We investigated the effects of a major revision of the differential and integral calculus curriculum, the primary goal of which was to improve STEM retention. The revamped curriculum has greater emphasis on the power of computing to help visualize patterns and gain insights to better prepare students for STEM majors, and less emphasis on…

Authors of calculus texts often include graphs in the text with the intent that the graph depicts relationships described in theorems and formulas. Similarly, graphs are often utilized in classroom lectures and discussions for the same purpose. The author or instructor includes function graphs to represent quantitative relationships and how a pair…

The curricular unit Calculus I -- Extraordinary Semester (UCCISE) -- was explicitly created to respond to students' difficulties in the curriculum unit Calculus I (UCCI). Only students who fail the UCCI are allowed to attend UCCISE. Considering the enrolled students' familiarity with mathematical software, the potential of group work to stimulate…

A significant portion of mathematics education research has focused on factors that impact student pursuit of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Low rates of STEM student enrollment combined with high drop-out rates have consistently drawn attention from educators, administrators and policy-makers at all levels. Many studies…

The aim of this research was to establish a structural relation among calculus scholars' beliefs, self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies, and problem-solving skills related to differential equations (DEs). To identify the relationships between different variables and their impact on DE problem-solving, a correlational study design with an a…

The objective of this research is to consider the possible relationship between academic performance and university students' beliefs about Mathematics, particularly in the subject of Integral Calculus. The methodology employed is quantitative, descriptive and correlational, based on a non-experimental design. The instrument used for the…

This case study examines how online mathematics homework impacts student learning, attitude, and efficacy in a college Calculus I class. This research is important because it provides data on student perceptions for how to effectively implement online homework. Participants for this study completed homework using a blend of online and paper…

Motivating students to watch pre-lesson videos to prepare for class is among the most significant challenges cited with flipped learning. We demonstrate boosting student preparation by up to 29% by implementing start-of-lesson quizzes. This is shown through the comparison of a flipped control group without the quizzes to flipped experimental…

The current study evaluated the success of implementing a blended + flipped structure in a Calculus for Life and Management Sciences course. By reimagining two of the three weekly instructional hours as online asynchronous lessons, we redesigned a 200-person section into 30-person sections, with minimal additional instructor resources. Findings…

This dissertation consists of a literature review and two empirical studies that focus on the forethought phase of self-regulated learning. The overall goal was to provide a more thorough understanding of the processes students engage in prior to initiating their academic tasks. This dissertation is composed of five chapters. Chapter One…

Greater flexibility with procedures is known to be associated with greater conceptual knowledge of mathematics and vice versa. In parallel, a student's emotional relationship to mathematics -- i.e. their 'affect' -- is known to influence how they learn and perform in mathematics. For example, a confident student may engage more fully with…

This article reports on a reconceptualization of the Precalculus course experience at Florida International University. We discuss the details of the redesign process--unified within a faculty learning community (FLC) model--along with a broader change in the course sequence leading up to Calculus. We provide data, including the comparison between…

Nowadays, mathematics teachers in K-12 strive to promote their students' mathematical knowledge and computational thinking (CT) skills. There is an increasing need for effective CT-embedded mathematics learning material and a better understanding of students' views toward them. In this work, we present the results of a research study, which…

Student success is an integral part of systemic change research. However, students' lived experiences and voices are often subdued in this programme, leaving the change that occurs to be evaluated upon measures that do not capture a holistic view of the experiences students and their shifting identities during the roll-out of those changes. These…

Students' attitudes toward mathematics and the strength of their mathematics preparation typically go hand in hand such that their specific effects are difficult to disentangle. Employing the method of propensity weighting of a continuous variable, we built hierarchical linear models in which mathematics attitudes and preparation are uncorrelated.…