Background/purpose: This research is motivated by the difficulties often experienced by students in adapting to their first year of college, especially related to learning calculus. To address these difficulties, a solution needs to be found so that these problems can be resolved. One solution that is expected to yield optimal results in…

The promotion of belonging, purpose, and growth mindset through subtle social psychological interventions has been shown to positively impact student outcomes (Lazowski & Hulleman, 2016; Walton & Cohen, 2007; Yeager & Walton, 2011; Yeager et al., 2016). This study explores how instructor messaging and intentional course design can…

Many researchers have stressed the embodied nature of mathematical understanding. Here we explore how embodied knowledge may evolve as students learn a basic calculus concept: the rate of change. We examined undergraduate students with different levels of calculus knowledge working in pairs to model the rate of change in an everyday phenomenon.…

Many factors play a role in a students' learning experience, but students' course interaction behaviors are particularly important toward fostering success. Instructors build learning tools (such as videos, online quizzes, etc.) that provide students with the opportunity to extend their learning outside the classroom. These tools require students…

For students with little experience in mathematical thinking and conceptualization, writing-to-learn activities (WTL) can be particularly effective in promoting discovery and understanding. For community college students embarking on a first calculus course in particular, writing activities can help facilitate the transition from an "apply…

This paper reports on the findings of the evaluation of Learning Units (LU), a special type of Learning Object designed to help overcome the difficulties associated with learning Calculus concepts at undergraduate level. An Interactive Platform for Learning Calculus (PIAC) that serves as a container for the LU was created following a specific…

This study examines the writings of the French educational psychologist Guy Brousseau to see how his situation-centered theories shed light on the learning in a computer laboratory associated with a community college mathematics class. Like the community college's laboratory, Brousseau's theories intend to help students construct mathematical…

Simple examples are really encouraging in the understanding of rearrangements of infinite series, since many texts and teachers provide only existence theorems. In the absence of examples, an existence theorem is just a statement and lends little confidence to understanding. Iterated sums of double series seem to have a similar spirit of…

Describes the development and implementation of a Web-based calculus course at Texas A & M University. Discusses the course design, layout of content and the contrast with textbook structure, results of course surveys that included student reactions, and how students learn form Web-based materials. (Author/LRW)

This study was designed to determine students' abilities and difficulties in articulating the relationship between function and derivative. High-school students were presented 15 problems during two 75-minute interviews in which they were asked to construct functions experimentally in three different contexts: motion, fluids, and number-change. In…