An APOS Analysis of Natural Science Students' Understanding of Integration.

• Autores: Aneshkumar Maharaj
• Localización: REDIMAT, ISSN-e 2014-3621, Vol. 3, Nº. 1, 2014, págs. 54-73
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Un Análisis APOS de la Comprensión del Concepto de Integral de los Estudiantes de Ciencias Naturales.
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (pdf)
• Resumen
  • español

    Este artículo responde a un estudio en el que se utiliza la teoría APOS (acción-proceso-objeto-esquema) y una clasificación de errores para investigar la comprensión del concepto de integral de un conjunto de estudiantes universitarios, y sus aplicaciones. La investigación se llevó a cabo en el Campus Westville de la University of KwaZulu-Natal en Sudáfrica. Las normas relevantes para encontrar anti-derivadas, la relación entre las derivadas y las anti-derivadas, la interpretación de la integral definida como área bajo la curva y las aplicaciones basadas en el contexto fueron enseñadas a los estudiantes de grado de ciencias. Este artículo presenta el análisis de las respuestas de dos estudiantes a preguntas sobre integrales y sus aplicaciones. Los resultados sugieren que los estudiantes tienen dificultades en la aplicación de las normas de integración, y posiblemente este resultado fue motivado por no disponer de estructuras mentales del proceso adecuadas.

  • English

    This article reports on a study which used the APOS (action-process-object-schema) Theory framework and a classification of errors to investigate university students' understanding of the integration concept and its applications. Research was done at the Westville Campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The relevant rules for finding antiderivatives, the link between derivatives and antiderivatives, interpreting a definite integral as area under the relevant curve and their context-based applications were taught to undergraduate science students. This paper reports on the analysis of two students� responses to questions on integrals and their applications. The findings of this study suggest that those students had difficulty in applying the rules for integrals and their applications, and this was possibly the result of them not having appropriate mental structures at the process, object and schema levels.

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