I’m wondering if any study has documented that it is recommended that a high school LD student should be able to use the calculator, even if they have not mastered the basics. This would include for things as simple as multiplication tables or even up to adding or subtracting decimals. After years of frustration, it would appear to be the just thing to do to help them move on with their math education.
Re: use of the calculator for LD students
You’ll find all kinds of debate on this topic. Basically, calculators haven’t been around long enough and there are just too many other variables involved for a definitive “yes or no” answer to be there.
In my experience, many students who “don’t have the basics” have pretty serious holes in their understanding; it’s a minority who have specific recall issues. The calculators do help them “move on” but math tends to remain a strange symbolic ritual done at school, not something they comprehend.
mixed results
Sue makes a very good point that without basic understanding of math concepts, math becomes a weird magical mystical ritual with no connection to the real world.
Use of calculators in math is something that needs judgement.
There is an old-fashioned saying - it’s a good servant but a bad master.
If you are in charge and the calculator is a tool to help you speed up mechanical or time-consuming or repetitive calculations, wonderful; this is why calculators are standard in advanced math and science classes.
But if the calculator is in charge and you are just a trained animal pushing the buttons, then you have a real problem.
Ask yourself if the skill being practiced can be remembered without constant coaching and cramming — ten-step button-pushing rituals won’t last a day past the test; and if it has any application in the real world — learning all the steps to long division with the calculator at hand is just doing the job the slowest and hardest way possible, since if you want to divide with the calculator, you just do it. If the skill has possible retention and application, and if the student can tell you why he’s doing this process, then the calculator can be a real help. If you’re just trying to find a way to fill out more tons of blanks, then it’s not worth the kid’s time.
Re: mixed results
I do not believe in calculators for basic math. I see too many young people in my area even Gettysburg College students working in local business who can’t make basic change unless the register tells them the answer.
I think learning math teaches more than math it is reasoning and memorization as well.
agree with you
Yes, that was my point. AFTER you know what numbers are and how they work, a calculator can be useful, for example in averaging fifteen marks each for a class of thirty students. But if you don’t know what an average is, using the calculator will just help you make mistakes faster.
I taught college math for several years, and yes, you cannot reach student who is sitting in a college class with Grade 3 thinking skills. Far too many of my students started pushing buttons before they had even read the question they were supposed to answer.
In the modern world, calculators are everywhere — I saw some in the dollar store the other day. So it’s important to teach students how to use them sensibly. AFTER learning what a number is.
I can’t speak to studies on this but I can say we had a student that we did this with. After years of trying, it seemed impossible for her to memorize basic math facts but with the calculator, she was able to compute correct answers. She was able to learn the steps of an operation even though not able to remember number facts - especially multiplication tables.