Abstract
The short communication on ‘K-12 Calculator Usage and College Grades’ by Wilson and Naiman (2004) reports that ‘there is a (negative) connection between’ college mathematics grades at Johns Hopkins University and heavy calculator usage in K-12' (p. 121). This response argues that such a conclusion risks oversimplifying the situation examined; evidence from an earlier version of the report suggests that the multi-course dataset is non-homogeneous, and that a correspondingly less generalised conclusion would be more appropriate. This response also notes some other limitations of the mechanism of comparison employed.
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References
Wilson, S.W. and Naiman, D.Q.: 2003, ‘Effect of K-12 calculator usage on college grades’, Unpublished paper accessed at http://www.math.jhu.edu/~wsw/ED/calc.pdf on 28 June 2005.
Wilson, S.W. and Naiman, D.Q.: 2004, ‘K-12 calculator usage and college grades’, Educational Studies in Mathematics 56(1), 119–122.
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Ruthven, K. Alternative Interpretation of the Dataset on K-12 Calculator Usage and College Grades as Analysed by Wilson and Naiman (2003, 2004). Educ Stud Math 60, 383–387 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-005-0445-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-005-0445-4