Students’ Conceptions of Sine and Cosine Functions: Using Multiple Representations in a Computer Programming Environment

• In Event: Learning and Instruction

Abstract

The ways that students encounter trigonometric functions—for example through right triangles, unit circles, or the Cartesian plane—impact how students think about these functions. In this study I asked, what conceptions of sine and cosine did students display when working with a computer programming environment [CPE] on a problem of modeling with sine and cosine? I used Balacheff and Gaudin’s (2003, 2009) cK¢ framework to examine students’ conceptions through their observable actions. Students used many different conceptions of sine and cosine to translate between representations and construct the functions. Students’ use of the CPE provoked them to give explicit attention to the meaning of the mathematical operations involved and how sine and cosine functions vary with x.

Author

• Anna Fricano DeJarnette, University of Cincinnati