Even the very best pupils can be handicapped by calculators

Imaginative thinking is exactly what is tested in Oxford University’s maths entrance examinations. Many sixth form pupils cannot perform well in these examinations because they have not developed their mathematical intelligence. The reason for this is simply because they have relied on the use of their calculator throughout their secondary maths education. Therefore, they have not developed strategies for manipulating numbers, for rearranging them to make the calculation tractable, instead hey have relied on their calculating machine to crunch the numbers for them. Today these exams are testing for something that was unremarkable 40 years ago, before the ubiquity of the handheld calculator. University mathematics is about imagination, and imagination is what puppet maths helps develop. Rather than pupils simply learning routines for manipulating numbers by rote, puppet maths puts these algorithms in an imaginative context.
But this is not just for the pupil who wishes to go onto advanced study, every pupil can benefit from the use of their imagination when doing sums. It’s what makes an otherwise dry subject interesting, indeed fun.