Covariational reasoning among U.S. and South Korean secondary mathematics teachers

Abstract

We investigated covariational reasoning among 487 secondary mathematics teachers in the United States and South Korea. We presented an animation showing values of two varying magnitudes (v and u) on axes in a Cartesian plane along with a request that they sketch a graph of the value of u in relation to the value of v. We classified teachers’ sketches on two independent criteria: (1) where they placed their initial point, and (2) their graph’s overall shape irrespective of initial point. There are distinct differences on both criteria between U.S. and South Korean teachers, suggesting that covariational reasoning is more prominent among South Korean secondary teachers than among U.S. secondary teachers. The results also suggest strongly that forming a multiplicative object that unites quantities’ values is necessary to express covariation graphically.