we examine how two teachers, one English and one Hungarian, construed locally as effective, created opportunities for children to develop foundational number sense. The Hungarian teacher, in ways typical of that country’s mathematics teaching tradition, offered frequent and coherent opportunities for students to develop foundational number sense. The English teacher, working in a tradition whereby interactive technology increasingly mediates classroom discourse, offered few and less coherent opportunities, masked by the teacher’s frequent attention to display features of the technology.