Novel Representations of the Experiences of Calculus I Students’ Participation in the Parallel Spaces of Coursework and Complementary Instruction

Abstract

Calculus has long been known for its "gatekeeping" role in postsecondary students' pursuit of STEM careers. In addressing this pressing issue, researchers at Montclair State University developed a model of peer-led complementary instruction to engage Calculus I students in small-group, collaborative problem solving on inquiry-oriented, groupworthy tasks. This work comes from a multiple-case study that sought to address the question, “How do undergraduate students experience and navigate their calculus learning in the parallel spaces of coursework and inquiry-oriented complementary instruction?” The analytic representations that were constructed to represent the findings of that study are presented here. Those findings include characterizations of the different forms of Calculus I students’ agentive participation and the figured worlds of class and complementary instruction. The analytic representations depict those findings in the form of word clouds and Venn diagrams. The analytical representations of “Victor’s” participation are presented and discussed here, and an argument is made for their particular representational power and efficiency. As such, this work seeks to make a methodological contribution to education research that seeks to characterize the nature of participation by the actors in figured worlds.