Research Report: What Are Calculators Good For?

Abstract

Calculators are good for promoting achievement: their benefit has been shown in reviews by Suydam (1982) and, more recently, by Hembree (1985). Suydam summarized findings and reported that achievement scores were as high or higher when calculators were used for instruction as when they were not. Hembree used a different technique to analyze the findings of seventy-nine research reports. At only one grade level did calculator use appear questionable: at every other level, he reported that the use of “calculators in concert with traditional instruction … can improve the average student's basic skills with paper and pencil, both in basic operations and in problem solving.” Moreover, “students using calculators possess a better attitude toward mathematics and an especially better self-concept in mathematics than noncalculator students.”