Whether working with big numbers or small numbers. There’s no arguing that calculators are better at calculating than humans are. If calculators save students hours of staring at multiplication tables, or anxiety over timed tests, I’m all in favor. This is why memorization is mostly ineffective as a long-term learning strategy. And to discard information that we don’t use regularly. But our brains are designed to remember the things we use on a regular basis. On the other side are the beliefs that learning occurs naturally, and that students of any age are capable of conceptual learning. And they believe memorization is the way to accumulate this information. They argue that we can’t teach students deep thinking until they have accumulated an arsenal of factual information. The role of memorization in school remains a hotly debated subject.Īt one extreme, you have strict traditionalists. Lesson Plans and Classroom Activities Adding Decimals to Hundreths with Base-10 Blocks | Digital Visual Models $3.00 Add to cart By incorporating technology, we can help students learn math while developing technology skills. Learning to use tools appropriately is both a life skill and a mathematical practice standard. I might even use an online mortgage calculator. And I’m certainly using a calculator to figure it out. When I’m house-hunting, I want to know what my mortgage payment will be. In the real world, having a calculator is an advantage. Does learning in schools match learning in the outside world? Do the ways we measure learning predict real-world success?Īllowing students to use calculators is one small way to address these issues. This problem relates closely to the authenticity problem. Many students wonder whether the things they learn will benefit them in the outside world. And it helps students understand which rules are most important. But limiting the number of rules saves our time. Students can’t hit each other or throw things around the room. Some rules are necessary to create an environment that supports learning. If we want students to become motivated, creative thinkers, we need to give them more opportunities to make decisions. As a result, students feel less ownership of their learning. When we’re focused on enforcing rules, we create classrooms that are more teacher-centered and less student-centered. The more we create, the more we have to enforce. So with that in mind, here are four reasons why teachers should allow students to use calculators in class. It’s not like there are enough days in the school year to teach grade level content and foundations from prior years, right? Letting them use a calculator for basic operations can help some of these struggling learners access more advanced concepts. Our students have a natural aversion to “do as I say, not as I do” rules, and this can sure seem like one of them.īesides, it can seem impossible to teach concepts like exponents and inverse operations, if our students struggle with basic arithmetic. So there’s something a bit unnatural about not allowing our students to use them.

I take out my phone and get a quick and easy answer. But when I can’t solve a problem mentally, I don’t whip out paper and pencil and start doing long division. I use a calculator all the time in my daily life. There’s something authentic about allowing our students to use calculators. Four Reasons to Allow Calculators in Your Math Class Let’s look at four reasons you should allow calculators in your math class, and another four reasons to keep them tucked away. But they can also prevent students from developing mathematical fluency. Calculators have the potential to improve the classroom experience for many students. Should we prevent students from using a resource that can make their lives (and ours) so much easier?Īs with most questions in education, there is no single right answer. Adults use calculators all the time in the real world. I’ve seen middle and high school students use calculators to answer questions like ‘7 x 0,’ or ‘4 + 1.’ When students use calculators for these questions, even the most permissive educators bristle.īut calculators can also be a useful tool. Most of us know all the ways calculators can be misused in math class. Have you ever wanted to start a riot at a math teachers convention? Just ask one simple question: “Should students be allowed to use calculators in math class?”

Basic math calculator