Engagement and Performance in Calculus: A Comparative Analysis of Guided Problem-Based Learning

This study investigates the effectiveness of Guided Problem-Based Learning (Guided PrBL) in calculus education for first-year engineering students. PrBL guided by calculus is a teaching method aimed at bringing students into a real world, complex problems that need to be resolved by engineering means using calculus applications. Perceived as abstract and confusing, calculus is still usually not considered easy, but this approach endeavors to help children get more engaged and interested in the subject, and of course, get a better performance. The study investigates three key aspects of the Guided PrBL approach, namely students’ perception on its use, students’ level of engagement in learning calculus and students’ performance as assessed through evaluation. Two groups were compared in a comparative study one of the groups was taught through Guided PrBL and one through a traditional lecture-based approach. The performance was measured via pre and posttests and perceptions were gathered from an open-ended questionnaire while engagement was rated using a rubric based scoring method. Qualitative and quantitative statistical tools were used for the analysis of collected data. Results demonstrated that students in Guided PrBL group had higher engagement, showed better problem solving and positive attitude towards calculus than those in the control group. The results show that Guided PrBL is a successful pedagogy in enhancing calculus learning. Future research can go further into the impact of it over time and the potential use in other engineering disciplines.