Epistemological and cognitive obstacles in learning of the diferential calculus: A look at the cases of special limits

Abstract

In the learning process of any subject, which is new for a student, several obstacles may be encountered, these may arise for various reasons such as a wrong way of explaining the subject or prolonged permanence in examples and / or low theories. difficulty, among others. These obstacles prevent the construction of any mathematical knowledge. In particular, it is very important to identify the epistemological and cognitive obstacles in learning, since it would facilitate the systematic growth in the structuring of knowledge, as well as allowing to build a strong base for the construction of knowledge. Therefore, the subject of special limits will be taken as mathematical content, this presents great difficulty for students to learn. The work will be focused on the epistemological and cognitive obstacles that students present in the learning of special limits, with the interest of giving guidelines for the application of tools that provide solutions and identifying said obstacles. To do this, the rubric will be used as a tool, which is a guide for evaluating student performance. The notion of obstacles and their origin will also be analyzed, seeking to arrive at the reasons for their appearance.