PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2013
Denver, Colorado
In-Service Secondary Teachers’ Conceptualization of Complex Numbers
Page: 2-1
This study explores in-service high school mathematics teachers’ conception of various forms of a complex number and the ways that they transition between different representations’ (algebraic and geometric) of these forms. Data were collected from three high school mathematics teachers via a ninety- minute interview after they completed professional development on complex numbers. Results indicate that these teachers do not necessarily objectify exponential form of complex numbers and only conceptualized it at the operational level. On the other hand, two teachers were very comfortable with Cartesian form and showed process/object duality by translating between different representations of this form. It appeared that our participants’ ability to develop a dual conception of complex numbers was bound by their conceptualization of the various forms, which in turn was hindered by their representations of each form.