Short preliminary analysis of student teachers’ mathematical knowledge of limit of a function

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this short preliminary study is to investigate mathematics student teachers’ mathematical and didactical knowledge of the limit of a function, particularly in evaluating the value of the limit. This study modeled these investigations using the Anthropological Theory of Didactic, which describes mathematical activity in terms of the mathematical organizations or praxeologies and considers the teacher the director of the didactic process. In this study, the case study design was used, and four mathematics student teachers were examined within the context of evaluating the limit’s value. Mathematics student teachers’ result work, video recordings of the participants’ work in which they explained how to assess the value of limit and audio recordings of task-based interviews were used to gather data. Participants showed different ways of evaluating the value of the limit of a function and explained how they decided to answer based on their understanding.