Acquiring a concept and its subconcepts: Insights into the relevance of prerequisites for learning
Conference contribution (Article) › Research › Peer reviewed
Publication data
| By | David Bednorz, Daniel Sommerhoff, Aiso Heinze |
| Original language | English |
| Published in | Claudia Cornejo, Patricio Felmer, David M. Gómez, Pablo Dartnell, Paula Araya, Armando Peri, Valeria Randolph (Eds.), Proceedings of the 48th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education: Research Reports (vol. 1) |
| Pages | 107-114 |
| Editor (Publisher) | PME |
| DOI/Link | https://www.igpme.org/publications/current-proceedings/ |
| Publication status | Published – 07.2025 |
Learning prerequisites play a significant role for achievement in mathematics. So far, the effect of such prerequisites throughout a whole teaching unit for a mathematical concept and its subconcepts has received little attention. For this reason, the present study examines the effects of learning prerequisites on achievement during a teaching unit on the concept of derivative implemented in 15 mathematics classrooms. For this, we administered a pretest, midterm tests, and posttest. The results highlight that prior knowledge, cognitive abilities, and subject-specific interest are key predictors for the overall concept. However, their effects on the subconcepts are more nuanced, with some predictors showing no influence for some subconcepts. This supports the knowledge-is-power hypothesis while revealing differential impacts at the subconcept.
