Conceptual approach to calculus in teacher education: Examples using interactive technology
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Abstract
Calculus is a powerful tool for solving problems involving change, variation, and accumulation. Successful students acquire a mastery of a number of techniques for deriving and integrating, and develop problem-solving skills. However, the procedures are often not accompanied by a solid conceptual understanding. Even successful students often have trouble explaining what the concepts of limit, derivative, and integral mean and how they relate to each other. For example, recent studies show that calculus students have many misconceptions about the concept of derivative at a point and derivative function In this article we present activities using interactive technology with prospective mathematics teachers in different courses at the University of Delaware.
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