Measurement, development, and stimulation of computational estimation abilities in kindergarten and primary education: A systematic literature review

For several decades computational estimation is seen as an important topic in primary mathematics education. While previous narrative literature reviews on computational estimation summarized the available research on computational estimation abilities in students and adults, the present systematic literature review focuses on the measurement, development, and stimulation of computational estimation abilities in kindergartners and primary school children. Reviewing 28 studies revealed that these abilities were mostly investigated from 8-years old onwards by using a variety of measures. Age-related improvements in estimation performance and strategy use were observed in most studies. Only very few studies addressed the targeted stimulation of computational estimation abilities. The current review identified several gaps in the research literature, such as the absence of studies investigating the relationship between computational estimation performance and other basic numerical and mathematical abilities in children, and the paucity of longitudinal studies on the development of computational estimation ability.