ARE CALCULATORS AND COMPUTERS MORE COMMON IN U.S. FOURTH-GRADE CLASSROOMS THAN IN OTHER TIMSS COUNTRIES?
“U.S. fourth graders use calculators and computers in mathematics class more frequently than do students in most other TIMSS countries. Use of calculators in U.S. fourth-grade mathematics classes is about twice the international average. In the U.S., teachers of 39 percent of the students report having students use calculators in their mathematics classes at least once or twice a week compared with the international average of 18 percent. Internationally, the teachers of two-thirds of the TIMSS students report that they never or hardly ever had students use calculators in their mathematics classes compared with the teachers of one-third of U.S. students. In six of the seven nations that outscore the U.S. in mathematics, teachers of 85 percent or more of the students report that students never use calculators in class.” “Among the 26 countries that participated in fourth-grade TIMSS, teachers in the U.S. and Canada are among the most likely to report that students use computers in at le
