In this paper, we explore what factors are associated with a person’s perception that there is enough time in class to understand the more difficult ideas of the course, first from the student perspective and then from the instructor perspective. Mathematics instructors appear to be aware of these issues, and the US mathematics community has had, and continues to have, lively debates about both the breadth and depth at which topics should be addressed in Calculus I (e.g., Wu 1999 Yoshinobu and Jones 2012). They attribute this to “a general declining interest, an underrepresentation of women, acute shortfalls on the labor market and high economic ambitions” (p. These retention problems, both with STEM students in general and women and underrepresented minorities in particular, do not appear to be US specific van Langen and Dekkers ( 2005) found that Sweden, the UK, the US, and the Netherlands are all struggling with enrollment and persistence with STEM degree courses. For instance, after controlling for student preparedness, intended career goals, and perceived course instruction, women are 50% more likely to switch out of the calculus sequence compared to men (Ellis et al. Notably, Calculus I attrition is not uniform across demographic groups. As Calculus I is a requirement for many diverse STEM-related disciplines, these courses typically cover a large amount of content and thus are prone to create the negative atmosphere described by students that leave STEM majors. When asked why they are leaving STEM degrees, students often report being frustrated with courses overburdened with content and with pacing structures that inhibit comprehension and reflection (Seymour 2006). However, while this course is heavily populated and required for all STEM degrees, the US colleges and universities are struggling with high attrition and failure rates in calculus. In the fall of 2010, the year that the data presented here were collected, there were over 234,000 students taking Calculus I across the USA (Blair et al. This course is required for all students intending to pursue a STEM degree and has some of the highest enrollment numbers. In the USA, Calculus I, a course typically including limits, the definition of the derivative, and differentiation rules and applications (see Johnson 2016 for more detail about Calculus I content), is the first mathematics course many students take when entering college. Many of the students leaving STEM majors cite ineffective teaching methods and uninspiring atmospheres in introductory-level STEM courses-with introductory mathematics courses often singled out-as the primary reason for attrition (Niemi 2002 Seymour 2006 Thompson et al. This is especially problematic in the USA, where the number of STEM graduates must increase by an additional one million over current projections in the next decade to match expected workforce demands (PCAST 2012). It is estimated that as many as 40% of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) intending majors do not graduate with a STEM degree (Hurtado et al. We argue that this is especially important in introductory college calculus courses that are packed with material, taught to a diverse population of students in terms of demographics, mathematical preparation, and career goals. This includes preparing students before they enter calculus, so they feel confident in their abilities, as well as weakening the internal framing of the course by engaging in teaching practices that provide students opportunities to communicate and influence their learning (e.g., discussion and group work). This analysis offers insight into how we might create more positive opportunities to learn in our own classrooms. Factors weakly associated with instructor reports of lack of time were a common final and reporting that approximately half of the students lacked the ability to succeed in the course. We find a number of student factors associated with students experiencing negative opportunities to learn, such as student gender, lacking previous calculus experience, and reports of poor and non-student-centered teaching. This work is part of the US national study on college calculus, which provides an ideal landscape to examine these questions on a large scale. In this report, we examine factors related to students and instructors reporting a lack of time in class for students to understand difficult ideas and relate this to students’ and instructors’ perceptions of opportunities to learn using a hierarchical linear model. Calculus is a foundational course for STEM-intending students yet has been shown to dissuade students from pursuing STEM degrees.
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