THE TOPIC-SPECIFIC STRATEGIES ON THE LIMIT CONCEPT IN MATHEMATICS STUDENT TEACHERS LESSONS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the topic-specific strategies used by the mathematics student teachers in their lessons on the limit concept. The participants were four secondary mathematics student teachers in the final year of mathematics teacher education program. The data were obtained from the participants lesson plans, video recordings of their lessons in which they taught the concept of limit, and from semi-structured interviews. Limit-specific strategies used by participants on their teach- ing examined under limit-specific representations and limit-specific activities. Limit- specific representations were categorized as (a) figural, (b) number line, (c) tabular, (d) graphical, (e) algebraic, and (f) verbal. Limit-specific activities were categorized as (a) game, (b) real life examples, (c) animation, (d) scenario supported by visuals, (e) ana- logy, (f) Escher s paintings, (g) other disciplines, (h) discussing the limit of the polyno- mial functions, and (i) reinforcing the properties of limit. The most used limit-specific representations by participants were verbal and algebraic representations. The partici- pants related to the limit concept with the real life generally on their first lesson and they stated in the interview the reason why they preferred this strategy was to provide better understanding of students on limit concept.