Students’ understanding of the concept of function and mapping

Abstract

Function is a concept that is very much related to daily life. Likewise with the concept of mapping. The purpose of this study is to describe students’ understanding of the concept of function and mapping by students who are at a high level (ie extended-trans level). The student is the subject of this study. This research is exploring the ability of research subjects. The research subjects were taken from mathematics education students at Bengkulu University. We selected one subject of research, Mg. Student was interviewed in depth about the concept of function. Data were analyzed based on genetic decomposition. The results of this study are that students are able to present an overview of the concept of function with a broad extension level. The function from the set A to B is the set f whose members are sequential pairs of the two cross-sets of non-empty sets A and B such that (a, b) and (a, b ′) elements of f then b = b′. Also able to make a simplification in the form of mapping definition, which states that the domain of function f is the set A. The conclusion of this study is that high-level students have an in-depth understanding of the concept of function. He is able to compile extensive extensions. Also, make the exact simulations.

The process of achieving the principles of the triangle area of middle school students through YouTube assisted learning during a pandemic

“…The research data were analyzed, namely the analysis of genetic decomposition of the abstraction process carried out by the subject (Widada, Herawaty, Hudiria, Prakoso, et al, 2020;Widada, Herawaty, Lusiana, Afriani, et al, 2020b). Genetic decomposition is a structured collection of mental activities carried out by a person to describe how mathematical concepts/principles can be developed in his mind (Widada, Herawati, Fata, Nurhasanah, et al, 2020). The genetic decomposition that will be analyzed in this study is more specifically on the mental and physical activities of the subject related to the process of achieving concepts or principles.…”

Learning Difficulties with the Concept of Function in Maths: A Literature Review

“…Students' difficulties begin with the definition of the concept [11,16,20,30,31,33,40,41]. Most secondary school students cannot specify what a function is.…”

“…On the other hand, students do not use abstract mathematical terminology, and without the appropriate vocabulary, it is difficult to define a function [30,[32][33][34]. In addition to the abstraction of the concept, experts point out that textbooks use different definitions of the concept of function and, although they essentially refer to the same thing, generate confusion among students [41].…”

“…Without a clear definition of the concept, students have difficulties distinguishing when an expression corresponds to a function or not [29,41].…”

“…On the other hand, due to the type of functions that students usually use, they consider that there must always be a rule (an algebraic expression) that defines the function. They even think that the rule is in fact the function [33,34,41]. Students wrongly think that all functions must be defined by an algebraic expression [8,13,16,41] (M22-Table 3).…”