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American Teacher March 2001--Speakout
Yes One of the most debilitating fads to sweep American public schools in the last decade has been the heavy use of calculators, especially in elementary schools. According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS, use of calculators in U.S. fourth-grade mathematics classes is about twice the international average. In six of the seven top-scoring nations in the study, teachers of 85 percent or more of the students report that students never use calculators in class. Even at the eighth-grade level, the majority of students from three of the top five scoring nations in the TIMSS study (Belgium, Korea, Japan) never or rarely used calculators in math classes. In Singapore, which is also among the top five scoring countries, students do not use calculators before grade 7. By contrast, the majority of students from 10 of the 11 lowest scoring nations, including the United States, used calculators almost every day. Middle and high school math teachers frequently complain about their students' lack of basic skills. According to one informal estimate from the Los Angeles Times, 60 percent of Los Angeles Unified School District eighth-graders do not know the multiplication tables. Even universities are forced to run remedial math classes at unprecedented levels, including classes in arithmetic for entering freshmen. This intolerable state of affairs can be laid at the doorstep of the uncritical use of calculators in elementary schools. As with other unsound education practices, like whole language learning, rampant calculator use has been promoted by the nations' colleges of education. As a rule of thumb, it is best to ignore the advice of education professors. There is evidence that calculators have had a particularly negative impact on minority students. A recent study by the Brookings Institution--a Washington, D.C., think tank--found that half of all African-American fourth-graders nationwide and 44 percent of fourth-grade Hispanics use calculators every day, compared to only 27 percent of whites. Analyzing data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, the Brookings Institution also found that daily calculator users scored lower than less frequent users, both overall and within each ethnic group. Even without this data, calculators make about as much sense for students in the lower grades as cell phones do. Arithmetic is a rich and beautiful subject. Not only is it essential for adult life, it contains the seeds of algebra and other more advanced mathematical topics. Arithmetic should be taught without apology and without calculators. Challenging concepts are almost always better explained using easy numbers rather than "calculator numbers" like 13.267899. In math classes, calculators should be used sparingly and only for specific purposes for grades 6-12, and not at all in grades K-5. David Klein is a professor of mathematics at California State University, Northridge. He has served in advisory capacities for the California Board of Education as well as the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Calculators are not merely "computational crutches." In the primary grades, calculators can enhance the learning of basic facts. Calculator use is a skill; as such, it must be taught early and practiced at regular intervals. That point is made convincingly by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, a strong advocate of calculator use at all grade levels. NCTM analyzed 79 different research studies and found that "students who use calculators along with traditional instruction can improve their basic skills with paper and pencil, both in basic operations and in problem solving." The organization also concluded that, at all grade and ability levels, students who use calculators possess a better attitude toward mathematics. My participation in the Thinking Math program, part of the AFT's Educational Research and Dissemination program, has given me opportunities to discuss the use of calculators as a strong motivational tool for students. Calculators help children focus on the problem-solving process. They relieve the drudgery of drill, and for many students remove the anxiety felt during math class. Teachers suggest that calculators "level the playing field" for their students. For many of these students, time constraints hinder learning. They may possess the skill and knowledge of a particular mathematical process, but speed is an obstacle. Calculators provide the confidence needed to achieve and also make these students more efficient. Cooperative groups lend themselves most readily to the use of calculators. Students may be organized into competing teams, giving calculators to selective members or to one team member who serves as an "answer box." Their role will be to check the group's work--in the process illustrating to the students that procedures strictly must be followed in order to solve the problem. And students will be very aware of the truism that calculators are tools only as good as the skill of the user. As a former elementary classroom math teacher, I have used calculators at all grade levels. I know that calculators should never be used as a "quick fix." They should be used to verify a mathematical process. The student must have a clear knowledge of the procedure to support his or her answer. This type of use fits well into the NCTM standards. But, used wisely, calculators can be a valuable part of the elementary math teacher's arsenal. Cause-and-effect relations become more visible with calculators. They can be used to learn counting and numeration patterns, practice the basic facts in both the additive and multiplicative structure, see patterns and promote number sense. Calculators promote the understanding of mathematical processes. They help balance conceptual and procedural learning. Calculators effectively support and advance the learning of mathematics in students of all abilities and educational levels. Youngsters in the lower elementary grades will be able to perform more advanced problem solving with the use of calculators. Teachers, then, become empowered to adjust the time line of the math program. There is no question: Calculators deserve a place in the elementary classroom. Frank Cicci, a classroom teacher for 33 years, is currently a strand coordinator for the AFT's Thinking Math program and adjunct professor at East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University.
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