engleski

Teaching and learning outcomes in undergraduate calculus courses for students f technical and science studies in Croatia and Denmark

The issue of retention of knowledge is an important area of research that has the potential to improve teaching practices and achieve curricular goals. This issue is a matter of great concern since many educators and mathematics lecturers noticed a low level of students retention of de nitions, concepts and theorems after mathematics course instruction and examination. Only small number of studies investigated retention of university students' knowledge, especially in calculus, therefore this study provides valuable insights into the retained knowledge in calculus, focusing on the non-mathematics students. We investigated retained calculus concepts for students coming from two universities that di ffer in various aspects, one in Croatia and one in Denmark. We compared the calculus teaching at a Croatian and Danish university in terms of students' retention of core calculus concepts in integrals and derivatives two months after instructions. We focused on the procedural and conceptual knowledge. The results showed that for both universities, a large portion of taught subject matter was forgotten. Investigating students grades and scores on the questionnaire, we found that the passing grades of Calculus 1 course did not predict the results in the test two months later. Students with the lowest passing grades had better results two month later, or there was no dif ference. We investigated students' knowledge 14 months after instructions, we found effect of mental structures called met-befores and met-afters that a ected students' knowledge in di erential calculus. When we investigated students' concept image and concept de nition of de nite integral two months after instructions and examination, we discovered that students retained highly incoherent knowledge of de nite integral as an area. Here we also added to Tall-Vinner discussion claiming that it di ers from student to student if concept de nition is part of the concept image. Also, we found that improper use of technology leads to retention of super cial conceptual knowledge and deterioration of procedural knowledge.

retention; calculus; non-mathematics students

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