Dubai: The question had hardly been put to a group of university students asked to come up with the sum of 69 and 48 using mental math when one of them asked: “Can I use a calculator.”
While calculators have become a tool that is indispensable to most people, the art of mental math is no longer such a common skill -- and this is true for people of all ages.
Blame it on spreadsheets and number crunchers: The advent of sophisticated mathematical software and apps is seen as one reason for the waning inclination to mentally solve simple arithmetic problems involving double or triple figures.
Is people’s reliance on calculators — whether in education or in their daily lives — really a bad thing then?
Not so, said Dr Abdul Salam Jarrah, Mathematics and Statistics professor at the American University of Sharjah (UAS), who believes the use of calculators is essential in the learning process.
“Being able to do mental math does not necessarily represent intelligence,” Dr Jarrah told Gulf News. “Someone working as a cashier could be better in mental math than a math professor, simply because they use the skill every day.”
Professor Jarrah, who has been teaching university mathematics for 19 years, said that mental math excellence comes down to practice.
Critical thinking
He said rather than focussing on the tools used to facilitate problem-solving, the focus in math or math-based classes in schools and universities should be on putting across the concepts to the students.
“Our goal is not to teach people how to use the calculator, but instead to teach them how to get to the number through critical thinking.”
He pointed out that mathematicians teaching advanced classes often deal with more complex problems, concepts and equations, making the calculator an important tool in problem-solving.
“Students have to understand and grasp the concept and be able to carry it out in basic numbers. Once they can do that, then the use of calculators is necessary.”
A type of mental exercise in itself, mental math is a method used to help keep the brain active, Dr Jarrah said.
While it’s important, having poor mental math skills is not necessarily a great disadvantage in everyday life, Dr Jarrah said. He explained that using the calculator to check or double-check a number or transaction is not to be looked at negatively. “The problem is that students have grown up being told that math is hard. Many are afraid of math and they have the idea that they are not good at it.”
He, however, adds that while each educational system (American, British and Indian, for instance) follow their own methods of teaching, the moderate or excessive use of calculators is a debatable topic. “Some Asian systems push for competitiveness, other systems follow a more liberal approach of teaching, and they are all functional.”
Mahalakshmi, a primary school math teacher at Delhi Public School, Dubai, said the use of calculators is strictly not allowed at the school. “We focus on using different kits and tools with pictures and patterns to teach the students mathematical concepts,” she said.
She pointed out that the first step in teaching math is to remove the barriers and misconception that many students grow up with, which is that “math is too hard.”
“We encourage hands-on activities in math class to teach them addition and subtraction using more than two digits in order for them to understand the pattern in problem-solving.”
Mahalakshmi added that mental math is a skill that can prove very useful in a number of situations. “The skill of mental math is also useful in everyday life when calculating something at the supermarket or playing a board game. It should be taught in a joyful way so that it is not thought of as a burden,” she said.
Sandy Azmi, a journalism student from Egypt, recalled having to learn the multiplication table by rote at a young age and how that approach briefly put her off the subject. “I was very upset in grade one to three because we were forced to memorise math instead of being taught in a logical and fun way.”
Sandy said she eventually learnt tricks to solve math problems mentally when she took up chemical engineering as a subject in her first semester in university. “I guess it is a skill that I use when I need to roughly calculate how much I’ve spent or need to spend.”
While the average student may take longer to come up with the answer to a math problem, Sandy yelled out “69+48 = 117” in a matter of seconds.
