PROCEEDINGS OF THE 17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2014
Denver, Colorado
Student Calculus Reasoning Contexts
Page: 984
This paper analyzes how student discourse about Calculus is situated in a graphical representation of a physics problem. Students were asked to identify three unlabeled graphs as representing the position, velocity and acceleration of a car. Findings showed that the students reasoned in three distinct contexts - static-graphical, covariational, and physical. While the students were able to communicate effectively between the first two contexts, and leverage them to find a solution to the problem, the students' discourse in the physical context did not communicate well with their discourse in the other two contexts, nor was it very fruitful in finding a solution to the problem.