Correcting Students’ Views About Calculus by Using the Developmental History of Calculus A Case of CBU

This study endeavored to correct the philosophical orientations of students, with reference to the fallibilist-absolutist continuum. The study involved the Developmental History of Calculus (DHC) as an intervention to use in shifting (correcting) the students' orientations towards a more fallibilist extent. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the students' views (philosophical orientations) about Calculus can be corrected after the DHC was administered to them. The mixed research methodology was applied in handling the data. This was an action research in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected by means of a questionnaire and an interview. The participants were BSc students of Mathematics (Education & Pure) at the Copperbelt University in Zambia. The sample selection procedure employed was purposive sampling and a sample size of 41 was involved. The intervention, the DHC, was presented to the participants in a class and the questionnaire was administered before and after the intervention. From the findings, it was determined that the DHC changed the students' philosophical orientations about Calculus concepts to become more fallibilistic. This change to more fallibilistic was determined on a five point Likert scale. The McNemar change test was utilized to test for the significance of the change effected by the DHC. The qualitative data were interpreted for themes. Collectively, qualitative and quantitative findings suggest that after the DHC, students become more fallibilistic and less absolutistic. And the overall conclusion is that DHC corrects the philosophical orientations of students.