Inclusion or Exclusion?

Consider the results of research by Paul Swan and Len Sparrow reported in:

Impediments to the Use of Calculators in the Primary School

Paul Swan & Len Sparrow

in

Mathematics: Creating The Future

Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, 1997

Survey

• 1995 survey of all schools in Western Australia
• Teachers of Years 1, 3, 5, 7
• Over 1000 responses

Key Question

• Should all students use calculators?

(The 1987 National Statement on Calculators signed by every educational authority in Australia had already established that principle)

• Response: Over three quarters answered "Yes"

BUT ... "they were not referring to free access to calculators, but rather limited use as decreed by the teacher" . For example one teacher commented that the children are allowed to use it to "check work, complete puzzles and to make words such as OIL."

Impediments

Swan and Sparrow identified the following impediments to the implementation of the National Statement recommendation to integrate calculator use at all levels:

• availability of calculators
• texts and course documents did not integrate calculator use
• lack of teacher vision about how to use calculators other than as they are used in industry
• perceiving calculators as a 'new topic' and asking how will I have the time?
• dominance of written algorithms
• lack of 'ideas sources' for teachers

Where To?

Swan and Sparrow suggested the following key changes needed to happen if the potential learning value of calculators was to be achieved:

• development of a whole school policy
• allocating resources for calculators, professional development and 'ideas sources'
• developing a dialogue between schools and parents to avoid misunderstandings about calculator use
• encouraging children to develop number sense and make choices about when to use estimation, mental methods, paper and pencil, calculator, computer