Calculators 'a plus' for students after all: study

Calculators can help students become better at problem solving, according to latest research.

Far from hindering young maths pupils, these little magic boxes actually aid them with their arithmetic skills, according to the Academics for the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

It was also found that when taught properly, calculators can help students become better at problem solving.

Calculators are most useful when weaved into teaching materials, the BBC quoted the academics as saying.

Ministers banned the use of calculators in national maths tests for 11-year-olds in England from 2014.

Announcing the move in 2012, the then Education and Childcare Minister Elizabeth Truss said this would "reduce the dependency on them in the classroom for the most basic sums".

Sir Kevan Collins, chief executive of EEF, which is an education charity, said: "It's often said that calculators can harm students' arithmetic skills.

"What this review finds is that they can actually boost pupils' fluency and understanding of maths - but that to do so, teachers should ensure they are used in a considered and thoughtful way, particularly with younger students."
One of the report authors, Prof Jeremy Hodgen, chairman of Mathematics Education at University College London, said: "It's really important that kids use calculators amongst other methods."
"But before they use a calculator they should know that the answer is about 1.2 million, so that if they get an answer which is about 123,000 they have made a mis-key error."
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Calculators can be an important tool when being taught maths but this must not be at the expense of children mastering the fundamentals of mental arithmetic and calculation - a point which the EEF acknowledges."