John (Randy) Stahley’s Thesis Defense

ORAL THESIS DEFENSE

John Stahley
MST Candidate

Thesis Advisor: Robert Franzosa

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Science in Teaching
August, 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010
10:00 a.m.
208 Neville Hall

Students’ Qualitative Understanding of the Relationship Between the Graph of a Function and the Graphs of Its Derivatives

The purpose of this research is to understand the thought processes of students as they solve or attempt to solve a conceptually based question presented in the Calculus I course at the University of Maine.  I will point out the common and uncommon misconceptions students confront as they complete this task.  Previous publications in this area of research will be reviewed and discussed, as well as the ramifications of this study and other research that would be beneficial in understanding students’ qualitative comprehension of derivatives of graphical functions.