Calculators, primary-school teachers, mathematics, education

Calculators can simplify the teachers’ role in their Mathematics classrooms under a crucial condition: They are applied in accordance with the principles of active learning. It means that their function remains supportive and does not become the goal of learning. Activities performed with their use would therefore concentrate on analyzing the properties of the objects and intensifying the students’comprehension. At the same time, technology can enrich education by introducing realistic problems. Most textbook problems use simplified parameters (small integers). These are remnants from the times when all calculations were done manually. Using more complex numbers would slow down the classroom processes. Now, the problems can use data which are closer to those used in science, technology and economics. In this paper, we present the results of qualitative research, the research problem of which was the implementation of the CASIO Classwiz calculator into the teaching of mathematical subjects for future teachers at the Faculty of Education of the University of Ostrava and Comenius University in Bratislava.