Abstract

This research study investigated 51 Pre-University (or College level) students’ difficulties in solving trigonometric function problems. It sets to determine the correlation of conceptual knowledge and procedural skills of students’ trigonometry test achievements using pre, post and delayed-post tests on six selected trigonometric questions. Results from the three tests revealed that there were improvements in the questions that tested on procedural skills; however, they did not perform as well as was predicted in the conceptual questions due to the lack in the conceptual knowledge of trigonometry. In contrast, there was evidence on the retention of procedural skills from the delayed-post tests. This indicated that learning had taken place for the students. However, it was noticed that there was also a slight decrease on conceptual knowledge. The greatest obstacle was that students memorize the sequence or steps. The common misconceptions depicted were misinterpreted language, distorted definition and technical mechanical error.

Keywords:

Conceptual knowledge and procedural skills, pre-university students, trigonometry,

References

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

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Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.