New Textbook, 'First Year Calculus, an Inquiry-Based Learning Approach', Offers a Step-by-Step Guide to Teachers and Students for Problem-Solving Skills Development

JOSEPH, Ore., February 4, 2020 (Newswire.com) -  When it comes to math, Clement E. Falbo, Ph.D. firmly believes in the foundational tenet of the discipline advanced by many in the field: The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics. Yet, his stance on how to go about that may be a bit different than the norm in many college classrooms. And that is exactly why he wrote the recently released textbook First Year Calculus, An Inquiry-Based Learning Approach.

​Falbo says the First Year Calculus fills a gap in the textbooks available specific to inquiry-based learning (IBL) in the calculus field and is meant to be used in a teacher-facilitated classroom to help guide students through the process. With inquiry-based learning, students are encouraged to assert their individual problem-solving skills and take a leadership approach in arriving at answers. The method advocates for minimizing – and even eliminating - instructor-led lectures so that students can take a more active role in the learning process.

The 25-chapter textbook includes content on Rapid Sketching, Asymptotes, Derivatives, the Chain Rule and all other components of the discipline and poses questions or problems for students to solve using skills taught, then built upon, in each subsequent lesson. Answers are provided at each step to allow students to then check their work line by line.

“Calculus is probably the branch of mathematics that allows for the most creativity, and its use extends to physics, engineering, business, computer science, biology and even artificial intelligence, said Falbo. 

“By incorporating an inquiry-based learning approach to calculus, students are actually teaching each other and comparing problem-solving approaches rather than being lectured to.”

“I have seen firsthand over my years of teaching that this style works and wants to help impart calculus problem-solving skills in a way that supports that style of learning in the classroom,” he added.

Falbo does indeed know that of which he speaks. He holds his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas in Austin and is mathematics professor emeritus at Sonoma State University. For 43 years, he taught math at the college and university level. During that time, he received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, had his work appear in several mathematical journals, and published other math textbooks. He even served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Zimbabwe, where taught math to African high school students. It was, in fact, Falbo’s notes from his time in the classroom of Dr. R.L. Moore at the University of Texas that served as the impetus for the textbook.

Falbo is also the author of First Year Calculus as Taught by R. L. Moore: An Inquiry-Based Learning Approach.

First Year Calculus, An Inquiry-Based Learning Approach is available for $19.00 on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.

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Source: Clement E. Falbo, Ph.D.