Investigating students’ perception of the importance of calculus: a cross-discipline comparison to inform module development

Joseph D Bailey, Jessica Claridge, Alexander Partner

Abstract


This study compares perceptions of calculus across disciplines in university education.  As highlighted by Rasmussen et al. (2014) further work is needed to understand the “relationship between calculus and the client disciplines of engineering, physics, biology, and chemistry”, with calculus courses often designed from the perspective of Mathematicians.  Here, we aim to give insight of when it is appropriate to group such disciplines together for taught calculus modules in Higher Education (HE).

This short study assesses how students perceive the importance of calculus across disciplines including Mathematics, Electronic Engineering, Economics and Business.

Specifically, we consider the following:  

1)         Are there differences in how students from different disciplines perceive the importance of studying calculus? 

2)         Do students view the field of calculus as: something to be learned to pass their course; something to be fully understood; or a tool for future study/career? 

Whilst this small study cannot answer these important, open questions, overall it does reveal that students in Mathematics and Economics have similar perceptions about calculus, whereas, Business students viewed calculus significantly differently to the other disciplines.  Therefore, these results give some initial indications of appropriate groupings for cross teaching calculus, and importantly give an area of focus for which further research should develop, regarding how these grouping would affect attainment, pass rates and other phenomena noted in HE calculus modules


Keywords


calculus, undergraduate, mathematics, cross-disciplinary, student perception

Full Text:

PDF

References


Ahmed Y., Taha M. H., Al-Neel S., & Gaffar A. M. (2018). Students' perception of the learning environment and its relation to their study year and performance in Sudan. Int J Med Educ. 9:145-150. doi:10.5116/ijme.5af0.1fee

Alamolhodaei, H. (1996). A study in higher education calculus and students' learning styles. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. https://eleanor.lib.gla.ac.uk/record=b1594527

Ballantine, J. A. & Larres, P. M. (2004). A critical analysis of students' perceptions of the usefulness of the case study method in an advanced management accounting module: the impact of relevant work experience. Accounting Education, 13(2), 171-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639280410001676885

Bognar, L., Fáncsikné, É. H., Horvath, P., Joos, A., Nagy, B. & Strauber, G. (2018). Improved learning environment for calculus courses. Journal of Applied Technical and Educational Sciences, 8(4), pp.35-43. https://doi.org/10.24368/jates.v8i4.59

Byun, S. Y., Irvin, M. J., & Bell, B. A. (2015). Advanced math course taking: Effects on math achievement and college enrollment. The Journal of Experimental Education, 83(4), 439-468. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2014.919570

Czocher, J. A., Tague, J., & Baker, G. (2013). Where does the calculus go? An investigation of how calculus ideas are used in later coursework. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 44(5), 673-684. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2013.780215

Darmaji, D., Kurniawan, D. A., Astalini, A., Kurniawan, W., Anwar, K., & Lumbantoruan, A. (2019). Students' Perceptions of Electronic's Module in Physics Practicum. Journal of Education and Learning, 13(2), 288-294. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1325540

Devlin, M., & O'Shea, H. (2012). Effective university teaching: Views of Australian university students from low socio-economic status backgrounds. Teaching in Higher Education, 17(4), 385-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2011.641006

Dündar, S. (2015). Mathematics teacher-candidates’ performance in solving problems with different representation styles: The trigonometry example. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 11(6), 1379-1397. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1396a

Eng, T. H., Li, V. L., & Julaihi, N. H. (2010). The relationships between students’ underachievement in mathematics courses and influencing factors. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 8, 134-141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.019

Entwistle, N., McCune, V., & Hounsell, J. (2002). Approaches to studying and perceptions of university teaching-learning environments: Concepts, measures and preliminary findings. Enhancing Teaching and Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Occasional Report, 1, 1-19. http://www.ed.ac.uk/etl/docs/ETLreport1.pdf

Ellis, J., Fosdick, B. K., & Rasmussen, C. (2016). Women 1.5 times more likely to leave STEM pipeline after calculus compared to men: Lack of mathematical confidence a potential culprit. PloS one, 11(7), e0157447. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157447

Fedesco, H. N., Kentner, A., & Natt, J. (2017). The effect of relevance strategies on student perceptions of introductory courses. Communication Education, 66(2), 196-209. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2016.1268697

Ferreira, A., & Santoso, A. (2008). Do students’ perceptions matter? A study of the effect of students’ perceptions on academic performance. Accounting & Finance, 48(2), 209-231. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629X.2007.00239.x

Hagman, J. (2019). Towards a Forward-Thinking College Calculus Program. In Theorizing STEM Education in the 21st Century. IntechOpen. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.77870

Hagman, J. E., Johnson, E., & Fosdick, B. K. (2017). Factors contributing to students and instructors experiencing a lack of time in college calculus. International Journal of STEM Education, 4(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-017-0070-7

Harackiewicz, J. M., Smith, J. L., & Priniski, S. J. (2016). Interest matters: The importance of promoting interest in education. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(2), 220-227. DOI: 10.1177/2372732216655542

Hensel, R. A., & Hamrick, T. R. (2012). Comparison of paths to calculus success. In American Society for Engineering Education. American Society for Engineering Education. DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21092

Hitt, F., & González-Martín, A. S. (2016). Generalization, covariation, functions, and Calculus. In A. Gutiérrez, G. L. Leder & P. Boero (Eds.), Second Handbook of Research on the Psychology of Mathematics Education. The Journey Continues (pp. 3-38). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-561-6_1

Johns, C. (2020). Self-Regulation in First-Semester Calculus. International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education, 6, 404-420. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40753-020-00114-9

Jungert, T., Levine, S., & Koestner, R. (2020). Examining how parent and teacher enthusiasm influences motivation and achievement in STEM. The Journal of Educational Research, 113(4), 275-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2020.1806015

Kiarie, S. M. (2016). Effects of Teachers' Perceptions on Students' Perceptions and Achievement in Environmental Education in Secondary School Biology in Gilgil Sub-County Nakuru County, Kenya. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(12), 5736-5761. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1115678

Kay, R. and Kletskin, I., 2012. Evaluating the use of problem-based video podcasts to teach mathematics in higher education. Computers & Education, 59(2), pp.619-627. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.03.007

Kinnear, G. (2018). Delivering an online course using STACK. In Proceedings of the STACK Conference.

Kokotovich, V. (2008, September). Cooperative, Cross-Discipline Teaching and Learning. In International Conference on Cooperative Design, Visualization and Engineering (pp. 216-224). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-88011-0_30

Kunter, M., Tsai, Y.‑M., Klusmann, U., Brunner, M., Krauss, S. & Baumert, J. (2008). Students' and mathematics teachers' perceptions of teacher enthusiasm and instruction. Learning and Instruction, 18(5), 468-482. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2008.06.008

Lazarides, R., Buchholz, J., & Rubach, C. (2018). Teacher enthusiasm and self-efficacy, student-perceived mastery goal orientation, and student motivation in mathematics classrooms. Teaching and Teacher Education, 69, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.08.017

Leu, K. (2017). Beginning College Students Who Change Their Majors within 3 Years of Enrollment. Data Point. NCES 2018-434. National Center for Education Statistics. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED578434

Madeira, V. R., de Souza, A. L. L., Peixoto, A., & da Gama Afonso, H. C. A. (2019). A Calculus Project to Support Students that Enter Engineering Courses. In 2019 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) (pp. 1224-1227). IEEE. DOI: 10.1109/EDUCON.2019.8725142

Marrongelle, K. A. (2001). Physics experiences and calculus: How students use physics to construct meaningful conceptualizations of calculus concepts in an interdisciplinary calculus /physics course. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Minor, E. C. (2016). Racial differences in mathematics test scores for advanced mathematics students. The High School Journal, 193-210. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44075323

Newton, G., & McCunn, P. (2015). Student perception of topic difficulty: Lecture capture in higher education. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 31(3). https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.1681

Osman, K., Hiong, L.C. & Vebrianto, R. (2013). 21st century biology: an interdisciplinary approach of biology, technology, engineering and mathematics education. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 102, pp.188-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.732

R Core Team (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/.

Rasmussen, C. and Ellis, J., 2013. Who is switching out of calculus and why. In Proceedings of the 37th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 4, pp. 73-80). PME.

Rasmussen, C., Marrongelle, K., & Borba, M.C. (2014) Research on calculus: what do we know and where do we need to go? ZDM Mathematics Education, 46, 507–515. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-014-0615-x

Riegle-Crumb C & Grodsky E. (2010). Racial-Ethnic Differences at the Intersection of Math Course-taking and Achievement. Sociology of Education. 83(3):248-270. doi:10.1177/0038040710375689

Sahin, A., Cavlazoglu, B. and Zeytuncu, Y.E., 2015. Flipping a college calculus course: A case study. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 18(3), pp.142-152. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/jeductechsoci.18.3.142

Sevimli, E. Do calculus students demand technology integration into learning environment? case of instructional differences. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 13, 37 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-016-0038-6

Tall, D., Smith, D. and Piez, C., 2008. Technology and Calculus. In Heid, M. K., & Blume, G. W (Eds), Research on Technology and the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics, Volume I: Research Syntheses, 207-258.

Tang, H. E., Julaihi, N. H., & Voon, L. L. (2013). Attitudes and perceptions of university students towards calculus. Social and Management Research Journal, 10(1), 1-39. https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/13111

Ting, D. H., & Lee, C. K. C. (2012). Understanding students’ choice of electives and its implications. Studies in Higher Education, 37(3), 309-325. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.512383

Tudor, J., Penlington, R., & McDowell, L. (2010). Perceptions and their influences on approaches to learning. Engineering Education, 5(2), 69-79. https://doi.org/10.11120/ened.2010.05020069

Vahey, P., Rafanan, K., Patton, C., Swan, K., van’t Hooft, M., Kratcoski, A., & Stanford, T. (2012). A cross-disciplinary approach to teaching data literacy and proportionality. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 81(2), 179-205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-012-9392-z

Weurlander, M., Cronhjort, M. and Filipsson, L., 2017. Engineering students’ experiences of interactive teaching in calculus. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(4), pp.852-865. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1238880

Willmot, P. & Simms, R. (2018). Mathematics Education for 21st Century Engineering; extended abstract. Proceedings EERN spring Colloquium (pp. 69-70)

Yoo, D. M., & Kim, D. H. (2019) The relationship between students’ perception of the educational environment and their subjective happiness. BMC Med Educ 19, 409 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1851-0




DOI: https://doi.org/10.21100/msor.v22i1.1457

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.