Metaphoric Perceptions of High School Students about Functions

Dilek Sezgin Memnun^1, , Emre Dinç² and Bünyamin Aydin³

¹Faculty of Education, Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey

²School of Education, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

³Faculty of Education, University of Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Antalya, Turkey

Cite this paper:
Dilek Sezgin Memnun, Emre Dinç and Bünyamin Aydin. Metaphoric Perceptions of High School Students about Functions. American Journal of Educational Research. 2018; 6(6):611-616. doi: 10.12691/education-6-6-5

Abstract

This research was aimed to indicate how high school students use metaphors to think about math “functions”. A total of 405 students were asked to complete the phrase, “Function is like..…. because……” Students were given sheets and asked to write their thoughts while focusing on one metaphor. The data from this research was analyzed through a content analysis method. The metaphors were determined, classified and categorized. A total of 149 valid metaphors were identified and classified under eight different categories. The research results indicated that more than half of the students think that function is a difficult concept, some students found the concepts of polynomial and function similar to each other, and some expressed that they found the subject of function easy and enjoyed solving problems related to functions.

Keywords:
Mathematics function metaphoric perception high school student

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