Comment by ytoawwhra92 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ytoawwhra92 | Hacker News Reader

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> there's a reason calculators are banned from math classes until a certain point

Yeah, a bad reason.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-10/are-calculators-affec...

> In a 1997 review of the extent to which calculators were being used in schools, numerous studies were examined that indicated the use of calculators at primary levels had no detrimental effects on students' arithmetic abilities.

> Unfortunately, the research indicated that calculators were still being used for trivial things like checking answers and were making little difference in mathematics education.

> Although teachers indicated their support for the use of calculators across all levels of primary school, there was little evidence that these ideas were being taken up and implemented.

> Parental disapproval of the use of calculators was cited as a possible cause of the limited take-up.

And you think a 9YO has the discipline to understand when a calculator is used for "checking work" compared to using it to answer their questions and get positive feedback?

That's the part this study seems to handwave. We don't need a full calculator ban, but very controlled usage is necessary.

The point of the study is that they should be using calculators to answer their questions rather than spending an inordinate amount of time on manual calculations that don't further their education and cause them to lose interest in the subject.

>don't further their education and cause them to lose interest in the subject.

Yes, that's my issue. The study is focused on grades and I'm more concerned about deeper logical thinking. You don't get the latter without some friction, and that let's you build up for skills needed in high school and beyond.

The mechanical ability of typing 1+1 into a calculator isn't my concern. It's the ability to know why you're typing 1+1 in as an intermediate step in solving real problems.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Marilyn vos Savant had said that it is acceptable to use a calculator when learing arithmetic (I do not remember the reason given) but that clocks should not be used to learn time. (I might be mistaken, since I do not remember for sure.)

I wasn't able to find anything about (analog I presume) clocks for education, but it sounds like she is against calculators for elementary arithmetic education: https://parade.com/345575/marilynvossavant/why-math-students...

I might have misremembered then, or maybe it was someone else.

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