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August 19, 2008Calculators Okay in Math Class, If Students Know the Facts First |
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From Ascribe Newsfeed: Calculators are useful tools in elementary mathematics classes, if students already have some basic skills, new research has found. The findings shed light on the debate about whether and when calculators should be used in the classroom. Rittle-Johnson and co-author Alexander Kmicikewycz, who completed the work as his undergraduate honors thesis at Peabody, found that the level of a student's knowledge of mathematics facts was the determining factor in whether a calculator hindered his or her learning. "The study indicates technology such as calculators can help kids who already have a strong foundation in basic skills," Kmicikewycz, now a teacher in New York City public schools, said. "For students who did not know many multiplication facts, generating the answers on their own, without a calculator, was important and helped their performance on subsequent tests," Rittle-Johnson added. The researchers compared third graders' performance on multiplication problems after they had spent a class period working on other multiplication problems. But for those who were not good at multiplying, use of the calculator had a negative impact on their performance. The researchers also found that the students using calculators were able to practice more problems and had fewer errors. "It's a good tool that some teachers shy away from, because they are worried it's going to have negative consequences," Rittle-Johnson said. Rittle-Johnson is an investigator in the Learning Sciences Institute and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development. U.S. News & World Report ranked Vanderbilt's Peabody College the No. 2 education school in the nation in 2008. For more information about Peabody, visit http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu.
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