RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
Knowledge Resources for Multiplication and Challenges Reasoning About the Product Layer
Page: 72
Research on students’ construction and interpretation of integrals has grown significantly over the past decade. Some work has identified classes of interpretation for definite integral notation that include areas under curves, antiderivatives, and adding up pieces. The present study contributes to recent research on challenges students experience with the “product layer,” !(#) ∙ &#, when reasoning about adding up pieces. In particular, we present a case study in which 1 college student in a first-semester, calculus-based physics course drew on multiple knowledge resources associated with multiplication as she tried to construct a definite integral in a situation that for her was novel. Our results suggest that students’ understandings of multiplication with quantities is understudied in the literature on integration and an important direction for further research.