Effectiveness of Scientific Calculators on Secondary School Students’ Attitude Development in Mathematics

Abstract

There is poor performance in mathematics among secondary school students in Kenya. In an effort to improve performance in the subject, there has been introduction of various devices aimed at helping learners to get solutions to mathematical problems starting from counting sticks, abacus, slide rule, mathematical tables and recently scientific calculators. Unfortunately, there is no tangible evidence to show that scientific calculators will solve the problem in mathematics. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of using scientific calculators in Mathematics instruction and establish if they had any effect on students’ attitude. An experimental research design was adopted entailing the pre – test post-test equivalent groups design. The population was drawn from the form three students selected from public secondary schools in Mumias Sub County. The findings in the study showed that the use of scientific calculators was superior to mathematical tables.