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

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain

    Angel Ariza, Salvador Llinares & Julia Valls

  2. Departamento de Innovación y Formación Didáctica, Facultad de Educación, University of Alicante, Campus de San Vicente del Raspeig, Ap. 89, E-03080, Alicante, Spain

    Salvador Llinares

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  1. Angel Ariza
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  2. Salvador Llinares
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  3. Julia Valls
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Correspondence to Salvador Llinares.

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Ariza, A., Llinares, S. & Valls, J. Students’ understanding of the function-derivative relationship when learning economic concepts. Math Ed Res J 27, 615–635 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-015-0156-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-015-0156-9

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