RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
The Precalculus Concept Assessment (PCA) and Prospective Secondary Teachers
Page: 1270
Carlson et al. (2010) developed the 25-item multiple choice Precalculus Concept Assessment (PCA) to investigate reasoning abilities and meanings researchers (e.g., Carlson et al., 2002; Dubinsky & Harel, 1992; Oehrtman et al., 2008; Thompson & Silverman, 2007) have established as critical for pre-calculus and calculus learning. Since its initial development and validation, the PCA has been administered to thousands of secondary and post-secondary students, providing key insights into their reasoning abilities, as well as their potential success (as measured by grades) in future calculus courses. Given the insights the PCA provides relative to pre-calculus and calculus students, we grew interested in the extent the PCA can provide useful insights with other populations. Across several semesters, we administered the PCA to 174 undergraduate students upon their entry to a secondary mathematics teacher preparation program. In this poster, we present on the results of that administration. Specifically, we report on an analysis of the aggregate scores of the population, as well as their performance on covariational reasoning items. With respect to the covariational reasoning item performance, we draw on our expertise and research (Moore, 2021; Moore et al., 2022; Moore et al., 2019) to develop hypotheses regarding discrepancies in performance.