Abstract:

The objective of this study was to examine the effect of hand-held calculators when they are used during a mathematics test. In April 2007, 242 ninth-grade American students from four high schools in the U.S. participated in the study. The data collection instrument consisted of the same achievement test. The test adopted a Texas publicly-released standardized test. It was focused on the Algebra 1 knowledge covered by the schools during the academic year 2006-2007. Since items involved simple computations, that did not necessitate the use of calculators. One group (145 students) did not use calculators on the test, whereas the other group (97students) used calculators. The study analyzed three aspects of algebra achievement: (1) overall achievement, (2) cognitive understanding and (3) use of algebra for solving word problems. Regarding the overall achievement, results indicate that the group of calculator users, scored significantly higher than the group of non-calculator students. The results of t-test procedures also showed that the first group scored significantly higher than the second group in the three cognitive domains of understanding, namely, in knowing, applying and reasoning. Lastly, presence of calculators on the test seemed to encourage students to use algebra for solving word problems. The study concludes that non-calculator 9th graders find difficult to take a test even though it is designed to be taken without calculators. Results of this study show that test taking with the assistance of calculators have a positive effect on the overall algebraic achievement of American ninth graders.