Performance and Strategies of Pre-service Kuwaiti Teachers in Computational Estimation

Abstract

This study examined pre-service teachers’’ ability to use computational estimation to estimate answers for mathematics problems and the strategies they use in estimating an answer. A sample of 99 pre-service teachers enrolled in the College of Education at Kuwait University completed a computational estimation test. The mean score was lower than 20% (5.56 out of 28 possible points). There was no statistical difference between elementary and secondary pre-service teachers. Interviews with 38 of the pre-service teachers revealed that they used a limited number of strategies in estimating an answer. The most common strategy was rounding numbers in the problem to the nearest 10, 100, or 1000. Many relied on ineffective strategies; the most common ineffective strategy was using paper and pencil calculations to determine an exact answer.