1,720,982 research outputs found
An APOS Analysis of students’ understanding of the concept of a limit of a function
Get PDFThis article reports on a study which used the APOS (Action‐Process‐Object‐Schema) theory framework to investigate university students’ understanding of limits of functions. The relevant limit concepts were taught to undergraduate science students at a university in Kwazulu‐Natal in South Africa. This paper reports on the analysis of students’ responses to four types of questions on limits of functions. The findings of this study confirmed that the limit concept is one that students find difficult to understand, and suggests that this is possibly the result of many students not having appropriate mental structures at the process, object and schema levels
An Outline of Possible In-course Diagnostics for Elementary Logic, Limits and Continuity of a Function
No full textUsing a task analysis approach within a guided problem-solving model to design mathematical learning activities
Get PDFThe FET Curriculum Statements for Mathematics advocates that knowledge integrates theory, skills and values. This paper focuses on a guided problem-solving teaching model that provides a framework to do this. A task analysis approach is used within this framework to illustrate how educators could frame mathematical questions based on the relevant mathematical content
Some insights from research literature for teaching and learning mathematics
Get PDFI report on the findings from research and literature on (a) use of symbols in mathematics, (b) algebraic/trigonometric expressions, (c) solving equations, and (d) functions and calculus. From these, some insights and implications for teaching and learning are derived
Reflections on Support Structures Available to First Year Mathematics Students at a University
No full textUsing an inductive approach for definition making: Monotonicity and boundedness of sequences
Get PDFThe study investigated fourth–year students’ construction of the definitions of monotonicity and boundedness of sequences, at the Edgewood Campus of the University of KwaZulu –Natal in South Africa. Structured worksheets based on a guided problem solving teaching model were used to help students to construct the twodefinitions. A group of twenty three undergraduateteacher trainees participated in the project. These students specialised in the teaching of mathematics in the Further Education and Training (FET) (Grades 10 to 12) school curriculum. This paper, specifically, reports on the investigation of students’ definition constructions based on a learnig theory within the context of advanced mathematical thinking and makes a contribution to an understanding of how these students constructed the two definitions. It was found that despite the intervention of a structured design, these definitions were partially or inadequately conceptualised by some students
Some findings on the design and implementation of mathematics tutorials at a university
No full textThis paper reports on the design and effectiveness of four tutorial types in the context of first year mathematics tutorials, at a South African university for the period 2003 to 2011. A model for the design of mathematics tutorials was formulated. This model informed the design, implementation and refining of the mathematics tutorials over the nine year period. It was found that mathematics students get greater benefit from tutorials that are more organized and include a completion of homework unit requirement
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