PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2018
San Diego, California
How Does Problem Context Shape Students’ Mathematical Reasoning on Calculus Accumulation Tasks?
Page: 899
Calculus serves many students from myriad fields of study. Investigations into the ways students from these fields of study reason about calculus concepts are vital, yet lacking (Rasmussen, Marrongelle, & Borba, 2014). The biological and life sciences make up 30% of traditional Calculus I students (Bressoud, 2015) and yet we know very little about how these students utilize context as they reason about calculus ideas like the definite integral. In this study, task-based interviews were conducted with 12 undergraduate students majoring in the biological and life sciences. Data were analyzed via open coding from a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz, 2000) and a new analytic tool, local theory diagrams was developed. Results indicate problem context influenced students’ assessment of the viability of their solution strategies as well as enabled them to reason through apparent contradictions in their work.