Abstract

VARGAS ALEJO, Verónica; REYES RODRIGUEZ, Aarón Víctor  and  ESCALANTE, César Cristóbal. Cycles of understanding about the concepts of function and variation. Educ. mat. [online]. 2016, vol.28, n.2, pp.59-83.  Epub Apr 08, 2022. ISSN 2448-8089.  https://doi.org/10.24844/em2802.03.

In this paper we analyze the relationship between the conceptual tools (representations) used by students enrolled in a college tourism program, to model a situation about cost of sending packages, and the cycles of understanding that the students develop about the concepts of step function, function, and variation. Based on the perspective of Models and Modeling, the questions that guide the discussion are: What kind of representations did first semester students use to describe and analyze problematic situations where the underlying model is a step function? To what extent did the representations support the development of different cycles of understanding of the concepts of function and variation? The results show multiple representations that students construct, analyze, modify, and refine. The representations helped to acquire meaning of mathematical concepts as function and variation.

Keywords : Understanding cycles; functions; step functions; modeling and variation.

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