Integrating Research on the Graphical Representation of Functions

Book excerpt: This volume focuses on the important mathematical idea of functions that, with the technology of computers and calculators, can be dynamically represented in ways that have not been possible previously. The book's editors contend that as result of recent technological developments combined with the integrated knowledge available from research on teaching, instruction, students' thinking, and assessment, curriculum developers, researchers, and teacher educators are faced with an unprecedented opportunity for making dramatic changes. The book presents content considerations that occur when the mathematics of graphs and functions relate to curriculum. It also examines content in a carefully considered integration of research that conveys where the field stands and where it might go. Drawing heavily on their own work, the chapter authors reconceptualize research in their specific areas so that this knowledge is integrated with the others' strands. This model for synthesizing research can serve as a paradigm for how research in mathematics education can -- and probably should -- proceed.