Mathematical notations not only contribute to but also confound the development of the understanding of mathematical concepts (Leinhardt, Zaslavsky & Stein,1990). Inaccurate use of calculus notations is likely to have a significant influence on student conceptual understanding and student assessment scores in the Calculus 1 course. This…

The aim of this research was to explore the mathematical connections that pre-university students make when they sketch the graph of a derivative function and an antiderivative function. Also, we tried to explain the origin of the mathematical connections identified. We assume mathematical connections as a cognitive process through which a person…

The literature describes different stances concerning the focus on how mathematics should be taught, with some preferring a conceptual knowledge approach and others a procedural knowledge approach. The current study investigated the relationship between students' conceptual and procedural knowledge in a calculus context. To better understand the…

Adolescent and children's concepts of multiplication and fractions have been linked to differences in the number of levels of units they coordinate. In this paper, we discuss relationships between adult students' conceptual structures for coordinating units and their pre-calculus understandings. We conducted interviews and calculus readiness…

Mathematical connections play an important role in achieving mathematical understanding. Therefore, in this article, we report research whose objective was to identify mathematical connections that pre-university students make when they solve problems that involve the derivative and the integral. In this research, we consider a mathematical…

The current paper aims to identify the mathematical connections activated by 10 Mexican high school students while solving mathematical tasks that involve the exponential and logarithmic function. We used the Expanded Mathematical Connections Model (EMCM) and the OntoSemiotic Approach of Cognition and Mathematical Instruction (OSA) as theoretical…

This is an exploratory study considering instructional methods in mathematics education. The study examined misconceptions arising from selected assignments undertaken by sixty-five students. The students were attending a calculus mathematical course unit on limits of functions, in different academic areas offered at selected tertiary institutions…

The paper describes active learning strategies used in undergraduate college algebra and business calculus courses. There are a variety of active learning strategies described in the literature. We wanted to implement a few that together, satisfy the key characteristics of active learning strategies. The active learning strategies described in…

Calculus differential is the basis of mathematics before entering the level of further mathematics, which has a high analysis level. Students have difficulty understanding concepts and have not been able to analyze/predict/realize (self-efficacy) that impact challenges in working on calculus problems. On the other hand, technology has been…

This study reports an analysis of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) using item response curves (IRC)--the fraction of students selecting each response to an item as a function of their total score. Three large samples (N = 9606, 4360, and 1439) of calculus-based physics students were analyzed. These were drawn from three land-grant institutions…

In the context of an analytical geometry, this study considers the mathematical understanding and activity of seven students analyzed simultaneously through two knowledge frameworks: (1) the Van Hiele levels (Van Hiele, 1986, 1999) and register and domain knowledge (Hibert, 1988); and (2) three action frameworks: the SOLO taxonomy (Biggs, 1999;…

This dissertation examines the relationship between an instructional style called Interactive-Engagement (IE) and gains on a measure of conceptual knowledge called the Calculus Concept Inventory (CCI). The data comes from two semesters of introductory calculus courses (Fall 2010 and Spring 2011), consisting of a total of 482 students from the…