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Role of calculators in secondary school
Role of calculators in secondary school
What is the importance of using calculators
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As everyone grows up, everyone has to take a Math class from Kindergarten to twelfth grade. At the early stage of math classes, most of the problems were solved by using pencil and paper. Eventually, calculators took over the method of using pencil and paper. Calculators were first made in 1642 by a French mathematician, Blaise Pascal. According to the article, “Who Made the First Calculator,” calculators were created for the usage of helping a person add and subtract numbers without using their hands (“Who made the first calculator”). However, they were not introduced into classrooms due to the cost, size, and appearance of the calculator. Eventually they became sleeker and less expensive. Ever since then students started to use them in and out of classrooms. However, the practice of using calculators in the classroom has been a continuing debate since the introduction of calculators. There are many advantages and disadvantages to allowing educators and students to use calculators within the classroom. However, calculators should not be used in class rooms unless it is necessary, due to the student becoming dependent on the calculator.
Problem solving is an essential skill that all individuals must learn in order to be a successful human within the society. Therefore, the skill is taught from an early age, and is built upon throughout the academic years. In grade school, students learn addition and subtraction which is taught using paper and pencil. It is not until middle school and high school when students are taught more complex math problems and are able to use calculators to make the process faster. According to an article, “Using calculator in elementary math,” it states that a calculator is a tool to do calculations, but...
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...ous basis for instruction and assessment (Calculators: Good or Bad). Calculators have become a part of our curriculum and students need to be taught how to properly use the technology as our world continues to become a more efficient place.
Overall, calculators should only be used when it is necessary. Many people think that calculators is not a problem; however, they never really took the time to look at it. With this new generation of technology, teachers will have to limit the use of calculators. If not then, students will learn to depend more on calculators instead of their own human brain. If this problem is not fixed, soon everyone will depend on technology and forget the method of actually trying to do it on their own. So students should not be allowed to use the calculator until they tried their best to figure out the question or only use it when necessary.
...o get attracted by easy and quick ways of learning things. If the technology provides easy and attractive solutions to students, they will get addicted to it and overuse it in ways which can certainly drop the educational standards. Gelernter disagrees with the comment made by a school principle, “Drilling addition and subtraction in an age of calculators is a waste of time.” (279). He revels the bitter truth where American students are not fully prepared for college because they have poorly developed basic skills. In contrast to this reality, he comments, “No wonder Japanese kids blow the pants of American kids in math.” (280). He provides the information from Japanese educator that in Japan, kids are not allowed to use calculators till high school. Due to this, Japanese kids build strong foundation of basic math skills which make them perform well in mathematics.
Gelernter has very straight forward honest facts which help to accurately explain his views on using technology to teach students. Computers can be a very useful tool when used in moderation. A computer should never replace a teacher however, but simply be used as a tool. I think the author’s rhetorical situation provided great facts, and hard evidence which strongly supported his argument. How can we continue to evolve as a species when we solely rely on technology and do not think for ourselves, but instead type in our questions in google expecting an answer? We simply cannot, as he states in his essay, “While we worry about basic skills, we allow into the classroom software that will do a student’s arithmetic or correct his spelling” (Gelernter
For most people who have ridden the roller coaster of primary education, subtracting twenty-three from seventy is a piece of cake. In fact, we probably work it out so quickly in our heads that we don’t consciously recognize the procedures that we are using to solve the problem. For us, subtraction seems like something that has been ingrained in our thinking since the first day of elementary school. Not surprisingly, numbers and subtraction and “carry over” were new to us at some point, just like everything else that we know today. For Gretchen, a first-grader trying to solve 70-23, subtraction doesn’t seem like a piece of cake as she verbalizes her confusion, getting different answers using different methods. After watching Gretchen pry for a final solution and coming up uncertain, we can gain a much deeper understanding for how the concept of subtraction first develops and the discrepancies that can arise as a child searches for what is correct way and what is not.
He states: “Over the last decade an estimated $2 billion has been spent on more than 2 million computers for America’s classroom.”(Gelernter 97) Gelernter starts his article by giving a data about computer to shows how much money people spends computer in school. By giving a legitimate fact right from the beginning of his article, Gelernter easily get his audience attention and make them little more interested in what he is going to say about how computers can make a big impact in everyone’s life. And this fact itself works as proof to prove to his audience that the topic he is talking about is realistic because they are not debatable; they represent the truth. Gelernter also uses logos to prove his point about how calculators make student forget about their basic math skills. Gelernter says, “In Kentucky, as The Wall Street Journal recently reported, students in grades K-3 are mixed together regardless of age in relaxed environment. It works great, the Journal says. Yes, scores on computation tests have dropped 10 percent at one school.”(98) The author did his research and see that using calculator in such young age can really affect student, calculators make student have a lower grade than average even though it supposed to help students in the first place. He continues his argument by comparing Japanese kids and American kids and how Japanese kids are so much better in math than American
Calculators, computers, appliances, and many more things were created to help us. “The tools we use to think change the way in which we think” (Turkle). This point that Sherry Turkle made in her article and it is true, in a way. Computers do things for us and to us, that is also true. Some people like to blame technology for a lot of things and they could be in the right or in the wrong for it. “Technology does not determine change, but it encourages us to take certain directions” (Turkle). Calculators, for example, are only a tool and people will blame them when the answer they get is wrong. They are wrong though, since calculators are only a tool, it means that they are the ones that messed up. If they had done it by hand, there is a 99% chance that they would have done it wrong
...Raskind and Stanberry (2010) state, “the auditory feedback may help a student check the accuracy of the keys he presses and verify the answer” (p. 1), which clarifies that these special calculators can positively affect students.
Mathematics has become a very large part of society today. From the moment children learn the basic principles of math to the day those children become working members of society, everyone has used mathematics at one point in their life. The crucial time for learning mathematics is during the childhood years when the concepts and principles of mathematics can be processed more easily. However, this time in life is also when the point in a person’s life where information has to be broken down to the very basics, as children don’t have an advanced capacity to understand as adults do. Mathematics, an essential subject, must be taught in such a way that children can understand and remember.
To investigate the notion of numeracy, I approach seven people to give their view of numeracy and how it relates to mathematics. The following is a discussion of two responses I receive from this short survey. I shall briefly discuss their views of numeracy and how it relates to mathematics in the light of the Australian Curriculum as well as the 21st Century Numeracy Model (Goos 2007). Note: see appendix 1 for their responses.
Over the course of these past few weeks we have learned all sorts of math that we will utilize in our everyday lives. They have all been very interesting; my favorite subjects were learning about how voting works and how to calculate owning a home. For our final math project in our math modeling class, we had to choose a topic that interested us yet had something to do with mathematics. For this presentation, I decided to research the history of math and art and how the two have been used together to create amazing artwork.
However, technology should never substitute the fundamental learning in our educational systems. Specifically, in primary school, building a firm fundamental education is crucial. Seeing children still using fingers to do simple math in second grade is not a good sign of academic improvement. Though the students may easily figure out the answers by using a calculator, before letting the children get any closer to these technical gadgets, they have to first learn to figure out the answers themselves.... ... middle of paper ... ...
As Miss White needed help to keep track of monthly payments made by the 10 pupils in her group and to keep a monthly record of individual payments, a running total for each pupil, the overall total collected each month and the average amount per pupil collected each month. The overall cost of the trip is £500 per pupil between the months of October to March excluding December.
In modern day mathematics, the use of decimals to determine accurate calculations is used in almost every situation. It is used so often that we forget that decimals haven’t always been around. They had to have come from somewhere, but where did they come from? The origination of the decimal system is often overlooked and undervalued, but the importance of decimals in modern mathematics is extremely significant. This is why Simon Stevin’s work on decimal arithmetic was such a huge impact on the advancement of mathematics. This work titled, “Disme: The Art of Tenths,” was created to simplify modern calculations for people that take the role of merchants, astronomers, measures of tapestry, and land measurers. (Stevin) Little did Stevin know, this discovery would lead to many great discoveries and would be used by mathematicians from all over the world.
...nd dynamic changes in the competitive nature of the job market, it is evident to myself that being eloquent in all aspects of numeracy tools and knowledge is imperative in the 21st Century. The calculator is one such tool for children which supports mental computation to check answers to develop independent learning, as discussed earlier. It also fits into the pre-operation developmental stage of a child to enhance their symbolic thinking, similar to that of an adults scheme of thinking, as opposed reliance on senses alone. The interviews further grounded my reasoning around my argument and allowed me to not only gain an insight to how those similar to me think and those not so similar. This investigation has strengthened my argument that the use of calculators in the primary school classroom, if used appropriately, are an invaluable tool for teaching and learning.
During my education, teachers have had many more resources available to them than they did during my Grandpa's time. Calculators, computers, and TV are everyday tools used for teaching. Teachers taught us how to use a calculator at a very early age. Since the fifth grade, I have used a computer to write or research most of my asiments. Every year, the amount of work I do on a computer increases.
A large- scale study suggested that mathematic software increase students’ engagement and test scores. Barrow et al. (2009) tested a computer program designed to improve pre-algebra and algebra skills. They found that students learn through computer lab were scores 27% ahead students on traditional classroom. Similarly Rochelle et al. (2007) found that using Sim Calc Mathworlds improves student’s understanding of mathematics. Students who used Sim Calc had a better understanding than students who study in standard class. By use of autograph, students could gain a better understanding of what gradient are, what gradient look like and how gradient formed. Use autograph to create interval between two points and form a right-angle triangle where interval as the hypotenuse of the triangle could l...