In this second world, the
task is teaching mathematics or helping children
learn mathematics. In this case, a calculator
cannot be ready-to-hand in large part because
our pre-service teachers have never used it as a tool
for teaching, only as a tool for doing mathematics.
Thus, they must engage the calculator as an object
simply present—what Heidegger calls present-athand.
In this mode, the calculator is not embedded
in a context of work but is an object of reflection.
We might hope that such reflection would include
their own experiences with doing mathematics.
However, in many cases, it seemed to include
instead a set of more abstract, decontextualized
assumptions about the nature of mathematics
teaching—that basic arithmetic skills must be
learned, that the task of their future students was
not to do mathematics, but to learn mathematics.
The calculator, not being an integral or even a
welcome part of this context, takes on a very
different role for our pre-service teachers when
they look to their own future teaching.