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Mathematics Education Research Journal

, Volume 27, Issue 4, pp 615–635 | Cite as

Students’ understanding of the function-derivative relationship when learning economic concepts

  • Angel Ariza
  • Salvador Llinares
  • Julia Valls
Original Article
First Online:

Abstract

The aim of this study is to characterise students’ understanding of the function-derivative relationship when learning economic concepts. To this end, we use a fuzzy metric (Chang 1968) to identify the development of economic concept understanding that is defined by the function-derivative relationship. The results indicate that the understanding of these economic concepts is linked to students’ capacity to perform conversions and treatments between the algebraic and graphic registers of the function-derivative relationship when extracting the economic meaning of concavity/convexity in graphs of functions using the second derivative.

Keywords

Function-derivative relationship Fuzzy logic Learning economics concepts Mathematical understanding Mathematics-economics relationship 
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Copyright information

© Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc. 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Universidad de AlicanteAlicanteSpain
  2. 2.Departamento de Innovación y Formación Didáctica, Facultad de EducaciónUniversity of AlicanteAlicanteSpain

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