New Blog 3: Math Help Online

Sunday, 2 December 2012

Math Help Online

Should I, as a teacher, worry about this? Some argue that mental number crunching is an obsolete skill that's been replaced by the ever-present calculator. But I wonder if a poor ability to do mental calculations adds to math anxiety. While the calculator provides us with an immediate answer, the whole calculation process becomes mysterious - a black box. Numbers lose their sense of magnitude and are reduced to answers on the calculator's display window. What's more, doing mental calculations may be an important way to exercise and improve our working memory -we have to hold the numbers in our head before we can manipulate them. A good working memory is important for combining different facts and experiences in novel ways, thus leading to new ideas.