Monitoring the nomological network of number sense studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the bibliometric analysis of number sense studies over the past 30 years and monitor the trend regarding the nomological network accordingly. All the published articles in Web of Science database, containing the term number sense between 1990 and 2019, constituted the focus of the study. In the analysis of 448 articles, the distance-based bibliometric maps and the clusters were created by VOSviewer so that they provide information about the existence of nomological networks and the occurrence of the number sense-related concepts. The results of the study indicated that the terms of number sense-related studies were clustered in four groups depending on the degree of the relationships among them. The groups were identified as recognition of number sense to define clearly (recognition), evaluating the number sense to support (evaluation), associating the number sense with other skills and abilities to increase the success (association) and promoting number sense to improve instruction (promotion). This study put forth evidence to list the interrelated terms, to show the close relationship among the terms, to emphasize the diversity, to reveal the intertwining and to show the richness of number sense.