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Assessing The Impact Of Computer Programming In Understanding Limits And Derivatives In A Secondary Mathematics Classroom, Christopher H. De Castro

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

This study explored the development of student’s conceptual understanding of limit and derivative when specific computational tools were utilized. Fourteen students from a secondary Advanced Placement Calculus AB course explored the limit and derivative concepts from calculus using computational tools in the Maple computer algebra system. Students worked in pairs utilizing the pair-programming collaborative model. Four groups of student pairs constructed computational tools and used them to explore the limit and derivative concepts. The remaining four student pairs were provided similar tools and asked to perform identical explorations.

A multiple embedded case design was utilized to explore ways students in …