Abstract
The current research describes an experiment in which we tried to facilitate nineteen grade 9 students' learning of function transformations through solving exploration activities by using Geogebra. Doing so, we wanted to characterize the participating students' understanding of the different themes associated with the topic. The research results show that working with Geogebra, grade 9 students generally succeeded to work with function transformations in their algebraic and graphic representations. This success is attributed to the properties of the technological tool, where its interface includes both the graphic and the algebraic representations. At the same time, the activities being explorative also contributed to students‟ success in this topic. Furthermore, the participating students had some difficulties working verbally with function transformations, especially when the reflection transformation was involved. This result points at the need of students' involvement with three representations to conceive deeply and accurately the different themes of the topic, namely, the algebraic, the graphic and the verbal representations.
Highlights
Various educational institutions and researchers emphasized the importance of the „function transformations‟ topic to the learners of mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), 1989, 2000; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008)
The function transformations' unit was taught by the first author using Geogebra, which is a relatively new technological tool for teaching and learning of several mathematical topics
The following mathematical actions are involved in drawing a function using transformations on the original one: recognizing the original function, recognizing the graphical meanings of the following algebraic operations: adding a positive/negative number to x, adding a positive/negative number to y, multiplying a function with a number, and multiplying a function with (-1)
Summary
Various educational institutions and researchers emphasized the importance of the „function transformations‟ topic to the learners of mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), 1989, 2000; National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008). Doing so, they emphasized the benefits of this topic to students' learning of mathematics. The NCTM (2000) and NCTM (1989) pointed at the importance of utilizing transformations in learning functions and in other mathematical situations. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2008) reported that many students do not understand the procedures for transforming functions or why they are
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