I'd been trying to get some information about views of British educators
on the use of calculators, and Professor Harry Gretton of Sheffield
Hallam University, forwarded the following message to me. I won't try
to decipher all the acronyms, but David Blunkett is the head of
education here in the UK.
Bruce Yoshiwara
(of Los Angeles Pierce College, currently teaching in England)
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Opinions - Illegal Calculating
On my lists of jobs for today, the third entry was 'write Micromath
opinion page'. I have been thinking over the last few weeks what an
appropriate subject may be for such a piece. Then this morning, as fate
would have it, the headline 'calculators banned for under eights'
appeared in the paper. This raised strange images in my mind: "No Cheri
you cannot use a calculator to add up the dinner money today, you know
you are not eight until next week - you better ask an older friend to do
it." I also wondered what was so magical about being 8 - should we have
done the groundwork by then, laid the foundations? After all, we have
been told for long enough that children should only use calculators when
they have covered all the groundwork. Perhaps there , should be a new
day in school: 'calculator day', coinciding with your eighth birthday,
when you become accepted into early adulthood and are given your first
ceremonial calculator. Clearly at eight you are now responsible enough
to use this dangerous piece of technology carefully. Reading further
into the article I read that David Blunkett had not actually banned
calculators but was discouraging their use - well what does that mean?
I suppose Governments can discourage use of calculators simply by making
statements about how they would like to discourage use of calculators.
The expectation becomes the norm.
I decided to visit the Horse's mouth: the DfEE web site. I note that
the internet is one piece of technology that is positively encouraged
and I wonder why. Surely we will all forget how to open a book if we
rely on the web to do our work, or forget how to speak if we use email.
On the DFEE site, 'Press release 353198' carried the headline '£60
million boost makes maths count - Blunkett'. I read that 'the national
numeracy strategy will see pupils in every primary school benefiting
from the new emphasis on the basics' and that one way this will come
about is through 'a ban on the use of calculators by children up to the
age of eight and restricted use throughout the remainder of primary
school'. There, that should be discouragement enough. I have already
written to my four-year-old nephew telling him to hide the calculator I
bought him and to stop pressing the buttons and reading the numbers that
appear on the display.
David Blunkett is quoted as saying, "Reinforcing mental arithmetic will
do much to avoid total dependence on calculators, which should be used
in the right place for the right reasons." A question comes to mind:
what if I ' use calculators to reinforce or even to develop mental
arithmetic? Does this count as using calculators for the · right
reasons? ' Can I do ' it with my 7-year-olds? Blunkett goes on to
say that the guidance on how to teach maths is based on 'proven good
practice in this country and abroad.' I offer the DfEE a challenge -
show me the evidence that calculators lower the standards in pupils'
mathematical attainment, or even that they limit the ways in which
pupils' mental methods develop. Indeed this assertion is at odds with
the report 'Recent Research in Mathematics Education', an OFSTED
publication. On page 30 of this document we read that calculators can
improve both performance and attitude and that open access does not lead
to dependence on calculators but can improve pupils' numeracy, a
conclusion based on a review of 79 investigations into calculator usage.
This review also suggested that calculator use could lead to small gains
in paper and pencil skills.
The Calculator Aware Number Project (CAN) tested 116 pupils, who had
free access to calculators, against a random sample of pupils who did
not have such free access. On almost all items tested, the CAN pupils
outperformed their peers; their success rate was 30% greater on one
item. The conclusions reached by Mike Askew and Dylan Wiliam, the
authors of the OFSTED review, are that it seems 'reasonably safe to
conclude that calculators are unlikely to harm mathematics achievement,
and the priority must now be to develop new ways of exploiting the
calculator as a tool for teaching number.' Clearly this cannot happen
whilst teachers are being encouraged to leave calculators in the
cupboard.
So, I have a plea. I think the assertion that calculators should be
banned for under eights is the barmiest of several barmy ideas to come
from the DfEE. However, I do think there are people within Government
who will listen. If you use calculators in your classroom, particularly
if you use them in the early years, send me copies of the activities you
do together with evidence that this has not stopped your pupils becoming
numerate - perhaps SATs results, perhaps OFSTED reports, perhaps
your own assessments. I will collate all of this and make sure that
David Blunkett and Estelle Morris receive and hopefully comment on these
reports. Who knows we may even
get to change Government policy - either that or we will all be sent to
the tower for supplying illegal calculators to under age children.
Tony Cotton works at Nottingham University
References:
DFEE Press release 353/98 available at
http://www.col.gov.uk/col/depts/GDE/col3649e.ok
Mike Askew and Dylan Wiliam (1995) Recent research in Mathematics
Education HMSO
Hilary Shaurd and Angela Walsh (1991) Calculators, Children and
Mathematics the calculator -aware cirriculum. Simon and Schuster.
______________________________________________________
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