Misunderstandings about the Concept of Limit among High School Seniors

Misunderstandings about the Concept of Limit among High School Seniors E. Reyhaani, Ph.D. Z. Sharifi M. Soltaani The concept of limit is one of the basic concepts in mathematics. As such, clear understanding of it is pre-requisite for learning many other concepts. However, many of high school students suffer from misunderstanding this basic concept. To identify and remedy these misconceptions, a cluster sample of 108 high school seniors (74 boys and 34 girls) was selected and then given a questionnaire on the concept with an internal consistency of 0.79. Data analysis show that the students fail to correctly understand the concept of limit and continuity, as they do not view the limit as a borderline, do not distinguish the limit of a function from itself, have no correct conception of infinity, fail to use the language and special terms correctly, and cannot use graphs to explain limit. It is concluded that the root of the matter is in students’ conceptual framework and limited to guidelines and methods given to them by their teachers. Key words: function, misunderstanding, limit, high school seniors, math teaching