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Title: Differences in Students’ Beliefs and Knowledge Regarding Mathematical Proof: Comparing Novice and Experienced Provers
Learning to interpret proofs is an important milepost in the maturity and development of students of higher mathematics. A key learning objective in proof-based courses is to discern whether a given proof is a valid justification of its underlying claim. In this study, we presented students with conditional statements and associated proofs and asked them to determine whether the proofs proved the statements and to explain their reasoning. Prior studies have found that inexperienced provers often accept the proof of a statement’s converse and reject proofs by contraposition, which are both erroneous determinations. Our study contributes to the literature by corroborating these findings and suggesting a connection between students’ reading comprehension and proof validation behaviors and their beliefs about mathematical proof and mathematical knowledge base.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1954768
PAR ID:
10463944
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Editor(s):
Cook, S.; Katz, B.; Moore-Russo D.
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the Annual Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education
ISSN:
2474-9346
Page Range / eLocation ID:
600-608
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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