Republic of the Philippines

Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

THE USE OR NON-USE OF SCIENTIFIC CALCULATORS AFFECTS ON

STUDENTS’ ABILITY TO PERFORM MATHEMATICS RELATED PROBLEMS

A Research Plan presented to the

Faculty of Bicol University Polangui Campus

Polangui, Albay

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

The subject Elementary Statistics and Probability

Mirinda, Melboy F.

Realubit, Angeline T.

Silerio, Charles M.

December, 2021

1 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

RATIONALE

Mathematics is all around us. From the moment we start to visualize things, our vision creates an

imaginative question in our fresh minds. It is about the continuous amount of things that we see, that we

touch and anything that is being sensed by our human body senses. We begin to establish a series of

ideas about the existing things in our environment. As our mouths began to speak the basic words, we also

began to acknowledge the notion that anyone most especially our parents who educated us from the

moment we come forth on counting from 1 to 10.

According to Schumer (2018), The analysis of contemporary "primitive" societies provides another

window into the evolution of human mathematics. We are referring to "primitive" societies as those that do

not have a written language or use contemporary tools and technology. Many "primitive" nations have

highly developed arts as well as a strong sense of ethics and morals, and they live within sophisticated

society with intricate norms and expectations. Counting is frequently done discreetly in many cultures by

bending down fingers or pointing to specific regions of the body. A Papuan tribe in New Guinea can count

from 1 to 22 by pointing to their fingers, elbows, shoulders, lips, and nose.

In this evident ever-changing world, the fundamental activity of counting doesn’t just get even the

easiest thing, not until the idea of adding, subtracting and other functions of computations arises. It was

being said that Addition is one of the ancient and most fundamental arithmetic operations. Mathematicians

have known about it for about 6000 years. 'Counting' was thought to be an early form of addition. The

Egyptians and Babylonians used addition for the first time about 2000 B.C., according to official records.

2 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

The symbols for addition and subtraction were established around the 16th century, but before that,

equations were expressed in words, which made solving problems extremely time-consuming. The

expansion of the mathematical concepts led to the invention of a machine for convenient computation

called a “calculator”.

In this study, the target respondents are expected to be experimented about the role of calculators

that are linked to their academic performance in school. They are anticipated to perform the experimental

study to gather the necessary and sufficient information/data about their knowledge in the specified

mathematical problems, and the function of calculators upon doing the experimental task in order to create

and analyze the assumptions and establish solutions to the research problem being stated.

LITERATURE REVIEW

A calculator is a machine that allows people to do math operations more easily. Many types of

calculators can be used in answering different kinds of mathematical problems and one of them is the

scientific calculator. A scientific calculator is a calculator designed to help you calculate science,

engineering, and mathematics problems. It has way more buttons than your standard calculator that just

lets you do your four basic arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Researchers found out that students who frequently use a calculator in the classroom during

mathematics subjects were relatively advantaged on the calculator test. The use or non-use of the

3 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

calculator was about the same speed in answering mathematical problems involving calculations. The

calculator's effect on the test items ranged from positive through neutral to negative and could either

increase or decrease the validity of an item as a measure of mathematical reasoning skills. The effects of

calculator use depend on both difficult and easy items.

In the Study “The Use or Non-Use of Calculators Affects on Student's Ability to Perform Basic

Mathematics Problems (2008)” by Christina Miles, the students proved more successful solving simple life

skill mathematical problems using a calculator compared to not using one. The study has concluded that

students who do use calculators perform better than those students who do not use calculators when

performing basic mathematics equations in the eighth grade Teen Living (Family and Consumer Science)

class, when working with the simplistic life skill problem used in the instrument.

In the Philippines, a study about the “Students’ Skills in Mathematical Computation Using Graphing

Calculator (December 2011)” was administered by Patrick G. Galleto and Craig N. Refugio. The

researchers have found out that the students’ skills in mathematical computation in the experimental group

are greatly influenced by the calculator used by teachers and students in College Algebra class.

Many researchers have conducted a study about the use of a calculator on the student’s performing

math problems. It is evident in the study that calculators have great help in the students and it makes them

easier to answer mathematical problems. Among the related study and literature, this research will continue

the study of the previous researchers to find more subtle reasons about the effects of the use and non-use

of the calculator on the student's ability during math subjects.

4 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

Research Problem

This study examines the relationship of using and not using scientific calculators and its

effectiveness in the academic performance of the students to perform in various mathematical related

problems. This study aims to answer the main key goal which is “Is there a significant relationship between

using scientific calculators to the academic performance of the students in performing mathematical related

problems compared to those students who are not using any scientific calculators?”

Research Questions

The study aims to identify and examine the relationship of using and not using scientific calculators

to the students’ academic performance or ability in performing mathematical related problems. The study

should be able to gather information about:

1. What are the demographic characteristics/ profile of the students?

2. What are the students’ raw scores after performing the experimental mathematical problems

without the use of a scientific calculator?

3. What are the students’ raw scores after performing the experimental mathematical problems with

the use of a scientific calculator?

4. Are there any changes between the scores of the students in the experimental data gathering

procedure taken?

5. Is there any significant relationship on the use of scientific calculators to the student’s academic

performance in answering the mathematical related problems?”

5 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

Hypothesis

Data from the study will be used to test these hypotheses:

H₁: There is a significant difference between the means of the sample that used scientific calculator and the

sample that did not use scientific calculator, in terms of their performance in Mathematics class.

H₀: There is no significant difference between the means of the sample that used scientific calculator and

the sample that did not use scientific calculator, in terms of their performance in Mathematics class.

METHODOLOGY

Target Population

The population for the study will be 50 tenth grade students of Polangui General Comprehensive

High School (PGCHS). These students are from the basic education curriculum and will be the subject of

the research.

Research Variables

The variables of the study will be the following: the use or non-use of scientific calculators in

answering mathematics related problems will be the independent variable; and the dependent variable will

6 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

be the proficiency of the respondents in solving mathematics related problems and are measured by a set

of test scores.

Instrument Design

The researchers will be utilizing a mathematics worksheet that is patterned from the standard

learning activity worksheet. The worksheet consists of mathematical problems from basic operations

(addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), conversion, discount problems and percentages.

The worksheet will be given twice, with a two week interval to 50 tenth grade students. The

respondents will answer the worksheet without the use of their scientific calculators on the first try and the

second time will be answered with the aid of their scientific calculators.

The worksheet is used to determine and obtain data from the respondents and analyze if there is

a significant difference between the use or non-use of a scientific calculator to their ability in answering

math related questions.

Data Collection

The mathematics worksheets will be given to their respective math teachers and they will distribute

the worksheets at the same time. After each of the trials, the data from the mathematics worksheet given to

the respondents will be collected. The students will be marked right if they got correct answers and wrong if

they got a mistake.

7 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

Data Analysis

The data from the mathematics worksheet will be analyzed by determining the number of correct

and incorrect responses to each of the items. The scores of the respondents for both trials will be gathered

and summarized.

The researchers will be utilizing a z-test to determine the significant difference between the

scores from the trials. The z-test will be used to analyze the two sets of scores obtained from the research

instrument. With a sample size of 50 students for each group, we will use the normal curve value of 1.684

(.05) 95% and 2.423 (.01) 99% confidence level to determine the significant difference.

𝑡=
(𝑥 −𝑥 )
1 2
2
𝑠1 2
𝑠
𝑛1
+𝑛
2

𝑡 = t-value

𝑥1 = mean of sample 1 (non-use of scientific calculator)

𝑥2 = mean of sample 2 (use of scientific calculator)

𝑠1 = standard deviation of sample 1 (non-use of scientific calculator)

𝑠2 = standard deviation of sample 2 (use of scientific calculator)

𝑛1 = sample size of sample 1 (non-use of scientific calculator)

𝑛2 = sample size of sample 2 (use of scientific calculator)

8 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

REFERENCES

Bridgeman, B., Harvey, A., Braswell, J. (1995). Effects of Calculator Use on Scores on a Test

of Mathematical Reasoning. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-3984.1995.tb00470.x

Definition of Calculator Retrieved December 15, 2021, from

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator

Galleto, P. Refugio, C. (2011). STUDENTS' SKILLS IN MATHEMATICAL COMPUTATION

USING GRAPHING CALCULATOR retrieved December 15, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Craig-Refugio/publication/289345256_STUDENTS'_SKI

LLS_IN_MATHEMATICAL_COMPUTATION_USING_GRAPHING_CALCULATOR/links/568bb07

708ae1975839f8e55/STUDENTS-SKILLS-IN-MATHEMATICAL-COMPUTATION-USING-GRAPHI

NG-CALCULATOR.pdf

Mastin, L. (2020). Addition - Explanation and Examples. The Story of Mathematics. Retrieved

December 17, 2021, from https://www.storyofmathematics.com/addition

Miles, C. (2008). The Use or Non-Use of Calculators Affects on Student's Ability to Perform

Basic Mathematics Problems. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from

https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&context=ots_masters_pr

ojects

Waits, H. P. (1997). Semantic Scholar. The Role of Calculators in Math Education, 1.

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-Role-of-Calculators-in-Math-Education-Pomera

ntz-Waits/b64fb47e0e5dda1ef75dca762d9888c874978061

9 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability

 Republic of the Philippines
Bicol University
B I C O L U N I V E R S I T Y P O LA N G U I C A M P U S
Polangui, Albay

What is a Scientific Calculator?

https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-scientific-calculator.html

10 | MathEd6: Elementary Statistics and Probability