Subject: Re: [MATHEDCC] Assessment
From: Lawrence Gilligan (larry.gilligan@uc.edu)
Date: Wed Feb 09 2000 - 15:03:06 EST
Bob -
An interesting observation.... the debate goes on. One change I would make
is to delete the words "reasonably bright" from your last paragraph.
Larry Gilligan
At 09:13 PM 2/8/00 -0600, Bob Leibman wrote:
>At 1:06 PM -0500 2/8/00, Alton Amidon wrote:
>>And the problem goes further. Our Community College graduates going on to
>>a four-year college or university or often restricted in calculator use in
>>higher level Mathematics, Science, and Engineering courses.
>>
>>Al
>>
>>Alton Amidon
>>P.O. Box 185
>>5049 Highway 306 South
>>Grantsboro NC 28529
>>252-249-1851
>>FAX 252-249-2377
>>
>>>>> "Paula >>>
>>Dorrit:
>>
>>This is one battle looming that I have not tackled. The high schools tell
>>us that we are undoing much of what they have accomplished if we do not
allow
>>students to use scientific calculators on our placement tests. I concur, but
>>have not mounted the energy to fight this particular battle.
>>
>>Paula
>>
>>
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>
>
>I know that I am going to sound like a reactionary, but I am wondering just
>what it is that those who use calculators in their teaching think that they
>have done and, therefore, what it is the those people at the next level are
>"undoing."
>
>If the calculator is used to allow the student to learn through exploration
>and thus make the concepts being studied "their own" this is great. If it
>permits them to handle a greater variety of problems without the
>restrictions of being limited to those which are easily done by means of
>the algebra which we teach, that too is great.
>
>I wonder, however, why, at the end of the course, that same student should
>not be expected to do the simpler problems for which calculators are not
>necessary with the same ease as those who did not have the benefit of
>learning with a calculator.
>
>I just noticed that the original comment was referring to scientific
>calculators rather than graphing calculators, but I think the same idea
>holds - the computations involved would presumably be easy enough to
>reasonably expect hand calculation - or the answers would be such that a
>reasonable estimate should make the correct answer clear.
>
>I say this on a day in which a reasonably bright student in Elementary
>Algebra could not tell me what 6% of $100 is, could not multiply 0.06($100)
>because she didn't have her calculator - and wouldn't even try.
>
>Bob Leibman
>Austin Community College
>
>
>
>
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