Comparison of students' understanding of functions in classes following English and Israeli national curricula
Date
2017-12-02
Authors
Watson, A
Ayalon, M
Lerman, S
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Abstract
This paper arises from a study of how concepts related to understanding functions develop for students across the years of secondary/high school, using small samples from two different curricula systems: England and Israel. We used a survey consisting of function tasks developed in collaboration with teachers from both curriculum systems. We report on 120 higher achieving students, 10 from each of English and Israeli, 12–18 years old. Iterative and comparative analysis identified similarities and differences in students’ responses and we conjecture links between curriculum, enactment, task design, and students’ responses. Towards the end of school, students from both curriculum backgrounds performed similarly on most tasks but approached these by different routes, such as intuitive or formal and with different understandings, including correspondence and covariational approaches to functions.
Description
Keywords
Curriculum, Functions, Students’ understanding of functions
Citation
Watson Anne, Ayalon Michal, Lerman Stephen (2018). Comparison of students' understanding of functions in classes following English and Israeli national curricula Educational Studies in Mathematics, 2019, 97 (3) pp. 255 - 272.