Do Calculators Increase or Decrease Math Confidence?
The students in Math for Elementary Teachers campaigned to use calculators on their exam. To get their feedback on this subject, we had a discussion board on line (where they could post anonymously if they wanted). All student posts were in favor of the calculator.
On Thursday, 2/12, they were allowed to use a calculator during the last 30 minutes of the 75 minute period. I noticed that some students who had supported calculator use finished without calculators.
Although some of the bias may be generational of the calculator vs. non-calculator, I posted New York State guidelines for Grades 3 - 8 (only Grades 7 and 8 are allowed to use them on the non-multiple choice sections). It will be interesting to get feedback from these learners next week.
On this exam, the average was above 90.
No comments:
Post a Comment