Pre-service Teachers’ Knowledge of Identifying and Clearing Pupils’ Misconceptions about Inverse and Composite Functions via Vignettes
Edgar John Sintema 1 * , José M Marban 1
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1 Universidad de Valladolid, SPAIN* Corresponding Author

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers’ knowledge of content and students vis-à-vis their ability to anticipate, identify and clear high school students’ misconceptions about inverse and composite functions. To accomplish this goal a case study research design was used to examine one fourth year mathematics education pre-service teacher from one of Zambia’s public universities. A case study strategy was preferred for this study because it enables the researcher to focus and have an in-depth investigation of an individual subject in a natural setting. As a data collection tool, the study used a questionnaire containing 7 vignettes comprising 4 inverse function vignettes and 3 composite function vignettes. Data were analyzed based on Ebert’s framework for characterizing the level of proficiency of functions and graphs. Findings revealed that the pre-service teacher’s level of proficiency of identifying and clearing students’ misconceptions was mostly good. Results suggest that vignettes might be useful in mathematical pedagogical courses in teacher education.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2021, Volume 17, Issue 1, Article No: em1930

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/9378

Publication date: 07 Jan 2021

Article Views: 2120

Article Downloads: 1439

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