Concept On Limit and Sequence

Introducing the Concept of Convergence of a Sequence in Secondary School
Author(s): Malgorzata Przenioslo

Source: Educational Studies in Mathematics, Vol. 60, No. 1 (2005), pp. 71-93
Published by: Springer
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MALGORZATA PRZENIOSLO
INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE
OF A SEQUENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL
ABSTRACT. My purpose in this paper is to present a didactic tool - a set of specially

designed problems and questions for discussion - that can help making students better
aware of the various aspects of the formal notion of limit of a sequence. The didactic tool
will be justified using results from my own and other authors' research on students' na?ve
or erroneous conceptions of limit of a sequence.
KEY WORDS: convergence of a sequence, didactic tool, learning, limit of a sequence,

secondary school, teaching
1. INTRODUCTION
Research on secondary school and university students' understanding of
limits leads to many distressing conclusions; hence the need to design new
approaches for introducing this concept. This paper presents some results
of my attempts in this direction.
My thinking about a possible approach to teaching limits was informed
by published research on students' difficulties as well as by my own research
and teaching experience in this area. I wanted the approach to help students
to go beyond the simplistic or erroneous ideas known from the literature
(Cornu, 1983, 1991; Davis and Vinner, 1986; Schwarzenberger and Tall,
1978; Tall and Vinner; 1981; Vinner, 1991), such as:
- the terms of a convergent sequence approach the limit, sometimes reach
ing it
- the terms approach the limit but must not reach it
- the terms must either increase, or decrease
- it is enough that infinitely many terms approach the limit
- a bound of the sequence is its limit
- the limit of a sequence is its last term

- a convergent sequence must follow some pattern
- confusion between the unattainable infinity of the number of terms and
the possibly attainable finite value of the limit.
Most of these conceptions were also found in university students. For
example, Robert and Boschet (1981) and Robert (1982), constructed sev
eral models of undergraduate students' conceptions of convergence of a
Educational Studies in Mathematics (2005) 60: 71-93
DOI: 10.1007/s 10649-005-5325-4 ? Springer 2005

72
numerical sequence. These models distinguished between conceptions ac

cording to two aspects:
- there was (or wasn't) an implicit assumption of the monotony of the

sequence (monotonie vs. non-monotonic conceptions), and
- there was (or wasn't) the implicit assumption of motion of the values of
the terms (dynamic vs. static conceptions).
Thus, for example, convictions such as "a convergent sequence is an

increasing sequence which is bounded from above (or decreasing and
bounded from below)" would be described by the "monotonie" model.
A conviction expressed by "a convergent sequence is an increasing (or de
creasing) sequence which approaches a limit" would be described by the
"monotonic-dynamic model". The "dynamic" model could describe con

victions expressed by, e.g., "un tends to /", "un approaches /", "the distance
from un to / becomes small", "the values approach some number more

and more closely"). The "static" model, on the other hand, would refer
to convictions expressed by, e.g., "the un are in an interval near /", "the
un are grouped around /", "un are so close that they are included in the
neighborhood of /".
Sierpinska(1985,1987,1990) examined primary intuitions in secondary
school students who have not yet been exposed to the more formal defi
nitions. In the last work (1990) she also presented an epistemology of an
infinite numerical sequence in terms of epistemological obstacles and acts
of understanding involved in their overcoming. Some of these obstacles
and acts of understanding limits were connected with understanding infi
nite sequences and infinity. For example, perceiving a sequence as a rule
for producing numbers or identifying it with the set of its terms or yet with
a "very long" list of numbers are conceptions of sequence that may func
tion as obstacles to understanding limits. The conception of sequence as a
"long list" is also related to a certain understanding of infinity. Conceptions
of infinity (see also Monaghan, 2001; Tall, 2001) such as the conviction
that what is infinite is unlimited are seen as obstacles to understanding
limits. Sierpinska (1990) also saw an obstacle in the belief that the prob
lem of reaching the limit is a mathematical (rather than a philosophical)
problem and therefore there exists a mathematical solution of it. Moreover,
Sierpinska analyzed students' understanding of the term 'approach'. The
conviction that the meaning of this word depends on the context (that it is
different in the domain of numbers and in the domain of geometrical or
physical magnitudes) was also seen as an obstacle.
In another work (Sierpinska, 1994, pp. 84-86) this author also analyzed
difficulties connected with understanding a formal definition of limit of a
sequence. More recently, this issue has been revisited by Mamona-Downs
73
(2001) and Robert and Speer (2001). Obstacles similar to those mentioned
above were also discussed in Artigue (2000).

The existence of the aforesaid students' conceptions and difficulties
follows also from papers concerning the understanding of the more general
concept - the limit of function (for example, Ferrini-Mundi and Graham,
1994; Szydlik, 2000; Tall, 1996; Williams, 1991, 2001). Authors of all
these works gave evidence of a considerable divergence between most of
the revealed convictions and the formal definitions of the concept of limit.
They also confirmed that many students consider their various conceptions
as the definition.
In working on the approach to teaching limits presented in this paper, I
took into account all the research results mentioned above, as well as the
results of my own research. I turn now to briefly summarizing the latter.
In (Przenioslo, 2000,2002,2003,2004) I investigated the images of the

concept of limit of a function (including sequence as a particular function)
developed by secondary school and university students. I identified several
classes of images, according to their main foci: neighborhoods, graph ap
proaching, values approaching, being defined at xo, limit of / at xo equals
f(jco), and algorithms. In this paper, I mention only those elements of the
images that refer to the limit of a sequence.
Images, which focused on neighborhoods, exhibited the greatest number
of elements that were consistent with the accepted sense of the concept.
Nevertheless, students whose images focused on neighborhoods also held

conceptions that were not quite correct. For example, the conviction that
for the limit (equal to /) to exist, when considering the strip of any width
around the straight line y = /, it is necessary that "if the terms start falling
into the strip then no successive ones will fall out of it". Another example
is considering the existence of "a single neighborhood or a single strip

around the straight-line y = / such that the terms, which are contained in
it, approach /" as a sufficient condition.
Concept images focused on "neighborhoods" were not very popular

among the participants of the study, the majority of whom were more
interested in looking at how the terms of a sequence approach. Among
the convictions held by these students, the requirement that, starting from
a certain point, the terms of the sequence approach the number /, was
the closest to the accepted notion of limit. More often, however, students
expected the points (n, an) to approach the asymptote y = / or to be located
on it from a certain point on. The conviction that finitely many terms of
a sequence can "jump out" and not come closer and closer to the straight
line y = I also seemed constructive. Students were saying that these terms
could be ignored. Still, some of them thought that only at most several
hundred or a few thousand terms could "act differently", but not a billion
74
or a sextillion, as this would be "too many". For many participants in the

study, the approaching of all terms had to be monotonie. For others the
approaching of a subjectively defined majority of terms was sufficient.
Some students verified only if the terms were getting closer and closer
to some number, without expecting the difference between the successive
terms and the limit to become arbitrarily small.
Surprisingly, a majority of the students believed that a sequence could
have a limit at a natural number no. This idea was sometimes connected
with the observation concerning the existence of "a right-hand and a left
hand limit", and could be a degenerated consequence of concept images
focused on approaching of graph points and the belief in the necessity of
considering exclusively the set of natural numbers. Many students thought
that the limit of a sequence (an ) at no exists if the points (n, an ) "were getting
closer and closer" to (no, ano), from both sides. However, they were usually
not able to determine how many points must approach (n0, ano). Some of
them thought that a few tens or hundreds were enough. Others required that
all the points approach it. For no = 1 students took into consideration only
the terms on one side of the point (1, a\). Some of them applied the same
way of thinking to the last term of a finite sequence. Some students did not
associate the conviction about existence of the limit of a sequence at no
with conceptions focused on the approaching of graph points as explicitly.
For them the limit of a sequence at no was equal to a^ "by definition". The
phrase "by definition" did not mean for them that this idea results from the
'official' definition; rather, it was a piece of their own definition of limit.
Some elements of images which focused on using algorithms are also

worth mentioning. In the case of sequences defined by two formulas, some
students reduced the condition connected with the equality of one-sided
limits to the form: "if the sequence is defined using the brace bracket I
calculate its limit from each formula; if the limits are the same, the sequence
has a limit, and if they are different, the limit does not exist". Looking at the
graphs, some students would identify "familiar" - as they said - sequences

and determine limits on the basis of the information they possessed about
those sequences.
Besides such detailed descriptions of students' conceptions, the most
significant conclusion drawn from the research was that many conceptions
held by students who completed a university course of mathematical anal

ysis had been probably formed already at secondary school. Moreover, for
the majority of the participants in the study, the concept definition was
not the most significant element of the image, in the sense that it was not
considered as useful in solving problems. The participants appeared to

lack a sense of the role of definitions in mathematics in general, and were
convinced that their various conceptions determined the meaning of the
INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE 75
concept. These conceptions were often treated as the definition or, to say it
more accurately, as parts of the definition applicable in particular situations
in lieu of or together with the correctly formulated definition.
The study has thus confirmed the results of research on the effect of
secondary school and university analysis courses on students' understand
ing of limits in other countries. Apparently, the learning of the notion of
limit carries so many difficulties, obstacles and possibilities of degenera
tion 'hidden' in the very 'nature' of this concept that the organization of its
teaching undoubtedly requires taking special steps. This idea guided my
further research, where I hoped to design teaching situations for introduc
ing students to the notion of limit that would make them better aware of
its informal and formal aspects. In this paper, I propose a didactic tool -
a set of specially designed problems - which can be used as a basis for

organizing such teaching situations.
2. Theoretical framework
Looking for effective methods of introducing the concept of limit one has to
pay attention not only to particular students' conceptions but also to some
more general facts and principles. I have drawn such principles from an
eclectic variety of sources rather than from one coherent theory or model
of teaching and learning mathematics.
In particular, I have assumed, following Arcavi (2003) and Tall (1991),
that visual representations play a significant role in mathematics learning,
and I have allowed much room and a lot of significance in my teaching
project for the activity of graphing sequences.
I have also taken into account the fact that the development of the concept
image (Tall and Vinner, 1981, p. 152; Przenioslo, 2004, p. 104) may be con
siderably influenced by the first examples, to which students are exposed.
There is a risk that these examples take on the function of prototypes for the
concept, largely replacing the reference to its definition and thus becoming
an obstacle to theoretical thinking about the concept (see, e.g. Sierpinska,

2000, p. 222). Providing students with typical, one-sided, examples in in
troducing the concept may be one of the reasons why students develop
conceptions distant from its definition (see, e.g. Bruner, 1974, p. 156). By
contrast, if students are allowed to find out the sense of a concept by dealing
with varied, and rather simple but well-chosen examples, they not only learn
the definition but also construct and develop proper associations (Bruner,
1974, p. 135). These examples must be embedded in problem situations

that make sense both for the students (in view of their past knowledge) and
for the teacher (in view of his or her teaching project) (Brousseau, 1997).
76
These situations must, therefore, make sense not only from the math
ematical point of view, but also from a psychological point of view. It is
essential to take into account students' abilities and their natural, moti
vating attitudes like, for example, curiosity (cf. for example, Poly a, 1965,
p. 103). With regard to the role of motivation in the relation to mathematics
teaching, my reference has been (Williams and Ivey, 2001).

I have also agreed, in principle, with the constructivist thesis (e.g., Du
binsky, 1992; Davis et al., 1990;Piaget, 1973,1977; Steffe and Gale, 1995),
in assuming that students do not learn a concept just by listening or reading
its definition, but by gradually adapting their cognitive structures to the

problems that they have an opportunity to solve.
But, contrary to the vision of the introverted mind tackling solitary prob
lems, often attributed to constructivism, I assumed that social interactions

play an important role in the construction of knowledge (see, for example,
Steinbring et al., 1998). I have also assumed a leading role of the teacher
in the process of learning institutionalized and formalized knowledge (e.g.
Bloch, 1999; Bruner, 1974; Wittmann, 2001).
This is why the situations I propose for the teaching and learning of
the formal notion of limit of a sequence are to be organized in the form
of teacher-led classroom discussions around a purposefully chosen set of
provocative examples, problems and questions.
3. The organization of students' work

In the proposed teaching situation, students are invited to solve and discuss
a number of problems. Among these problems, one plays a central role; it
is formulated in Section 3.1. All the other problems (exercises 1-4, given
in Section 3.3) are supposed to enrich the discussions around the main
problem, and give the teacher further opportunity to bring to light and
institutionalize those aspects of convergence of sequences that are often
overlooked or misinterpreted in students' spontaneous conceptions.
3.1. The main problem

The proposed teaching situation is to be organized as classroom discussions
around the following "central" problem:
What common property not shared by the sequence (bn), do the infinite
sequences (an) mentioned below have?
_ ? 2 if n is a multiple of 10
n ~~ l
I 1n
+ - for other natural numbers
77
_i 2 forn = 1,000,000
a"~|l + i for? #1,000,000 ()
| for 1,000,000 < n < 10,000,000
? I 1i? ?n
for other natural numbers
n+1
a?=n
(3)
_\ \ forn < 329, 587

an~\\ + \ for n> 329,587 ()
On
\\--
(5)
forn
a"={ 1 nforn>r25 (6)
<
12
_J? forn < 10,000

?"~( 1 forn > 10,000 U)
a = ( ~3 for 200' 00? - n - 500'000
n?I 1 for other natural numbers
an=\ + (-\)n (9)

{1 if n is a multiple of 10
1 + -nfor other natural numbers
\ p forn < 10
Hl-i forn>10 (U)

v
where
3.2.
As
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Justification
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o
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The
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Another
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78
terms of a sequence must not reach the limit. Most of the given sequences
are not monotonie (sequences 9,10 are not monotonie from a certain point),
which was aimed at the belief that monotonicity or monotonicity from a
certain point is necessary for the limit to exist. Moreover, it was hoped
that, in plotting the graphs of the sequences, the students would notice the
irrelevance of the behavior of a finite number of initial terms, from the
point of view of the "common property" they would be looking for. For
this purpose, I used several variants of such initial behavior: only one, or
many more terms behave differently than others (sequences 1, 2, 8); the
initial terms are either getting closer and closer to the limit but the for
mula changes at a certain point (sequence 6), they move away from the
limit (sequences 4, 7), or each of them can be represented by an arbitrary
real number (sequence 11 is an 'infinite family' of sequences). Moreover,
I chose, on purpose, a few sequences whose behavior would change after a
large number of initial terms, to counter the widespread students' interpre
tation of "finite number of initial terms" as a small number of initial terms.
These sequences were also expected to provoke a discussion about the no

tion, possibly entertained by some students, of infinity as a very big number.
The formulation of the problem contains no graphical representations

of the given sequences. In the proposed teaching situation, students are
to be asked to make their own graphs. This activity is expected to help
them notice that, for sequences (an), starting from a certain index, all
terms of the sequence start behaving in a certain way, while this is not the
case for the sequence (bn). The observation, what happens to the terms
from a certain index, might appear, in the context of the graphing, in the
form of expressions such as, "the terms are getting closer and closer to
the line y = / but they do not reach it" (for sequences 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11),
"the terms are getting closer and closer to the line y = I and they reach
it" (for sequences 5, 6, 7 and 8), "(an) consists of subsequences of the two
previous types" (for sequences 9 and 10), or other, used by the students in
a metaphorical sense. The teacher could then guide the discussion so as to
transform these metaphors, find out the idea of drawing strips around this
straight line as a method of linking these three groups of sequences and
consider the common property in the language of neighborhoods. The pur
poseful similarity between the graph of the sequence (bn) and the graphs
of the sequences (an) is aimed at revealing the usual misconceptions such
as, convergence to 1 means that the "majority" of the terms, or an infinite
number of terms gets closer and closer to 1. This then can be used by
the teacher to stress the differences between the (an) sequences and the
(bn) sequence and further discuss the more subtle definitional conditions
of convergence. For example, observing the graphs of sequences 1, 2, 3,4
and 11 the students can imagine that the terms are not only less and less
79
different from 1, but this difference gets arbitrarily small, so that all strips
or neighborhoods of 1 must be considered. Of course, for other sequences

(an) this property is also true but it is not so visible as for sequences 1, 2,
3, 4 and 11.
The formulas "with brace bracket" and changing the behavior of the
terms at certain points might provoke some students to thinking about as
signing "partial limits" to subsequences, or to initial terms of sequences,
as well as to thinking about limits not only in infinity but also in some con
crete natural number. Therefore, the problem offers the teacher occasions
to discuss and help students overcome these misconceptions relative to the
formal notion of limit.
3.3. The additional exercises

In the additional exercises, students are presented with statements and con
versations of four fictitious characters (Agatha, Eve, Michael and Peter)
working on the central problem. The task is to reflect on and evaluate the
views thus expressed. Some of the views represent the common miscon
ceptions about limits, others are mathematically correct.
The characters are fictitious, but the statements attributed to them are au
thentic; they have been drawn from transcripts of my discussions of the main
problem with groups of secondary schools students and students commenc

ing their university studies in mathematics. My role in these groups was that
of a teacher, both participating in the students' conversations and monitor

ing them. I tried to stimulate the students' activities, draw their attention to
significant matters, and help them notice contradictions, mistakes, as well as
overcome difficulties and reach conclusions. These conversations enabled

me to determine the misconceptions and difficulties that could be revealed
with the help of this problem, given appropriate teacher interventions.
But, depending on the degree of engagement of the students with the

problem and the ability of the teacher to provoke an interesting discussion,
the central problem may or may not offer the necessary opportunities for
addressing these important misconceptions and difficulties. Whence the
idea of the additional exercises, where the misconceptions appear explicitly
in the conversations of the fictitious characters and afford the students and
the teacher an opportunity to pose relevant questions and discuss important
aspects of the concept, in case they were missed in the discussion of the
main problem alone. The exercises may also help the teacher to prepare
for the classroom discussion, by bringing to his/her awareness the key
issues, and helping him/her anticipate the possible intuitions, conceptions
and reactions of students participating in the discussion.
Below I present the four additional exercises.
80
Exercise 1. Agatha, Eve, Michael and Peter are discussing the main
problem. They have drawn the most significant parts of the graphs of se
quences and now are exchanging their observations. Join them in their
discussion., 1.1 Michael: Look, the sequences 5,6,7 and 8 have something
in common: (What is that?) 1.2 Michael: Starting from a certain n, the
terms always equal 1. (Is Michael right? If so, for each of the sequences
indicate the appropriate n.) 1.3 Peter: The sequence 7 has a constant value
equal to 1 from n = 10,000, and the sequence 8 from n = 500,001., Eve:
So has the sequence 6 from n = 126 and sequence 5 is always constant,

that is, from n = 1 its value is 1., Peter: And sequence (bn) does not have
such a property but neither do other (an)., Agatha: Yes, yes but I am looking
at the first four graphs and I imagine complete sequences. Something hap
pens to them from a certain n, but not to the sequence (bn). (What do you
think Agatha has noticed?) 1.4 Agatha: Look at these sequences, I see that
starting from a certain natural number n, the successive terms are less and
less distant from the straight line y = 1. (What do you think about Agatha's
observation? Try to point out numbers n, mentioned by Agatha for these
sequences.) 1.5 Peter: Oh, yes, from a certain index the points approach
the straight-line., Agatha: For the first sequence n = 1,000,001, for the
second 10,000,000., Eve: For the third one and for the fourth n = 329,587.,
Peter: The sequence 11 has this property as well. (Do you agree with Peter?
If so, point out the right n.) 1.6 Michael: Right, it has. I think n = 10 or
any bigger number, for example 11, or 100 is good, and, for instance, for
sequence 1, we can also choose n = 1,000,002 or n equals two million or

one hundred million. (Is Michael right?) 1.7 Agatha: Oh, yes. So for each
of the sequences 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11 we can indicate the natural number no
such that, for all natural numbers n > no the values of the sequence, that
is, the numbers an, are less and less different from 1., Eve: The values and
not the points? (Try to explain to Eve what Agatha means.) 1.8 Michael:
You look at the points, the terms of the sequence and you see that they
are less and less distant from the straight-line y = 1, but if you look at
axis of values, that is the axis of a?'s, the values of the sequence are less
and less different from 1, starting from a certain ano, that is, for all natural
numbers n, such that n > no. Agatha: But they don't equal 1. (Is Agatha
right?) 1.9 Peter: Right, they don't, because numbers 1 ? 1/n or 1 + 1/n
will never equal 1, no matter how big n is since 1/n is always greater than
zero., Eve: I see. And in sequence 9 the successive terms, starting from
n ? 1, are also less and less distant from a straight-line y = 1. (Is Eva
right?) 1.10 Peter: Yes, you are right, although they approach differently,
on both sides of the straight-line., Michael: Exactly. I think it is so because
this sequence consists of two subsequences of the same type as sequences

(an) from 1 to 4 and 11. (What do you think about Michael's idea?) 1.11
Agatha: I agree. Apart from this, sequence 10 also consists of interesting

subsequences. (What subsequences does Agatha mean?) 1.12 Agatha: One
subsequence, let's call it (cn), has a constant value 1 for all n multiples of
number 10, and another one is (dn) such that dn = 1 + l/n, for n consec
utive natural numbers excluding the multiples of number 10. Peter: So, in
sequences 9 and 10 starting from a certain n something happens as well.
(What 'happens'?) And from which ??, 1.13 Peter: They consist of subse
quences whose terms from n = 1, approach 1, but do not equal 1 or are
always equal 1., Eve: Maybe sequence 6 has such a property because it is
also defined by 1 - l/n and 1 ? (What do you think about it?) 1.14 Michael:
No, it doesn't, because these must be subsequences of an infinite sequence,
so each of them must be defined by infinitely many natural numbers., Eva:
Oh, yes, it is the sequence of the first type and its value equals 1, starting
from n = 126., Agatha: So, we have discovered the common property of
sequences (an). (What is the common property of sequences (an)l) 1.15

Peter: Their common property is that something happens to the terms of
sequence, starting from a certain index., Agatha: Starting from a certain
n, their values are less and less different from 1 but they do not reach 1,
or they are equal 1 or (an) consists of subsequences of the two mentioned
types., Eve: Oh, but what about the sequence (bn), doesn't it have such a
property for very big n?, Do you think that the sequence (bn) does not have
such a property?, 1.16 Peter: No, it doesn't, because its value is equal to 2
for all multiples of number 10., Agatha: You cannot find no, from which
all values approach 1 or are equal to 1. If we point out some no, there will
always be a natural number n greater than ?o for which an will equal 2.,
Michael: It consists of a constant subsequence equal to 2 for n multiples
of number 10 and the subsequence of the terms equal to 1 + l/n for the
other natural numbers. (Sum up your observations. Into what three groups
can you classify the sequences (an)7 What is the property shared by the
sequences (an) that (bn) does not have?)
Exercise 2. The group of students we already know are now dealing with
sequences 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11 with the purpose of explaining what it means
that, starting from a certain natural number, the values approach 1 and are
less and less different from 1:2.1 Peter: They are less, less and less different.
(How would you explain this?) 2.2 Eve: You cannot stop it, the points are
closer and closer to the straight-line y = 1, they will be unimaginably close
to it but they will never reach it., Michael: This sequence is infinite, so if
n approaches infinity, the distance between the terms and the straight-line
y = 1 gets infinitely, arbitrarily small but never equal to zero. Agatha: If we
look at the an 's axis we see that values of the sequence are arbitrarily close to
1 because for any number a even slightly different from 1 there always exists
values an, closer to 1 than a. Now, will you please explain it once again?
81
82 MALGORZATA PRZENIOSLO
Exercise 3. Agatha, Eve, Michael and Peter are trying to find out if the
three groups of sequences (an) obtained in exercise 1 can be expressed

by one condition: 3.1 Agatha: I've got an idea. Let's draw strips around
the straight-line y = 1 and see whether for a given strip, starting from
some point, all the terms fall into this strip. (What do you think about
Agatha's idea? Could you draw such strips on one of the graphs?) 3.2
Peter: Wait, what strips do you mean?, Agatha: The strips that are divided
by the straight-line y = 1 in halves., Michael: And how many strips do

you want to draw? (What is your opinion? How many and which strips
should be considered?) 3.3 Michael: Is one strip enough? Eve: But for the
sequence (bn) we can also find a strip of the radius, for example, one and
a half, and all the terms fall into it. Michael: But I mean the strip such that
the terms which fall into it approach 1 or are equal to 1. (What do you
think of Michael's idea?) 3.4 Eve: But that does not make a link among
the situations we considered before. You still see them as different., Peter:
Whether there is a strip or not you can see the same but we wanted to link
these conditions using strips., Since one strip does not help, let's consider
more. Have a try. 3.5 Peter: If, starting from some number, the values are
equal to 1, there is no problem but what about the other sequences?, Agatha:
I see, if we consider strips that are narrower and narrower then for a given
strip we can always find the natural number no such that, starting from
this no, all the terms will fall into this strip. Michael: Say it once again
please. (Try to explain it.) 3.6 Agatha: We draw a strip of some width and
find no such that, for n > no all terms of the sequence fall into this strip.
Next, we draw a narrower strip and find a new no such that, starting from
it, all the terms fall into this strip. And so on with strips that are narrower
and narrower. (Mark Agatha's observations on a few graphs representing

sequences (an).) 3.7 Peter: I see, and the same can be done for all sequences
(an). Eve: But not for (bn) because if the width of the strip is 1/2, there is no
such no. Michael: So, how many and which strips should be considered?
(What do you think?) 3.8 Peter: Well, narrower and narrower ones. Eve:
Even those that are too narrow to be drawn. Michael: Narrower than what?
From which strip should we start? (What do you think?) 3.9 Peter: Well,
the problem is, narrower than... what? Agatha: The big ones containing
all the terms of the sequence are not important. Should we simply consider
all the strips? (Do you agree?) 3.10 Michael: Oh, yes, the strips whose
width is an arbitrary number, that is, every real positive number. (Sum up
your observations. What single condition have you applied to sequences
(0,)?)
Exercise 4. Agatha and her friends are trying to find out whether the
common property of sequences (an), which they have noticed and formu
lated as: "For each strip around the straight line y = 1 there exist a natural
number no such that, for all natural numbers n > no, the terms of the
sequence, the points (n, an\ belong to this strip" can be expressed dif
ferently if the values of the sequence, the numbers a?, are analyzed: 4.1
Peter: So, now we are looking at the n's and an's axes., Do you have any
suggestions?, 4.2 Eve: To draw the strip around the straight-line y = 1,
I mark, on the <zn-axis, an interval of the same length as the width of my
strip. The middle of the interval is 1. Agatha: You mean the neighborhood
of number 1 with radius equal to a half of the strip's width. (Referring to
neighborhoods try to formulate the property the sequences (an) have.) 4.3
Michael: So, for each neighborhood of the number 1 there exists a natural
number no such that, starting from no, all terms fall into the strip, in other
words, the values fall into this neighborhood., Peter: Once again, slowly.
For each neighborhood of number 1, that is for the radius being an arbitrary,
real number... (Finish what Peter was about to say and show on a graph
- for some neighborhoods - what you mean.) 4.4 Agatha: For each neigh
borhood of number 1, here on the vertical axis, a natural number no can
be found on n's horizontal axis such that for all natural numbers n > no,
the values of the sequence, the numbers an, belong to this neighborhood
of number 1., Eve: For example, to find no, for such a neighborhood of 1,
you can draw an auxiliary strip determined by this neighborhood and see
starting from what n the points fall into this strip and take this n as no-,
Peter: And if the points fall into this strip, their second coordinates - the
numbers an - fall into this neighborhood., Michael: no can be the first n,
starting from which, the values fall into the neighborhood, or any greater
n. (Is Michael right?) 4.5 Agatha: It doesn't matter whether no is the first
such n or any greater n because starting from no, the values belong to this
neighborhood of 1 and that is the most important thing., Eve: And that's
true for all the neighborhoods.
(Draw conclusions from the discussion. What condition do sequences
(an) satisfy? Express it in as many ways as you can.)
In the next section I explain the organization of the didactic situation
based on the central problem and the additional exercises.
3.4. Organization of classes around the central problem and the
additional exercises - general remarks

The teaching situation starts with the teacher presenting the main problem
and launching the debate by asking appropriate questions. The exercises 1

4 or their parts are to be used only if necessary to maintain the discussion
or highlight a specific point. Of course, they should be presented to the
students in another form - all views, tasks and questions should be written
in separate lines.
83
84
These additional exercises are meant to help the students to better artic
ulate their views or enable them to become more aware of some facts they
may have missed during the discussion.

3.4.1. Keeping the students mathematically active
In monitoring the discussion, the teacher must insist that students not only
say that they agree with this or that point of view but also explain their
opinion. It is important that they make explicit the operations they have
performed, especially if they have performed them mentally, without writ
ing anything down.
Questions such as "What do you think?" in exercises 1-4 are to be in
terpreted as a hint for engaging in a mathematical activity. Students may
work in small groups, form their opinions, try to convince each other and
then exchange their views with other groups through their representatives.
The teacher should act as a participant in the conversation, but also use
every opportunity to stimulate the activity of the students, by drawing their
attention to the key issues, helping to reveal contradictions or mistakes and
to overcome difficulties. The teacher also plays a key role in helping stu
dents to draw more general conclusions from their particular observations
(cf. for example Bruner, 1974, p. 403; Wittmann, 2001, p. 9).
3.4.2. Friendly atmosphere

The atmosphere of the classroom discussion must make the encountered
difficulties and making mistakes appear as something unavoidable

and constructive in developing a sound understanding (see, for example,
Hadamard, 1949, p. 49). The learners must get rid of their fear of proposing
hypotheses and making decisions in public. It has been observed that such
fear is quite common.
3.4.3. Prerequisite notions and skills

Another condition of success of the proposed teaching situation is that stu
dents understand the concept of function, and view sequences as a specific
function (Mamona, 1990; McDonald et al., 2000). The students should also
be familiar with the ideas of subsequence and neighborhood. Depending on
the degree of formalization that is aimed at, it may be useful to familiarize
students with expressing the "inequality with absolute value" in the lan
guage of distances and neighborhoods. Moreover, it is essential that some
concepts of logic and, particularly, quantifiers be understood (see Dubinsky
and Yiparaki, 2000).

In the course of the discussion, students' attention should be drawn to
a possible ambiguity in using the word "term" of a numerical sequence; at
least in my country, this term sometimes refers to a number and sometimes
to a point in the plane of the graph.

85
In the teaching situation, students are expected to discover that a com

mon property of sequences (an), not shared by (??), is the limit equal to 1,
by first examining the graphs and imagining what happens to the terms of a
sequence as its indices grow. For that reason the ability to plot the graphs of
such sequences, especially those defined by two formulas, is very impor

tant. This ability can be developed earlier, for example, when the concept
of a sequence is first introduced, and revisited when students start dealing
with the main problem.
Plotting the graphs of sequences may be difficult for students, because it
involves not only physical drawing but also imagining the points: on a sheet
of paper only a finite number of the terms can be marked and the others
have to be constructed mentally. Students would be expected to mark some
characteristic fragments of sequences in the Cartesian coordinate system,
especially those fragments where the behavior of terms changes for large
indices. Of course, students may use not only paper but also a graphing
calculator or a computer. For example, in plotting the graph of the second
sequence (an), students may mark only a few initial terms based on the
formula an = 1 ? l/n and the rest, up to n equal to one million, may be
imagined. They will soon notice that the values up to n = 1,000,000 are
less and less different from 1. Marking the terms with indices 999,998 and
999,999 makes it easier to notice. From n equal to one million up to 10

million the value is 1/2. Students may mark only a few terms with indices
greater than or equal to one million and a few less than 10 million. From n
= 10,000,000 on the values are described again according to the formula

an = 1 ? 1 / n. Students may mark a few terms and the rest (infinitely many)
must be imagined.
It is important that students see or feel that the values are less and
less different from 1, for larger and larger n, and that the difference gets
arbitrarily small but, in this case, it never becomes equal to 0. Here, quite
naturally, students are inclined to draw an auxiliary straight-line y = 1 (to
be precise, a half line for x > 0), to depict the behavior of terms of the
sequence more easily. But it would not be advisable to draw such a line for
sequences whose values equal 1 from a certain n.

Some difficulties with plotting the graphs are caused by wanting to
mark more and more values on the ??-axis and more and more points
(n, an). Students have to accept the inaccuracy of plotting points for large n
and focus on obtaining an approximate, global visualization of the sequence

that highlights only its characteristic fragments. Some difficulties may arise
as students draw and analyze the graph of the sequence (bn) because they
may not immediately understand that an infinite number of the terms of the
sequence equal 2. They have to imagine that, on the graph, infinitely many
terms 'jump out' of the otherwise regular pattern of approaching 1.
86
3.5. Developing the teaching situation in three stages
I envision the teaching situation as composed of three stages of the de

velopment of students' understanding of the formal notion of limit of a
sequence:
1. the stage of developing conceptions related to the meaning of the phrase

"starting from a certain n"; at this stage, exercises 1 and 2 may be helpful
to focus the discussion;

2. the stage of understanding the notions related with the idea of "strips"
of arbitrary width around the straight line y = 1, where exercise 3 can
be useful;
3. the stage of the development of concepts related to neighborhoods,
where exercise 4 can be of help.
I now discuss the three stages in more detail.
Stage I- development of conceptions connected with the phrase "start
ing from a certain n"
In plotting and analyzing the graphs of sequences (an) and the sequence
(bn), students are expected to notice that sequences (an) can be divided into
three groups. In my experimentations, students were coming up mostly with
the following classification. One group is composed of sequences with the

property that, starting from a certain natural number n, all the successive
terms are less and less distant from a straight line y = 1 but do not lie on it,
or that all the subsequent values of the sequence are less and less different
from 1 but are not equal 1 (sequences 1, 2, 3, 4 and 11). The next group
consists of sequences (an) such that, starting from a certain n, the values an
are equal to 1 (sequences 5,6,7 and 8). The third group, a bit more difficult
to describe, is composed of sequences "consisting" of subsequences, which
may be included either in the first or the second group (sequences 9 and 10).
The phrase "the sequence consists of subsequences" was used by the partic
ipants of my research. The phrase is not quite correct but this is how some
students interpreted what they saw on the graphs. For example, the graph
of sequence 9 suggested to them that the sequence "consists" of two sub
sequences of the first type formed for natural even and odd numbers. They
included it in the third group. Of course, the interpretation can be different,
and some other students included sequence 9 in the first group. However,
since many students intuitively associated convergence with monotonicity,
it was natural for them to set apart sequences that are monotonie from a
certain point (sequences in group 1 are of this kind). Sequence 9 does not
have such property, and therefore they placed it in the third group.
Clearly, intuitions connected with the monotonie approaching of terms
do not exert a negative influence upon the development of correct

87
conceptions of the limit of a sequence and it is useful to allow the students to
identify this class of sequences as a concept. However, this concept should
not replace the general concept of convergence of sequences, as is often

the case if the issue is not explicitly brought up for discussion.
Basing on the aforementioned observation of sequences some students
may express the conviction, that, to verify if the limit of sequence is equal
to 1, it is enough to examine if its two subsequences are convergent to 1.
In this connection, at some opportune moment, the teacher should stress
that, for a sequence to be convergent, all its subsequences, and not just a
few chosen ones, must be convergent to the same number.
The common property of sequences (a?), which is not shared by (??),
that the students are expected to notice, is that, starting from a certain
n, something happens to their terms, namely, starting from this n, all the
successive values are less and less different from 1 but they do not reach 1,
or they are equal to 1, or (an) consists of subsequences of the two previous
types. If students analyzing the problem and exchanging their views do not
notice that sequences (an) are divided into the aforesaid groups the teacher
may resort to bringing in exercise 1 or some of its parts.
Some students may come up with the observation that, for some se
quences (an)9 "starting from a certain n, the terms approach 1 but do not
exceed 1". Some of them may believe that convergent sequences must sat
isfy this condition, others - that they shouldn't, and that, in a convergent
sequence some terms must equal to the limit or the sequence must equal
the limit "in infinity". Naturally, these points of view have to be taken into
account and discussed.
Before proceeding to the next stage of acquisition of the notion of limit

of a sequence, another important aspect should be brought to students'
attention. Namely, students should be able to notice that, for sequences
1, 2, 3, 4 and 11, starting from a certain natural number n, all successive

values of the sequence are not only less and less different from 1 but also
that this difference gets arbitrarily small (but not equal to zero). Exercise
2 is meant to assist in bringing this issue up for discussion. This exercise
also provides an opportunity for the teacher to stress that, in considering
convergence of sequences, n is assumed to tend to infinity, and not to some
finite natural number.
Exercises 1 and 2 afford also an occasion to clarify the meaning of the

word "approach", which is very popular among students, but also used in
a variety of meanings.
Stage II - development of conceptions connected with "strips"
This stage is focused on discussing the possibility of describing the

groups of sequences (an), defined in stage I, by some single condition. The
students analyzing the graphs of sequences (an) and seeing what happens to
88
particular groups of sequences should be able to easily accept the drawing

of strips around the straight line y = 1, as a method of finding aspects
that link these groups of sequences. Of course, I mean strips drawn only
for x > 0 and defined by the interval (1 ? e, 1 + e), for e > 0, in other
words, an arbitrary neighborhood of the number 1. However, students may
not hit upon the idea of drawing strips by themselves. Exercise 3 is meant
to suggest the idea to them.
Stage III- development of conceptions related to the idea of neighbor
hoods
After students have developed a mental visualization of convergence

in terms of strips, the next step is to express the related idea in terms of
neighborhoods. Exercise 4 is meant to help with that.
Exercise 4 also gives the teacher and the students a chance to discuss the
sense of the phrase "almost all terms of the sequence" and to express the
condition found in exercise 3 using this phrase, for example, in the form:
each strip, or each neighborhood of the number 1, contains almost all terms
of the sequence (an).

It should be pointed out that in exercises 1-4, for an arbitrary strip or
neighborhood of the number 1, a natural number no was found, although,
from a formal and logical point of view, a real number could be used as
well. Furthermore, no was chosen so that the values an for natural numbers
n > no belonged to the neighborhood, even though the condition n > no

would suffice. However, for the participants in my research, talking about
a natural no was much easier (or more natural, indeed), because they could
"move" within the domain of the sequence and select such a number no for
which the value of the sequence "acts" in a certain way for natural numbers
greater than no. Students are inclined to select no as a real number only
when they determine no algebraically, by solving an inequality.
After the students have developed conceptions of sequences (an) con
nected with strips and neighborhoods, the name and the symbol of their
common property can be introduced. The teacher can say that the sequences
(an) are "convergent to 1", or that they "have a limit equal to 1", and then
invite students to formulate what it means that the limit of a sequence is
equal to 1. A variety of explanations should be expected to be expressed
by students.
Students should then be encouraged to produce examples of sequences
convergent to 1 other than those studied in the main problem. The teacher
can also propose examples, specially chosen to address some lingering

misconceptions. It is worth considering, for example, the sequence (an)
where an = 1 + 1/n * sin(n). It is easy to see that this sequence is not
monotonie from a certain point. Sequences 9 and 10 also had this property
but it is useful to emphasize it with a new example, because the association
89
of convergence with monotonie approaching is a very powerful intuitive

conviction in students.
The next step is to generalize the notion of convergence to limits other
than 1. A formal definition can be formulated at this point. Understanding
of this definition can be enhanced by discussing whether 1 is the limit of the
sequence (bn) or not, and if (bn) has any limit at all, according to the formal
definition. Then students should consider the convergence of some other

sequences. They can find out whether the sequences are convergent or not
by drawing graphs and making use of their more or less formal conceptions
of the limit of a sequence. The problem of uniqueness of the limit should
also be discussed.
During the classroom discussions, students may have a feeling that,

when examining a graph, it is not possible, for each neighborhood of the
number expected to be the limit, to find a suitable no. They may experience
the need for some other method of finding the appropriate no. If students
have been acquainted with expressing neighborhoods using inequality with
absolute value, the alternative method is not difficult to find.
Sometimes, when analyzing the graphs, a doubt may arise if it is in
deed necessary to take into account all possible neighborhoods, even those
that are "unimaginably small". This is a legitimate doubt and its discus
sion is constructive for the understanding of the notion of limit. In fact,
if the doubt is not voiced by the students, the teacher should provoke the
discussion. To resolve the doubt, the following argument presented by
one of the participants of my research may be used: "Had we not con

sidered such very, very small neighborhoods, for example the ones with
radius less than 1,000,000,000, we could say that the sequence (an), where
an = 1 + 1/10,000,000,000 + l/n has the limit equal to 1 because for

each neighborhood that we would have taken into account, there exists no
such that, starting from it, all the values fall into this neighborhood. But it
is not true that the limit of the sequence is equal to 1 because it is equal
to 1 + 1/10,000,000,000". Clearly, in addressing such questions, exercises
similar to those presented above can be used.
3.6. Some notes about the organization and evaluation of my experiments
It has not been my aim in this paper to "prove", using statistical or qualitative
evidence, that the proposed teaching project "works" or is effective. But

let me make just a few remarks about my experience in implementing
this project with a few groups of students. In some cases, I used the main
problem only, with an open discussion that was not specifically guided by
questions such as in the exercises 1-4. In a few other cases, I guided the
discussion rather strongly, using the additional exercises.
90
The first classroom session would normally be devoted to plotting the

graphs of some of the sequences (an) and plotting the rest of them would be
assigned as homework. The second session would begin with discussing

these graphs and drawing the graph of the sequence (bn). Next, graphs
were discussed, implicitly or explicitly, and more or less along the lines
of exercise 1. The idea of dividing sequences (an) into three groups would
normally appear already during the period of graphs plotting. In the case
of the 'open' discussion approach, with no explicit guidance in the form of
the exercises 1-4, we needed a third session to discuss the main problem
and then proceed to considering strips and neighborhoods, and a fourth
one for generalization and formalization. Exercises 1-4 were assigned as
homework or were used in class as part of the discussion, as needed. If the
situation was organized based exactly on exercises 1-4, we needed one or
two extra classes for analyzing these exercises.
These are only approximate times needed for the implementation of
the situation. In reality, the time could be longer or shorter, depending,
among others, on the students' program of study (science, or humanities),
their mathematical background, and the teaching style the students were
accustomed to (not all groups of students were used to "making discoveries"
during discussions).
The proposed approach of small group followed by teacher-led discus
sions of the specially designed sets of sequences and questions, proved, for
me, to be an effective method of shaping students' understanding of the
formal concept of convergence. The effectiveness of described activities
was further supported by my research on the aforementioned groups of stu
dents and other groups of students, after they had completed their school
or university courses of mathematical analysis.
4. Conclusions
I have argued that the teaching situation based on the proposed didactic
tool enables students to develop conceptions that are closer and closer to
the meaning of the concept of limit of a sequence. Students can acquire
the conceptions because they appear gradually and the 'jumps' between
successive stages are not too big. Moreover, even if some students assim
ilate only the initial conceptions connected with the groups of sequences
discussed in exercise 1 and although these conceptions are quite distant
from the formal meaning of the concept, they are correct enough to be
developed in the 'right direction'.
The didactic tool presented in the paper may be adapted to foster the
students' acquisition of the more general concept of the limit of a function
INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE 91
in a point. Again, it is essential that varied but simple functions be applied.

Some of them can be described by means of graphs, others - using formulas.
The proposed teaching situations for introducing the concept of limit

cannot be separated from other classes. They must be preceded and fol
lowed by various activities aimed at developing students' understanding
of limits, starting from exercises connected with expressing "inequality
with absolute value" in the language of distances and neighborhoods, un
derstanding rational and irrational numbers - their decimal expansions or
approximations and finishing with applying the concept of limit to solve
problems not directly related to its formal definition. Similar discussions
can be organized for students who had already been exposed to the defi
nition of the concept of limit. Their purpose would then be to correct and
deepen the students' understanding. It seems that exposing students to such
varied situations may stimulate them to search for the sense of this con
cept. The exercises 1-4 can be used as didactic material for self-education
to achieve similar objectives.
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AKADEMIA SWTETOKRZYSKA
Instytut Matematyki
ul. Swietokrzyska 15
Kielce, Poland
E-mail: M.Przenioslo@pu.kielce.pl

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Introducing the Concept of Convergence of a Sequence in Secondary School

Author(s): Malgorzata Przenioslo

INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE

OF A SEQUENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL

ABSTRACT. My purpose in this paper is to present a didactic tool - a set of specially

or erroneous conceptions of limit of a sequence.

KEY WORDS: convergence of a sequence, didactic tool, learning, limit of a sequence,

- the limit of a sequence is its last term

Most of these conceptions were also found in university students. For

DOI: 10.1007/s 10649-005-5325-4 ? Springer 2005

numerical sequence. These models distinguished between conceptions ac

- there was (or wasn't) an implicit assumption of the monotony of the

Thus, for example, convictions such as "a convergent sequence is an

"monotonic-dynamic model". The "dynamic" model could describe con

from un to / becomes small", "the values approach some number more

INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE

above were also discussed in Artigue (2000).

concept - the limit of function (for example, Ferrini-Mundi and Graham,

In (Przenioslo, 2000,2002,2003,2004) I investigated the images of the

Nevertheless, students whose images focused on neighborhoods also held

is considering the existence of "a single neighborhood or a single strip

Concept images focused on "neighborhoods" were not very popular

or a sextillion, as this would be "too many". For many participants in the

Some elements of images which focused on using algorithms are also

graphs, some students would identify "familiar" - as they said - sequences

held by students who completed a university course of mathematical anal

considered as useful in solving problems. The participants appeared to

INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE 75

a set of specially designed problems - which can be used as a basis for

an obstacle to theoretical thinking about the concept (see, e.g. Sierpinska,

1974, p. 135). These examples must be embedded in problem situations

teaching, my reference has been (Williams and Ivey, 2001).

its definition, but by gradually adapting their cognitive structures to the

lems, often attributed to constructivism, I assumed that social interactions

3. The organization of students' work

3.1. The main problem

sequences (an) mentioned below have?

INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE

_\ \ forn < 329, 587

a"={ 1 nforn>r25 (6)

_J? forn < 10,000

an=\ + (-\)n (9)

1 + -nfor other natural numbers

Hl-i forn>10 (U)

These sequences were also expected to provoke a discussion about the no

The formulation of the problem contains no graphical representations

INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE

or neighborhoods of 1 must be considered. Of course, for other sequences

3.3. The additional exercises

problem with groups of secondary schools students and students commenc

of a teacher, both participating in the students' conversations and monitor

overcome difficulties and reach conclusions. These conversations enabled

But, depending on the degree of engagement of the students with the

So has the sequence 6 from n = 126 and sequence 5 is always constant,

sequence 1, we can also choose n = 1,000,002 or n equals two million or

this sequence consists of two subsequences of the same type as sequences

INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT OF CONVERGENCE

Agatha: I agree. Apart from this, sequence 10 also consists of interesting

sequences (an). (What is the common property of sequences (an)l) 1.15

three groups of sequences (an) obtained in exercise 1 can be expressed

by the straight-line y = 1 in halves., Michael: And how many strips do

and narrower. (Mark Agatha's observations on a few graphs representing

your observations. What single condition have you applied to sequences