PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2014
Denver, Colorado
Characteristics of Successful Programs in College Calculus: How Calculus Instructors Talk about their Students (Preliminary Report)
Page: 792
The CSPCC (Characteristics of Successful Programs in College Calculus) project is a large empirical study, investigating mainstream Calculus 1, that aims to identify the factors that contribute to successful programs. The CSPCC project consists of two phases. Phase 1 entailed large-scale surveys of a stratified random sample of college Calculus 1 classes across the United States. Phase 2 involves explanatory case study research into programs that were identified as successful based in part on the results of the Phase 1 survey. During our case study site visits, we interviewed calculus instructors and asked a number of questions that prompted them to discuss their students. The purpose of the analyses we will present here is to characterize the ways that calculus instructors talk about their students. To do so, we will examine instructor survey responses and analyze instructor interviews conducted at the case-study institutions (PhD and Bachelors granting levels).