Computational Estimation Procedures of School Children

Abstract

AbstractThe necessity for developing computational estimation procedures has been well established. However, the teaching of this skill has been neglected in schools. There is little information available on the cognitive processes used by most school-aged children when doing estimation problems. In this study, 26 middle school students, representing a variety of backgrounds and achievement levels, were individually asked to estimate answers to 12 computational problems and explain how they obtained their answers. They were not allowed to use writing materials. Results indicate that estimation skills are highly dependent upon a student’s "number sense."