| |
| | Research Sampler 9: Key Aspects of Knowing and Learning the Concept of Function |
 | | The concept of function is central to undergraduate mathematics, foundational to modern mathematics, and essential in related areas of the sciences. |
 | | When dealing with functions modeling concrete situations, there are often similar topographical structures within the real-world setting itself (e.g., the curves of a racetrack, the elevation of a road traveling across hilly terrain, or the shape of a container being filled with liquid). |
 | | Such a covariation view of function has also been found to be essential for understanding central concepts of calculus (Cottrill et al., 1996; Kaput, 1992; Thompson, 1994b; Zandieh, 2000) and for reasoning about average and instantaneous rates of change, concavity, inflection points, and their real-world interpretations (Carlson, 1998; Monk, 1992). |
| www.maa.org /t_and_l/sampler/rs_9.html (7323 words) |
|