Investigating the effect of computer-supported instruction on students’ understanding of different representations of two-variable inequalities

ABSTRACT

Abstract: The topic of inequalities is one of the fundamental subject areas for the development of mathematical knowledge. Although there is a considerable body of research focused on one-variable inequalities, studies that investigate students’ performance on two-variable inequalities are scarce. With this in mind, the aim of this study is twofold: first, it provides an account of the difficulties that students face in interpreting and constructing different representations of two-variable inequalities; and second, it investigates the effectiveness of a computer-supported teaching sequence aimed at developing students’ understanding of different representations of two-variable inequalities. The participants in the study were 33 elementary mathematics teacher candidates. The data were gathered via a test implemented as a pre- and post-test. The main finding of the study was that students had difficulty in establishing the link between the coordinates of the points in a solution set and the algebraic representation of a two-variable inequality. Moreover, it was found that the students were not able to correctly use and interpret the logical connectives in compound inequalities. The comparison of the pre- and post-test scores indicated that the designed instructional sequence was beneficial for supporting students in understanding the different representations of two-variable inequalities.

KEYWORDS:

• Two-variable inequalities
• multiple representations
• logical connectives
• dynamic mathematics software
• compound inequalities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Erdem Çekmez

Erdem Çekmez is an assistant professor at Trabzon University, Fatih Faculty of Education, Trabzon, Turkiye. He received his Ph.D. from Karadeniz Technical University. He is interested in computer-based mathematics education, mathematical understandings, and calculus instruction.