Story time:
When I was in grade seven, I was in an enriched program in the Durham District School Board. We had just received a math test back, and my friend had failed. I asked him why he did so poorly, and he told me it was because he had forgotten his calculator at home. His downfall was division - he could not remember how to divide using a calculator. I didn't have a calculator, and so I taught him at recess how to do long division.
Fast forward, and now I am a supply teacher. I have tutored grade nine and ten students in math, have substituted for math teachers, and worked in Additional Resource settings with students and the one common thread between the students struggling in math is the inability to do simple calculations without a calculator. When a student is asked to convert 1/2 into a decimal, and reaches for a calculator, that is cause for some alarm.
I know what you're thinking. A calculator is a tool, and an incredibly useful one at that, and I understand that there are certain scenarios in which they are necessary. What Is detrimental to student learning is when a calculator, or any piece of technology, becomes a crutch.
So here is my modest proposal: we ban calculators from elementary school (with a caveat). Once students hit grade nine, and begin to work with trigonometry, a calculator becomes impossible to ignore. With basic algebra, however, students should be learning how to solve simple equations, rather than how to input the question into a calculator. There are some sticking points in the curriculum, however. Pythagorean theorem in grade eight, for example, poses a problem with root functions. So the caveat is that calculators should not be allowed in the classroom other than a class set, to be used at the teacher's discretion.
I agree with you on the problems calculators create in classroom. However, I do feel that in the world we live today, things such as long division, are not problematic and students can simply use calculators to solve them. Yes they should be taught the skill set to do these questions without them but they should not be banned. Outside the classroom, we all have access to calculator whether it be on our phones. A year ago I used to believe that calculators were a problem but I have realized that we rarely do math in our head outside of the classroom. Everyone simply use the calculator. I feel that students should be taught the basic skills to do stuff without calculators ( they should know what fraction 1/2) is but they should be allowed to use calculators when they have other complex questions in which the objective is not to test their multiplication or division but to see if the understand the concept.
ReplyDeleteMy husband will readily agree that he was given a calculator at too young an age, and that was back in the early 90's. I can only imagine that it has gotten worse since then. I totally support your proposal!
ReplyDeleteI am teaching adults in an adult upgrading program this summer, and the main thing we focus on is the math skills taught at younger years, multiplication, division, addition and subtraction, all done on paper without a calculator. I find that if you don't use it, you lose it, and in students, after they're given a calculator, they lose their basic math skills. I tutor students in high school math, and many of them have to go to their calculator to reduce fractions, or to figure out the combinations for factors when factoring simple or complex trinomials. I'm sometimes a bit speechless, and say "you don't need a calculator, just use your brain!"
ReplyDeleteHey Alex,
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say your ban on calculators is outlandish at all! I tutor both elementary and high school students in math. I tell all of my parents that have elementary aged children, not to introduce a calculator to them until grade 9. Too often have I witnessed students scrambling in grade 8 to recite simple multiplication facts. Instead, they reach for the calculator. Whatever happened to mental math?