Students understanding of limit concept: an apos perspective

Date

2009

Author

Çetin, İbrahim

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The main purposes of this study is to investigate first year calculus students’ understanding of formal limit concept and change in their understanding after limit instruction designed by the researcher based on APOS theory. The case study method was utilized to explore the research questions. The participants of the study were 25 students attending first year calculus course in Middle East Technical University in Turkey. Students attended five weeks instruction depending on APOS theory in the fall semester of 2007-2008. Limit questionnaire including open-ended questions was administered to students as a pretest and posttest to probe change in students’ understanding of limit concept. At the end of the instruction a semi-structured interview protocol developed by the researcher was administered to all of the students to explore students’ understanding of limit concept in depth. The interview results were analyzed by using APOS framework. The results of the study showed that constructed genetic decomposition was found to be compatible with student data. Moreover, limit instruction was found to play a positive role in facilitating students’ understanding of limit concept.

Subject Keywords

Higher education.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12611257/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/19129

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

İ. Çetin, “Students understanding of limit concept: an apos perspective,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2009.