EXPLORING LEARNING GAPS AND SUPPORT NEEDS IN DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION TOPIC

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore any learning difficulties faced by students enrolled in Differentiation and Integration under the course DBM20173 of Engineering Mathematics 2. The aim was to pinpoint possible reasons that affected students’ comprehension and utilization of concepts of calculus, especially for questions related to interpretation, selection of methods, visualization, and problem-solving. This was accomplished using a combination of methods, namely, pre-test results, error identification, survey from students, interview or focus group discussion and observation by lecturer. The results revealed that students experienced difficulty only with the unfamiliar and application-based questions rather than direct procedural ones. According to the pre-test results, volume of bounded regions represented the highest number of difficulties among the participants with 25 out of 30 participants (83.3%), while trigonometric, exponential and reciprocal integration involved 24 students (80.0%) and area under a curve involved 23 students (76.7%). As many as 248 errors occurred during the process; formula error was found to be the most common type of errors occurring in 58 cases (23.4%), while visualisation error occurred in 43 cases (17.3%), followed by method-selection error with 42 occurrences (16.9%). The questionnaire results revealed that the level of readiness to engage in digital and immersive learning assistance was very high, as the mean score equaled 4.39, while need for visualisation and application-based assistance was also very high (mean score 4.34).