Investigation of concept images in the topical order of teaching integrals; Definite and indefinite integrals

Given the higher education curriculum, which suggests teaching of indefinite integrals before definite integrals, this study aims to investigate the effects of changing the sequence of integral topics on learners’ conceptual definition and images. the participants were first year undergraduates registered at chemistry education department of a state university during 2008-2010. the sample was selected using an appropriate sampling technique of nonprobability sampling. as part of the course analysis ii, the tutor taught first indefinite, then definite integrals to the control group of 40 learners using the traditional program; whereas presentation sequence was reversed with the experimental group students as definite then indefinite integrals. the findings indicated that the experimental group students predominantly had the “area” image and the control group had the “inverse of derivative” image. students in both groups mainly used these concept images when defining the concept and had difficulties in providing the formal definition.