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Artículos

Vol. 14 No. 2 (2011): Julio

INTUITIVE MODELS AND PATTERN OF LEVEL DEVELOPMENT

Published
July 1, 2011

Abstract

The concept of infinity is essential to understand mathematical notions such as limit, continuity, derivative, integral, sequences and series, among others. In the present work, the evolution of the concept of infinity is studied from the last year of primary education (students from 11 to 12 years old) to the first year of university education (students from 18 to 19 years old). A questionnaire, whose design was based in part on existing literature on the subject, was applied to more than two thousand students to identify the tacit models of infinity in their performance or in their expressions. In the analysis of the responses, a new indicator has been used, the level evolution pattern (PEN), as a quantifying element that allows us to compare our results with those of other investigations. Along with models already identified in other studies, in our work we have found three new tacit intuitive models.

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