IMPLEMENTATION OF ALGEBRAIC-GEOMETRICAL DUALITY IN TEACHING INEQUATIONS IN HIGH SCHOOL

Inequations are part of the pre-university mathematics curriculum, mostly presented as a subsection of equations. Beside the algebraic treatment of inequation concept, the geometrical inequation treatment is present in mathematics textbooks in high school. The purpose of this article is to argue that algebraic-geometrical duality must be expansively implemented in teaching strategies in order to have a better understanding of inequation concept by students. A study was made with 279 students of 12th grade who took a test with 2 versions (algebraic and geometrical) related to the inequation concept. Based on the test results and on the discussion of the focus group consisting of 6 mathematics teachers, it emerges that students encounter a lot of difficulties learning inequations. After analyzing the high school mathematics textbooks and considering the test results, it is recommended that algebraic-geometrical duality should be more present in textbooks and teachers should use algebraic-geometrical duality extensively when teaching inequations. This would empower students to have a deeper understanding of inequations.