Ecological problems related the function topic in mathematics curriclum (2013) and teachers' praxeology

Reforms in the mathematics curriculum necessitate to rearrange the relations between the concepts in the teaching process. Changes related to the concept of function have the potential to fundamentally change the paradigms of mathematics teaching. The Anthropological Theory of Didactics was used to reveal how teachers perform the teaching of functions in the process of reform. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify ecological problems related to the functions subject in the 2013 curriculum reform and to determine the didactic praxeology and didactic moments related to the teaching of functions in the tenth grade. Case study, which is a qualitative research method, was used in the study. The participant of the research were three mathematics teachers. The data were gathered through the video and audio recording of teachers' lessons, interviews with teachers and field notes. The data were analyzed according to the basic questions of ecological analysis, the components of the praxeological analysis and didactic moments. The ecological analysis of the curriculum showed that the changes made in the curriculum should change to a great extent the ways the teachers have taught the function concept. However, it was determined that teachers did not perceive this change as a paradigm shift, but they commented many fundamental aspects of this change superficially, without reconsidering their approaches of teaching function concept. On the other hand, it was found that there were many deficiencies in the components of the didactic praxeologies that teachers performed for teaching functions. Furthermore, it was determined that teachers could not organize didactic moments to support students' understanding of the function related concepts.