Addressing Change

  • The Swan & Sparrow research identified impediments to making better use of calculators.
  • Better use of calculators has been shown to lead to enhanced number sense in children.
  • Therefore the Swan & Sparrow research identified impediments to enhancing children's number sense.

Enhancing Children's Number Sense

Calculating Changes is structured to redress each of the identified impediments as follows:

Impediment Calculating Changes Action
  • availability
  • calculators for every child
  • texts and course documents did not integrate calculator use
  • opportunity to review course documents and text as part of long term PD
  • lack of teacher vision
  • PD based in the classroom experience of colleagues
  • perceiving calculators as a 'new topic' and asking how will I have the time?
  • changing the focus from new topic to new question:
How can we use the calculator to help us learn this?
  • dominance of written algorithms (designed by adults)
  • dominance of number sense (demonstrated by students with the support of their personal calculator and manipulative)
  • lack of 'ideas sources' for teachers
  • PD backed up with on-going networking

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Calculating Changes ... is a division of ... Mathematics Centre