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by graemep 141 days ago
There is research that shows that banning calculators impedes the learning of maths. It is certainly not obvious to me that calculators will have a negative effect - I certainly always allowed my kids to use them.

LLMs are trickier and use needs to be restricted to stop cheating, just as my kids had restrictions on what calculators they could use in some exams. That does not mean they are all bad or even net bad if used correctly.
2 comments
thesz 140 days ago 

  > There is research that shows that banning calculators impedes the learning of maths.
Please share what you know. My search found a heap of opinions and just one study where use of calculators made children less able to calculate by themselves, not the ability to learn and understand math in general.
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graemep 139 days ago
A meta analysis: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-11739-001
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lelanthran 140 days ago
> There is research that shows that banning calculators impedes the learning of maths.

I've seen oodles of research concluding the opposite at the primary level (grades 1- 5, say). If your mentioned research exists, it must be very well hidden :-/

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graemep 139 days ago
There were 79 studies used in this meta analysis so it cannot be that well hiddne: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-11739-001
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lelanthran 139 days ago
> There were 79 studies used in this meta analysis so it cannot be that well hiddne: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-11739-001

From the first page of that study

> Do calculators threaten basic skills? The answer consistently seemed to be no, provided those basic skills have first been developed with paper and pencil.

So, yeah, there are no studies I have found that support any assertion along the lines of:

>>> There is research that shows that banning calculators impedes the learning of maths.

If you actually find any, we still have to consider that things like this meta-study you posted is already 74-studies ahead in confirming that you are wrong.

Best would be for you to find 75 studies that confirm your hypothesis. Unfortunately, even though I read studies all the time, and even at one point had full access via institutional license to full-text of studies, and spent almost all of my after-hours time between 2009 and 2011 actually reading papers on primary/foundational education, I have not seen even one that supports your assertion.

I have read well over a hundred papers on the subject, and did not find one. I am skeptical that you will find any.

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