ERIC Number: EJ757767
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-May
Pages: 28
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1954
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Irrational Numbers: The Gap between Formal and Intuitive Knowledge
Sirotic, Natasa; Zazkis, Andrina
Educational Studies in Mathematics, v65 n1 p49-76 May 2007
This report focuses on prospective secondary mathematics teachers' understanding of irrational numbers. Various dimensions of participants' knowledge regarding the relation between the two sets, rational and irrational, are examined. Three issues are addressed: richness and density of numbers, the fitting of rational and irrational numbers on the real number line, and operations amongst the elements of the two sets. The results indicate that there are inconsistencies between participants' intuitions and their formal and algorithmic knowledge. Explanations used by the vast majority of participants relied primarily on considering the infinite non-repeating decimal representations of irrationals, which provided a limited access to issues mentioned above.
Descriptors: Mathematics Teachers, Numbers, Intuition, Secondary School Mathematics, Preservice Teacher Education, Number Systems, Number Concepts, Cognitive Measurement, Teacher Competency Testing, Correlation, Cognitive Style, Psychological Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A