Students’ Learning Difficulty in Infinite Sequence and Series

Lisa, Khairani Idris

2018

Abstract

This research aims to describe a difficulty encountered by students of Mathematics education department of State Institute for Islamic Studies of Lhokseumawe in solving problems of infinite sequence and series, particularly problems related to concepts and principles. Students’ performance is low in a test about infinite sequence and series. The students’ answer sheets of the test are subsequently used as data sources for a difficulties analysis by identifying the errors they made related to concepts and principles. Qualitative descriptive analysis is applied as the analysis methods. The result shows that there are three types of difficulties related to understanding concept and two types of difficulties related to understanding principles which could be categorized as high-level difficulty. The difficulties related to understanding concepts included: (1) identifying example and non-example of concepts; (2) using models, figures, and symbols to represent concepts; and (3) translating from one presentation model into another presentation models. The difficulties related to understanding principles included: (1) recognizing when a principle is required; and (2) appreciating the roles of principles in mathematics. Based on the results, possible future research and suggestions on effective teaching and learning for infinite sequence and series will be discussed.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Lisa. and Idris K. (2018). Students’ Learning Difficulty in Infinite Sequence and Series.In Proceedings of the International Conference on Mathematics and Islam - Volume 1: ICMIs, ISBN 978-989-758-407-7, pages 284-289. DOI: 10.5220/0008520802840289

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icmis18,
author={Lisa and Khairani Idris},
title={Students’ Learning Difficulty in Infinite Sequence and Series},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Mathematics and Islam - Volume 1: ICMIs,},
year={2018},
pages={284-289},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0008520802840289},
isbn={978-989-758-407-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Mathematics and Islam - Volume 1: ICMIs,
TI - Students’ Learning Difficulty in Infinite Sequence and Series
SN - 978-989-758-407-7
AU - Lisa.
AU - Idris K.
PY - 2018
SP - 284
EP - 289
DO - 10.5220/0008520802840289