Transforming Pre-Service Teachers Definition of Function

Functions form a central part of the U.S. mathematics curriculum especially at the high school level. There is a considerable body of research showing that students at all levels, including preservice secondary mathematics teachers, have difficulties with the definition of function as a corresponden...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNorth American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education
Main Authors Sherman, Milan F, Meagher, Michael S, Lovett, Jennifer, McCulloch, Allison
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education 2019
Subjects
Algebra
Definitions
Difficulty Level
Educational Technology
Knowledge Level
Mathematical Concepts
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
Preservice Teachers
Secondary School Mathematics
Transformative Learning
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:Functions form a central part of the U.S. mathematics curriculum especially at the high school level. There is a considerable body of research showing that students at all levels, including preservice secondary mathematics teachers, have difficulties with the definition of function as a correspondence between two sets with a univalence condition. Those difficulties include privileging algebraic representations and reductive interpretations of the univalence condition in the form of the vertical line test. In our research study, 47 pre-service mathematics teachers provided definitions of function, engaged with an interactive applet that had a non-standard representation of function, and then provided revised definitions of function. The results of the study show a measurable increase in the participants level of abstraction in their definitions, and an increase in their attention to the univalence condition. [For the complete proceedings, see ED606556.]