Applying the APOS Theory to Study the Student Understanding of Polar Coordinates

Vahid Borji¹ and Michael. Gr. Voskoglou^2,

¹Department of Mathematics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran

²Mathematical Sciences, School of Technological Applications, Graduate Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, Patras, Greece

Cite this paper:
Vahid Borji and Michael. Gr. Voskoglou. Applying the APOS Theory to Study the Student Understanding of Polar Coordinates. American Journal of Educational Research. 2016; 4(16):1149-1156. doi: 10.12691/education-4-16-5

Abstract

A Genetic Decomposition (GD) is developed in this paper, in terms of the APOS instructional treatment of mathematics, for teaching and learning the polar coordinates. The design of the GD is based on the conclusions obtained by a written test and by oral interviews performed on a group of students of the Physics Department of the University of Neyshabur, Iran.

Keywords:
Polar and Cartesian Coordinates and Curves APOS Theory Genetic Decomposition (GD) Triad Mechanism of Schema Development

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