RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
Calculus I Students’ Understanding of Implicit Differentiation
Page: 423
Implicit differentiation is an important topic in first-semester Calculus, yet only recently have researchers in the RUME community turned their attention to it. Our study seeks to contribute to this growing body of knowledge. We examined students’ performance on an instructional activity that emphasized the graphical representation of implicit curves alongside the symbolic competence of implicit differentiation. The students worked in small groups during recitations and then completed a similar type of question on an assessment. A researcher-designed Hypothetical Learning Trajectory was used to structure the instructional task and to analyze student written data. The results suggest that students’ attainment of symbolic learning goals is higher than that of graphical ones, with most difficulties experienced with coordination between symbolic and graphic modalities. Implications for further research are discussed.