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Unfortunately, the research indicated that calculators were still being used for trivial things like checking answers and were making little difference in mathematics education.Īlthough teachers indicated their support for the use of calculators across all levels of primary school, there was little evidence that these ideas were being taken up and implemented. In a 1997 review of the extent to which calculators were being used in schools, numerous studies were examined that indicated the use of calculators at primary levels had no detrimental effects on students’ arithmetic abilities. For example, what happens when you multiply or divide a number by 10 or 100? These generalisations are spectacularly demonstrated and discovered with a calculator, which frees students to ask more questions about number patterns. Author providedĬalculators have great potential in concept development. In the diagram below the child is exploring the pattern made by entering 11+11 and continuing to press the Equals sign to see what happens to the pattern once you count beyond 99 by elevens. Multiplication tables are no longer limited to 12 x 12. Skip-counting is also possible using the constant function. The “constant” function means young children can explore numbers to infinity, if they fancy, without being restricted to charts or number lines. The calculator lets students investigate and generalise patterns in numbers that they have previously not had access to. Even the simple four-function calculator is a powerful instrument for investigating a range of concepts that previously were not so easily accessed by young children independently.Ĭounting, skip counting, negative numbers, relationships between common and decimal fractions and other number patterns all open up. Rather than replacing mental computation, calculators actually make calculating more efficient.

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While standard procedures for the four operations (+, -, x, ÷) would still be taught and the basic facts of arithmetic would still need to be mastered, calculators could facilitate the study of number patterns and the absence of tedious calculations would free students up to pose, model and solve interesting and relevant problems. Teachers had high hopes that calculators would be used in enhancing and extending the learning of mathematics. Studies have found the use of calculators doesn’t reduce the ability to compute in our heads. An earlier US study had found the same: the calculator had no positive or negative effects on the attainment of basic maths skills. Research conducted in response to this found little difference in performance tests whether students used calculators or not.

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As recently as 2012, the UK government announced it intended to ban calculators from primary classrooms on the grounds that students use them too much and too soon. The controversy has not dissipated over time. Multiplication, basic facts, knowledge would disappear.

The sceptics predicted students would not be able to compute even simple calculations mentally or on paper. Thirty years ago calculators promised immense opportunity – opportunity, alas, that brought considerable controversy. So does this ubiquitous access to calculators affect our ability to do maths in our heads like we used to?

Today, we can include computers and smartphones – which are attached to our hip 24/7. Since the 1980s we have had access to calculators of various types.

Arithmetic equation maker