PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Opportunity to learn solving context-based tasks provided by business calculus textbooks: An exploratory study
Page: 1124
The purpose of this study was to investigate the opportunities to learn how to solve realistic context-based problems that undergraduate business calculus textbooks in the United States offer to business and/or economics students. To do this, we selected and analyzed examples and practice problems from six different textbooks that are widely used in the teaching of business calculus nationwide. There are three major findings from this study: (1) a majority of the tasks in all the textbooks uses a camouflage context, (2) all the tasks in all the textbooks have matching information, and (3) only three textbooks had reflection tasks. The findings of this study suggest that business calculus textbooks do not offer students rich and sufficient opportunities to learn how to solve realistic problems in a business and/or economic context.