Madam, – The Engineers Ireland Task Force on Mathematics and Science Education is calling for a ban on calculators in Junior Cycle (lower secondary) mathematics classes and examinations.
In another recommendation, the task force strongly endorses the use of technology (including computers) in school mathematics, citing the benefits as “gains in student achievement, increased student motivation, and improvements in students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving ability”.
Ironically, the available research on the effects of calculator usage on school mathematics confirms that, if used well, a simple piece of technology, the hand-held calculator, can lead to all of these benefits at relatively little financial cost, and at no cost to students’ computation skills or mathematical understanding. – Yours, etc,