Introductory calculus is mandatory for postsecondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors (Bressoud, 2015); however, many students do not persist through introductory calculus to further STEM study (Rasmussen et al., 2019). One reason for this may be that students struggle with the prior mathematical knowledge required…

This paper presents a fine-grained process analysis of 22 students in a classroom-based learning setting. The students engaged (and failed) in problem-solving attempts prior to instruction (i.e., the Productive-Failure approach). We used the HeuristicsMiner algorithm to analyze the data of a quasi-experimental study. The applied algorithm allowed…

Reports results of procedures directed at isolating and identifying students' difficulties in comprehending the concepts involved in lessons about gas exchange and respiration. Indicates that pupils (n=137) had deficient understanding of prerequisite concepts and tended to operate at the concrete operational level, whereas the highly abstract…