Second graders’ reflections about the number 24

Abstract

Students’ written responses to an open task were examined to identify potential indications of emerging number sense. Content analysis indicates that the number of responses given by students varied, with addition tasks being more commonly provided than tasks that involved other operations. Whereas several students refer to place value, no students mention possible applications of the number. From these findings, implications are discussed in terms of the mathematical demands that teachers are faced with when presenting such tasks in a mathematics lesson.