What Happens When You Give A Sixth-Grader A Calculator?
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Students in public schools in the southeast are performing in last place for math in grades 8 and 12, according to the report card of the National Center for Education Statistics. The subjects for this study came from a K-8 school in a small rural community located in the southeastern United States. Seventy-nine percent of the students in the school receive free or reduced lunches. The study involved one mathematics class of24 sixth-grade students. There were 8 females and 16 males in the class. This study took place in the third 9-week grading period. Three sources of data were used in the study: a) interviews with nine children, three each from groups of high, middle and low students, b) data from a teacher insight journal which contained a record of students' comments and activities and the teacher's own reflections about the intervention, c) and children's responses to tests given prior to and after the intervention. Texas Instrument TI-10 calculators were used in the study. Two forms of the pretest were designed for the study, which contained 28 items on a criterion referenced test. A classroom mathematics expert located at the same school checked the tests for validity. The types of problems on the tests were: rounding to different place values, estimating, finding the product or quotient, divisibility of numbers, equivalent fractions, improper fractions, mixed numbers, perimeter, area, and word problems. To answer the first question of the study, Will sixth-grade students be able to use calculators to solve problems more proficiently? a paired samples t-test was conducted to evaluate whether there was a significant increase in the post-test scores after the intervention. The results indicated the mean of the post-test (M=l6.17) was significantly greater than the mean of the pre-test (M=I0.46), at the confidence level of p < .05. To answer the second question, What insights will a teacher, inexperienced in the use of calculators, acquire when she introduces calculators into the mathematics classroom? interviews with students and a teacher's reflective journal was used. The journal revealed that students stayed on-task a majority of the time while they were using calculators. Independently, students made discoveries into various ways to use a calculator, as well as different ways to solve problems. Student initiated cooperative learning was observed on a regular basis. The students showed pride in their work by wanting to complete or correct their work before turning it in. Positive statements indicated that students' ability to do math was increasing. The interviews with nine students revealed that all of them have had some prior experience with calculators, whether at home, school, or both. All of the students indicated that they thought calculators were good to have in math class. Although the debate still rages as to whether we should or should not use calculators in the classroom, the reality of the society in which we live should not be forgotten. Today's society is a technological one and students should become adept at using computers and other forms of technology, including calculators, to access knowledge and perform numerous basic skills.