Informal Australian discussion suggests that calculators are still widely regarded as devices for calculation, consistent with their naming, and are rarely recognised as potentially helpful to support students learning mathematics. In this paper, Barry Kissane explores some of the ways in which modern calculators might support students learning…

The duo of artefacts is a simplified model of the complex systems of various manipulatives (either tangible or virtual) that mathematics teachers and their students use in classrooms. It offers a means to study the complexity of the interweaving of the tangible and of the digital worlds in the teaching and learning processes. A duo of artefacts is…

The main purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual understanding of the irrational number of the square root of 2 ([square root]2 ). Participants in the study were 20 ninth-grade male students. Activity Theory was used as a framework to show the development of the conceptual understanding. Since this study was conducted during the COVID-19…

The basis of this intervention study is a distinction between numerical calculus and relational calculus. The former refers to numerical calculations and the latter to the analysis of the quantitative relations in mathematical problems. The inverse relation between addition and subtraction is relevant to both kinds of calculus, but so far research…

This document presents a review of evidence commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation to inform the guidance document "Improving Mathematics in Key Stages Two and Three" (Education Endowment Foundation, 2017). The review draws on a substantial parallel study by the same research team, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, which…

Two intervention studies are described. Both were designed to study the effects of teaching children about the inverse relation between addition and subtraction. The interventions were successful with 8-year-old children in Study 1 and to a limited extent with 5-year-old children in Study 2. In Study 1 teaching children about inversion increased…

National tests, an influential assessment practice in many countries in East Asia, are often blamed as obstacles to good instructional practices. In this paper, the positive impact of assessment, national tests in particular, is discussed using the case of Singapore. The first part of the paper includes an analysis of items from the primary grade…

Suggestions for using handheld calculators are given. Students can invent and check their own problems. The calculator can debug problems, provide practice, aid in developing concepts of place value, decimals, order of operations, powers of a number, and evaluation of formulas. (KM)

Suggestions are given for using the calculator in junior high classrooms. Square roots, factoring, and percentages are some topics discussed. A worksheet is included. (MP)

Questions students raise about the meaning of zero to the zero power present an opportunity for mathematics teachers to involve students in active participation in exploring mathematical relationships. Calculators are the needed tool to make this exploration accessible to students. How they can be used is described. (MNS)

Provided are some ideas on teaching elementary numerical methods to sixth-form students. Comments are included on the syllabus recently introduced at Advanced Level in Hong Kong. (MNS)

Several examples are given to show that the calculator can be a tool to enhance mathematical understanding. Expressing rational numbers (fractions) as decimals provides the content focus. (MNS)

Examples are given of how calculator-sized pocket computers, which can receive, store, and execute BASIC programs, can be used in mathematics classrooms. (MNS)

The authors provide activities for overcoming some fraction misconceptions using calculators specially designed for learners in primary years. The writers advocate use of the calculator as a way to engage children in thinking about mathematics. By engaging with a calculator as part of mathematics learning, children are learning about and using the…

Suggestions are given concerning the use of the pocket calculator for computations that are too trivial to be processed by a computer but too time-consuming for manual calculation. Several examples from arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, and calculus are included. (DT)