Thesis Defense – April 9 – Shawn Firouzian
ORAL THESIS DEFENSE
MST Candidate
Shahram Shawn Firouzian
Thesis Advisor: Natasha Speer
Thesis Committee:
Natasha M. Speer
Robert Franzosa
John Thompson
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science in Teaching
May, 2014
Correlations Between Students’ Multiple Ways of Thinking About the Derivative and Their Abilities to Solve Applied Derivative Problems
There is extensive research on students’ understanding, thinking and difficulties with the derivative and applied derivative problems, however there are very little works correlating the two fields. In this study, the correlations between students’ multiple ways of thinking about the derivative and their abilities in solving the applied derivative problems such as related rate and graphing problems are investigated. Fine-grained analysis of the students’ written surveys and clinical interviews revealed that students’ having two or more ways of thinking about the derivative correlate to their higher abilities in solving applied derivative problems.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
4:30 p.m.
Arthur St. John Hill Auditorium, ESRB