Introduction

Functions is one of the important topics among Science Stream students in Malaysia.
Functions underlie on the first chapter in additional mathematics subject which is important
to the students who want to enrol in science and technology courses or further mathematics
courses in college and university. The functions need a very good basic in algebra and the
concept of relations and functions will be used in pre-calculus, namely, advanced algebra and
trigonometry which is finally led to using it in calculus (Aishah & Fatemah,2005). The
students could at least be able to manipulate and perform algebraic expressions to make sure
they successful in doing composite functions and inverse functions (Lucus, 1996).

“To many people ‘MATH’ is a scary four-letter word: they don’t like it or feel that
they are good at it” (Mutawah & Ali, 2015). Since, additional mathematics was quite
synonyms as one of the hardest subjects during secondary school. It is found that not many
students were dare enough to take additional mathematics as one of their subjects of choice in
Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia. Functions are one of the scary topics to the students even though
the topics was quite easy compared to others. Whether the topics itself was lied on first topic
that made the students could not possessed very well because of the stigma said additional
mathematics was a killer subject or maybe the students themselves do not master algebraic
expressions very well.

However, since last three years ago functions have been disclosed to the students as
early as form 1 when Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Menengah has been introduced.
Therefore, the teachers must be prepared to introduce to the students on topics functions as
the students in 13 years old. Based on this problem, this study will be focused more on
development of understanding in relations of functions, representations of inverse function
and composite function in arrow diagram.

The qualitative data is collected from conducting an interview on selected students to

investigate misconception and misunderstanding underlie relations and functions. The
students were selected based on their score in Function Test.

Research Objectives:
1. to investigate their understanding the definitions of functions and relations.
2. to investigate students’ understanding in representation of relations with functions and
vice versa