Conceiving function transformations in different representations: Middle school students working with technology

The current research describes an experiment in which we tried to facilitate nineteen grade 9 students' learning of function transformations through solving exploration activities by using Geogebra. Doing so, we wanted to characterize the participating students' understanding of the different themes associated with the topic. The research results show that working with Geogebra, grade 9 students generally succeeded to work with function transformations in their algebraic and graphic representations. This success is attributed to the properties of the technological tool, where its interface includes both the graphic and the algebraic representations. At the same time, the activities being explorative also contributed to students‟ success in this topic. Furthermore, the participating students had some difficulties working verbally with function transformations, especially when the reflection transformation was involved. This result points at the need of students' involvement with three representations to conceive deeply and accurately the different themes of the topic, namely, the algebraic, the graphic and the verbal representations.