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Classification and concept consistency

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journal contribution
posted on 2011-09-22, 13:18 authored by Lara AlcockLara Alcock, Adrian Simpson
This article investigates the extent to which undergraduates consistently use a single mechanism as a basis for classifying mathematical objects. We argue that the concept image/concept definition distinction focuses on whether students use an accepted definition but does not necessarily capture the more basic notion that there should be a fixed basis for classification. We examine students’ classifications of real sequences before and after exposure to definitions of increasing and decreasing; we develop an abductive plausible explanations method to estimate the consistency within the participants’ responses and suggest that this provides evidence that many students may lack what we call concept consistency.

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematics Education Centre

Citation

ALCOCK, L. and SIMPSON, A., 2011. Classification and concept consistency. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 11 (2), pp. 91-106

Publisher

Routledge © OISE

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

2011

Notes

This article was published in the Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education [Routledge © OISE]. The definitive version is available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14926156.2011.570476

ISSN

1492-6156

Language

  • en

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