RME 2008 Biza Christou Zachariades LU Repository.pdf (1 MB)
Student perspectives on the relationship between a curve and its tangent in the transition from Euclidean Geometry to Analysis
journal contribution
posted on 2011-09-28, 12:11 authored by Irene Biza, Constantinos Christou, Theodossios ZachariadesThe tangent line is a central concept in many mathematics and science courses. In this paper we describe a model of students’ thinking – concept images as well as ability in symbolic manipulation – about the tangent line of a curve as it has developed through students’ experiences in Euclidean Geometry and Analysis courses. Data was collected through a questionnaire administered to 196 Year 12 students. Through Latent Class Analysis, the participants were classified in three hierarchical groups representing the transition from a Geometrical Global perspective on the tangent line to an Analytical Local perspective. In the light of this classification, and through qualitative explanations of the students’ responses, we describe students’ thinking about tangents in terms of seven factors. We confirm the model constituted by these seven factors through Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematics Education Centre
Citation
BIZA, I., CHRISTOU, C. and ZACHARIADES, T., 2008. Student perspectives on the relationship between a curve and its tangent in the transition from Euclidean Geometry to Analysis. Research in Mathematics Education, 10 (1), pp. 53-70Publisher
Taylor and Francis © British Society for Research into Learning MathematicsVersion
- AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publication date
2008Notes
This article was published in the journal, Research in Mathematics Education [Taylor and Francis © British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics]. The definitive version is available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14794800801916457ISSN
1479-4802Publisher version
Language
- en