Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of University Students’ Ability to Relate Calculus Knowledge to Function Graphs

Abstract

Quinnipiac University. He completed a Ph.D. in Mathematics and another Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Oklahoma. His pedagogical research interest includes technology and calculus education of STEM majors. He worked on several IRB approved pedagogical studies to observe undergraduate and graduate mathematics and engineering students' calculus and technology knowledge since 2011. His other research interests include nonlinear optimization, financial engineering, facility allocation problem, vehicle routing problem, solar energy systems, machine learning, system design, network analysis, inventory systems, and Riemannian geometry. Hasan Alp Tekalp Mrs. elif naz tekalp My name is Elif Naz Tekalp. I am a junior industrial engineering student at Quinnipiac University. I also have mathematics and general business minor. I am interested in the role of mathematics in engineering education and professional life. I was very passionate about the research that I participated with my Dr.

Analysis of STEM Students’ Ability to Respond to Algebra, Derivative, and Limit Questions for Graphing a Function

“…Triangulation is shown to be an effective and strong method for analysis of fill-in-the-blank questions in [3] and our current work also support this finding. Therefore, we conclude that Triangulation is a strong method that can be used for evaluating similar questions in STEM fields.…”

“…Triangulation methodology is introduced in [3] and it is used for analysis of a data set with fillin-the-blank nature of the research question that helped to summarize the research participants' responses to all questions on a single spreadsheet. The data is organized in a way to contain questions and participant ID numbers with the output summarized.…”

“…The participant responses during the analysis of the Triangulation method are redesigned in a way to summarize all responses in a triangle structure within the matrix representation: The correct responses are organized by clustering them in a triangle structure within the matrix representation of the output and the percentage of correct responses to the questions are calculated within this triangle form. This percentage represents the strength of the triangulation clustering of the participant classification [3].…”

“…Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) fields require an extensive knowledge calculus concepts and efforts have been made in understanding and improving engineering students' ability to respond calculus questions in [3]- [6]. New teaching styles are designed for serving STEM students better by using these results.…”

“…In this work, we present findings on analysis of 23 engineering student's responses to a question with multiple parts that involve several calculus concepts in efforts to improve engineering and mathematics educators teaching methods. Analysis of the collected data can help us as educators and researchers to better understand engineering student's success when responding to Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) related calculus questions, specifically questions that require knowledge from multiple calculus concepts ( [3]- [6]). These results aim to introduce new teaching styles and question evaluation methods to better serve STEM students.…”