PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Student resources pertaining to function and rate of change in differential equations
Page: 968
While the importance of student understanding of function and rate of change are themes across the research literature in differential equations, few studies have explicitly focused on how student understanding of these two topics grow and interface with each other while students learn differential equations. Extending the perspective of Knowledge in Pieces (diSessa, 1993) to student learning in differential equations, this research explores the resources relating to function and rate of change that students use to solve differential equations tasks. The findings reported herein are part of a larger study in which multiple students enrolled in differential equations were interviewed periodically throughout the semester. The results culminate with two sets of resources a student used relating to function and rate of change and implications for how these concepts may come together to afford an understanding of differential equations.