Students' conceptual understanding on inverse function concept

Abstract

The success of students on solving question about inverse function concept is supported by conceptual understanding which they have. This article has a purpose to describe students' conceptual understanding on inverse function concept. This research is a descriptive research with a qualitative approach. The participants of the research are 20 students, who are in the fourth semester of their study. They are the students of a university which located in Malang. The result of the research shows that when the participants answer questions about inverse function, they apply their conceptual understanding. The characteristics of students who have conceptual understanding on inverse function concept are they are able to explain and draw inverse function concept, explain steps on determining inverse of a function, and give explanation why a function which has an inverse has to be bijective. There are some students or participants who as if they solve the question using conceptual understanding. However, it turns out that they have misconception on inverse function concept after a series of investigation by the researchers.