Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems

Developing countries such as Malaysia need to cultivate and harness the problem solving skills of their potential workforce in order to be economically competitive. Cartesian graphs are known to be effective tools for solving derivative problems. Although ‘sketching a graph’ is advocated as a usef...

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Main Authors: Haliza Abd Hamid, Noraini Idris
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: School of Social, Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2016
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/1/2x.geografia-siupsi-mei16-Noraini%20Idris-edam.pdf
id ukm-10307
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-103072017-04-18T08:20:05Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/ Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems Haliza Abd Hamid, Noraini Idris, Developing countries such as Malaysia need to cultivate and harness the problem solving skills of their potential workforce in order to be economically competitive. Cartesian graphs are known to be effective tools for solving derivative problems. Although ‘sketching a graph’ is advocated as a useful strategy, generating an appropriate graph may pose difficulties and consequently cause the students to reluctantly employ them. This study examined the Malaysian students’ preference and usage levels of graphs in solving applied derivative problems. A 16-item Likertscale questionnaire consisting of four categories and two tasks on the application of derivative were distributed to 194 pre-university students in Selangor. The results showed a negative relationship between the students’ actual preference method and their usage level of graphs in solving derivative problems. This implied that teachers should be encouraged to motivate students to practically utilize graphs in their learning of mathematical concepts by increasing the use of graphs creatively. The design of the instructional materials and the questioning and examination tasks should gear towards the promoting of information displayed graphically. It was also recommended that the variations in the types and functions of graphs be highlighted so as to seek students’ skills and ability to sketch graphs and to read and interpret graphs efficiently and effectively. School of Social, Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2016-05 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/1/2x.geografia-siupsi-mei16-Noraini%20Idris-edam.pdf Haliza Abd Hamid, and Noraini Idris, (2016) Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 12 (6). pp. 12-23. ISSN 2180-2491 http://www.ukm.my/geografia/v2/index.php?cont=a&item=2&thn=2016&vol=12&issue=6&ver=loc
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description Developing countries such as Malaysia need to cultivate and harness the problem solving skills of their potential workforce in order to be economically competitive. Cartesian graphs are known to be effective tools for solving derivative problems. Although ‘sketching a graph’ is advocated as a useful strategy, generating an appropriate graph may pose difficulties and consequently cause the students to reluctantly employ them. This study examined the Malaysian students’ preference and usage levels of graphs in solving applied derivative problems. A 16-item Likertscale questionnaire consisting of four categories and two tasks on the application of derivative were distributed to 194 pre-university students in Selangor. The results showed a negative relationship between the students’ actual preference method and their usage level of graphs in solving derivative problems. This implied that teachers should be encouraged to motivate students to practically utilize graphs in their learning of mathematical concepts by increasing the use of graphs creatively. The design of the instructional materials and the questioning and examination tasks should gear towards the promoting of information displayed graphically. It was also recommended that the variations in the types and functions of graphs be highlighted so as to seek students’ skills and ability to sketch graphs and to read and interpret graphs efficiently and effectively.
format Article
author Haliza Abd Hamid,
Noraini Idris,
spellingShingle Haliza Abd Hamid,
Noraini Idris,
Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
author_facet Haliza Abd Hamid,
Noraini Idris,
author_sort Haliza Abd Hamid,
title Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
title_short Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
title_full Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
title_fullStr Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing Malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
title_sort enhancing malaysia’s human capital: a study of students’ preference and usage level of graphs in solving applied derivative problems
publisher School of Social, Development and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2016
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10307/1/2x.geografia-siupsi-mei16-Noraini%20Idris-edam.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:57:03Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:57:03Z
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