Formation of Function Concept and Improvement of Teaching Methods of Arithmetic of the Elementary School

Abstract

In this research we focused on the possibility for the pupils to understand the function concept under the appropriate guidance and tried to examine how much they could master it. Especially in the revised course of study, the teaching materials for functions are recommended to be taught synthetically. We focused our attention on this point of the subject. In order to examine, two types of teaching were taken on trial for comparison: one is "Inquiring type" intensively dealing with the function concept, and the other is "Construction type" based on a synthetic method. As the result we proved that, in the fourth grade (of the elementary school), a basic idea for the function concept begins to be formed in themselves, and that the synthetic teaching should be partly mixed with the intensive teaching.