PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS ABOUT Y=X+5 DO THEY SEE A.pdfVIP

PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS ABOUT Y=X+5: DO THEY SEE A FUNCTION? Örjan Hansson and Barbro Grevholm Kristianstad University/Luleå University of Technology, Sweden and Agder University, Norway We are studying two groups of preservice teachers’ conceptions, progression and especially the concept of function in connection to y=x+5 when they are taking a course in algebra or one in calculus in their third and sixth term, respectively, in a teacher preparation program. There is a similar development in that they use to a higher degree a numerical interpretation before the course, which decreases after the course with a growth in linear and functional interpretation with the existence of two variables as a large and rather stable category. The group in their sixth term have a slightly more elaborated language and way of looking at y=x+5 than the group in the third term. For a majority of preservice teachers, in both groups, the concept of function is not evoked in connection to y=x+5. INTRODUCTION As parts of ongoing studies we have asked preservice teachers, in mathematics and science for school year 4-9, to answer the following question ”We write y=x+5. What does that mean?” (Grevholm, 1998, 2002; Hansson, 2001). One reason to study y=x+5 is the fact that Blomhøj (1997) reported that final year students in compulsory school, age 15-16 years, have an unsatisfactory (see below) way of handling a question about how x is related to y in y=x+5. Another reason is that linear relations are common subjects that the preservice teachers are going to handle in different teaching-situations as inservice teachers. Linear relations are also often used in introductions of the function concept in later years of compulsory school. The qu