PROCEEDINGS OF THE 18TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2015
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Social networks among communities of calculus-teaching faculty at PhD-granting institutions
Page: 369
Calculus is typically the first undergraduate mathematics course for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors in the United States. Internationally as well as domestically, first year mathematics courses are credited with preventing students from continuing along STEM paths. A recent study of the features that characterize exemplary calculus programs from five PhD-granting institutions highlighted several common characteristics, one of which was the existence of a well-established system for coordinating Calculus I. This coordination of courses and instructors seems to engender a community of practice. This study aims to expand on this finding by leveraging social network theory to map the underlying structure of the social ties between instructors of lower-division undergraduate mathematics courses, to compare informal and formal organizational structures in each case, and to compare the communities across the five selected institutions. Here I report on the results from one of the five selected institutions.