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RESEARCH PAPER
Cognitive obstacles in the learning of complex number concepts: A case study of in-service undergraduate physics student-teachers in Zimbabwe
1
University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, SOUTH AFRICA
Publication date: 2022-09-01
EURASIA J. Math., Sci Tech. Ed 2022;18(10):em2158
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Physics and mathematics are interrelated as part of the science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The learning of science is supported by mathematical skills and
knowledge. The aim of this paper is to determine the cognitive obstacles of in-service
undergraduate physics student-teachers’ understanding of the concept of complex numbers
which is part of linear algebra. A case study is presented involving 10 undergraduate student-teachers at a university in Zimbabwe studying for a Bachelor of Science Education Honours Degree
in physics. Data were generated from the 10 participants’ answers to structured activity sheets
and interviews. Action, process, object, schema (APOS) theory was used to explore the possible
ways that students may follow to understand the concepts of complex numbers and how they
concur with the preliminary genetic decomposition. It was observed that most of the participants
were operating at the action level, with a few operating at the process and object levels of
understanding. Recommendations are made in this study that instructors should pay more
attention to the prerequisite concepts and the “met afters” so that students can encapsulate
processes into object understanding of division of complex numbers and polar form.
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