PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Approaches to the derivative in Korean and the U.S. calculus classrooms
Page: 804
This study explored how one Korean and one U.S. calculus class defined the word “derivative” as a point-specific object through the limit process on the difference quotient, and as a function on its domain. The analysis using Commognitive approach showed that both class used similar visual mediators for the limit process/object, but addressed different components of the definitions; Discussion of the derivative as a function before it was defined were frequently found in the U.S. class but rarely found in the Korean class; Words for the derivative at a point, and words for the derivative as a function explicitly differed in the Korean class compared to the U.S. class; and the derivative was first defined as a function through correspondence between x-value and the derivative value in Korean class, but through expansion of x values from a number to variable and corresponding changes in the U.S. class.