Southern Jordanian Undergraduates' Level of Conceptual Understanding of Derivative and Difficulties faced them during Solving Derivative Problems

Abstract

The study aims to reveal the level of conceptual understanding of derivative among undergraduates in southern Jordanian universities in order  to identify the difficulties that students faced while solving derivative problems.  The sample consisted of a sample comprising 170 male and female students (science and engineering colleges) for the study population. Students were tested through conceptual understanding test designed for the study. The results showed decrease in the level of conceptual understanding of derivative generally, its representations (i.e., symbolical and numerical), their recognition of the relationship between the derivative, limit, and rate of change among students. The understanding of the derivative in terms of representations (i.e., graphical and physical) and their recognition of the relation between the derivative, slopes of secant, and tangent were mid. Moreover, the results showed the most prominent difficulties students faced during solving derivative problems (e.g., representing the first derivative of function graphically at a particular point equaling constant.