The Cognitive Development Of Function Concepts In Secondary Occupational School Students

Function concepts are important content in mathematics teaching in secondary occupational schools, and they are difficult for the students to master. The objective of this study is to explore the cognitive development law of function concepts in secondary occupational school students. In this research, we chose 102 secondary occupational school students as subects, and explored their developmental levels of function concepts. In this study, questions compiled by researchers were used , collective test was selected, and some students were interviewed in order to get their true thoughts. All data were analyzed statistically. At last, the cognitive development levels of function concepts in secondary occupational school students were opened out. The study showed that: (1) In the stage of function as " analytic forms" , five aspects, which were variable, relation, correspondence, were positively correlated with analytic forms of function concepts ( from strong to weak ). Among them, the coordination of coordinate and set was not statistically significant, and the coordination between set and analytic forms of function concepts was the weakest. After removing set, other three items significantly correlated with analytic forms of function concepts except coordinate. In the stage of function as " changing process", correspondence, coordinate, relation, variable, set were positively correlated with changing process level of function concepts ( from strong to weak ). But the coordination of set and variable was not statistically significant, and the coordination between set and changing process level of function concepts was the weakest. After removing set, other four independents positively and significantly correlated with dependent (changing process level of function concepts). (2) The cognitive development of function concepts improved slowly from grade 1 to 3. The result showed that it was very difficult for students in occupational high schools to grasp the function concepts.