ABSTRACT

Adolescent and children’s concepts of multiplication and fractions have been linked to differences in the number of levels of units they coordinate. In this paper, we discuss relationships between adult students’ conceptual structures for coordinating units and their pre-calculus understandings. We conducted interviews and calculus readiness assessments with 27 introductory calculus students at a public university in the United States. Results indicate that students assimilating multiplicative situations with three levels of units performed significantly better on calculus readiness assessments than students assimilating multiplicative situations with fewer than three levels of units. We discuss implications for instruction.

摘要

青少年和儿童的乘法和分数概念与他们协调的单位级别数量的差异有关。在本文中，我们讨论了成年学生协调单元的概念结构与其微积分前理解之间的关系。我们对美国一所公立大学的 27 名微积分入门学生进行了访谈和微积分准备评估。结果表明，在微积分准备评估方面，同化具有三个单元级别的乘法情况的学生比同化具有少于三个单元级别的乘法情况的学生的表现要好得多。我们讨论对教学的影响。