Description
The purpose of this research was to (1) develop a calculus concept inventory (CCI), and
(2) compare how students in traditional calculus classes performed as compared to those in a
fully integrated calculus-physics learning community on the CCI. The CCI was developed to
address misinformed foundational beliefs students may have about mathematical concepts
within calculus. Research areas examined included the following: (1) development of a CCI
which included conceptual misconceptions, (2) utilization of CCI to review commonsense
misconceptions, and (3) determine whether the calculus/physics learning community addressed
common misconceptions better than traditional calculus courses.
This quantitative study was a quasi-experimental and nonequivalent group design. As a
result of student interviews and reviewing student work, a CCI was developed. The results
between the learning community and traditional students were statistically significant on the
pre, post, and difference scores, but were not statistically significant on the Hake gain. After
further review of the data, most of the faculty in the learning community had been teaching
less than 2 years in the learning community, and this may have impacted the results.
