Lili Cui
Department of Physics
University of Maryland Baltimore County


INVESTIGATING COLLEGE STUDENTS. RETENTION AND TRANSFER FROM CALCULUS TO 
PHYSICS

Most science and engineering majors are required to take calculus-based 
physics, which makes calculus a prerequisite or co-requisite course.  It 
is not uncommon for physics instructors to claim that their students did 
not have appropriate calculus knowledge to help them master physics.  What 
is the nature of this problem? This talk focuses on assessing transfer of 
learning from calculus to physics. A theoretical framework was proposed to 
assess students' transfer of learning in the context of problem solving.  
Two kinds of transfer - horizontal transfer and vertical transfer - were 
identified.  Horizontal transfer involves applying previously learned 
ideas in a problem.  Vertical transfer involves constructing new ideas to 
solve the problem.  Students need to employ both horizontal and vertical 
transfer when they solve any problem.  Both quantitative and qualitative 
methods were used to examine transfer in the context of problem solving.  
I will focus on qualitative study in this talk. A detailed understanding 
of students' difficulties in terms of the theoretical framework is 
provided.  I will also discuss instructional strategies that may 
facilitate the transfer from calculus to physics.