Exploring Israeli, English and Australian students' conceptualizations of function: Annual Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education 2017

This international comparative study sought insights into students’ development of different conceptions of function from Years 9 to 12 using their written responses to a series of tasks. Forty high-achieving students from each country (ten per year level) were prompted to respond to several fictitious students’ views on what a function is, and then to provide their own definition. The data analysis examined the students’ responses for evidence of students’ meanings for the word ‘function’ as well as dominant and contributing conceptualisations. This paper discusses some of the similarities and differences found between the three cohorts, and shares some initial conjectures about the influences of curriculum and teaching approaches in each country on students’ concept image development.