The Most effective way to develop Number Sense in young children – Socratic Dialogue

From working one-on-one with thousands of young students the last 15 years, my team has found that the most effective way to develop number sense is using Socratic Dialogue in an intentional, methodical progression.

Instead of one-way instructor->student lecture, the Socratic method of teaching is a style that uses conversation-prompting questions that makes the learning experience much more interactive, engaging and thoughtful for the student. You can easily google the many benefits of Socratic Method teaching style. When it comes to developing number sense in young children, there are 3 aspects about the Socratic Dialogue method I want to emphasize here:

1. The instructor teaches by asking questions not by giving out rules. This forces the student to engage, think more, explain more, defend her reasoning and assumptions, make new discoveries. All this happens because Socratic questioning increases a student’s AWARENESS. Developing number sense is different from memorizing the capitals of the world. It’s not about taking in knowledge. It’s about the child making sense of the number world and developing mental constructs on how to operate in it. ?? Said “number sense is not taught. It’s caught”.
2. The student’s answers drive the instructor’s questioning, so it’s very individualized. No two series of questioning is the same because no two children will answer identically. Ever dialogue is individualized to the child’s thinking path. Here’s an example of me tying to teach the concept of Doubles + 1. ( 6 + 7 is really 6 doubled, plus 1).
3. Instructor: Hey, Sophie, what’s 6 doubled?
4. Sophie: That’s easy. 12. I love getting 6 doubled in Monopoly.
5. Combine it with manipulative and you amp up the effectiveness of Socratic dialogue.
6. It cannot be done in the school classroom.