Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Wellesley R. Foshay

Abstract

First-year college students experience difficulties in understanding the concepts of derivatives and integrals. At the postsecondary level, the use of static visualization and other traditional instruction delivery methods often are unable to meet students' needs in calculus. This problem is current and essential in the field of education and needs consideration to enhance the method of teaching calculus. The rationale for this study was to scrutinize the effects of Maple dynamic visualization instructional activities, within the framework of the animation-visualization theory, on students' conceptual and procedural understanding of differential and integral calculus. The usage of a quantitative 2x2 factorial pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental mixed design, with multivariate analysis of variance for data (de-identified list of 81 students' test scores on derivatives and integrals) analyses, helped examine the relationships between the research variables. Results showed that the Maple dynamic visualization group, significantly (p < 0.001), outperformed the non-Maple static visualization group with a significant interaction between the groups with a substantial effect size of at least 0.27. This study augments the body of evidence that supported the efficacy of animated visuals over static visuals in producing more exceptional academic performance. A future researcher should use the random assignment to groups to minimize the possibilities of nonequivalent groups and the same measure for pretest and posttest. This study provides a groundwork for positive social change to reach a shared vision in education, enable learners to gain skills in calculus, and prepare students in and for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and careers.

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