Abstract:
The study constituted an investigation for concept images and mathematical reasoning of
Grade 11 learners on the concepts of reflection, translation and stretch of functions. The
aim was to gain awareness of any conceptions that learners have about these
transformations. The researcher’s experience in high school and university mathematics
teaching had laid a basis to establish the research problem.
The subjects of the study were 96 Grade 11 mathematics learners from three conveniently
sampled South African high schools. The non-return of consent forms by some learners
and absenteeism during the days of writing by other learners, resulted in the subsequent
reduction of the amount of respondents below the anticipated 100. The preliminary
investigation, which had 30 learners, was successful in validating instruments and
projecting how the main results would be like. A mixed method exploratory design was
employed for the study, for it was to give in-depth results after combining two data
collection methods; a written diagnostic test and recorded follow-up interviews. All the 96
participants wrote the test and 14 of them were interviewed.
It was found that learners’ reasoning was more based on their concept images than on
formal definitions. The most interesting were verbal concept images, some of which were
very accurate, others incomplete and yet others exhibited misconceptions. There were a lot of inconsistencies in the students’ constructed definitions and incompetency in using
graphical and symbolical representations of reflection, translation and stretch of functions.
For example, some learners were misled by negative sign on a horizontal translation to the right to think that it was a horizontal translation to the left. Others mistook stretch for
enlargement both verbally and contextually.
The research recommends that teachers should use more than one method when teaching
transformations of functions, e.g., practically-oriented and process-oriented instructions,
with practical examples, to improve the images of the concepts that learners develop.
Within their methodologies, teachers should make concerted effort to be aware of the
diversity of ways in which their learners think of the actions and processes of reflecting,
translating and stretching, the terms they use to describe them, and how they compare the
original objects to images after transformations. They should build upon incomplete
definitions, misconceptions and other inconsistencies to facilitate development of accurate
conceptions more schematically connected to the empirical world. There is also a need for
accurate assessments of successes and shortcomings that learners display in the quest to
define and master mathematical concepts but taking cognisance of their limitations of
language proficiency in English, which is not their first language. Teachers need to draw a
clear line between the properties of stretch and enlargement, and emphasize the need to
include the invariant line in the definition of stretch. To remove confusion around the effect
of “–” sign, more practice and spiral testing of this knowledge could be done to constantly
remind learners of that property. Lastly, teachers should find out how to use smartphones,
i-phones, i-pods, tablets and other technological devices for teaching and learning, and
utilize them fully to their own and the learners’ advantage in learning these and other
concepts and skills
