INSTRUCTIONAL ANALOGIES AND STUDENT LEARNING: THE CONCEPT OF FUNCTION

This paper examines the effectiveness of analogies in the teaching and learning of the function concept. Our findings indicate that instructional analogies cannot support students' understanding of the functions unless students are given epistemologically appropriate analogues and illustrated the structural relations between the analogues and the targeted concepts. Provision of analogies to emphasize procedures, algebraic or otherwise, may confine students to a limited way of thinking about the concept.