Mathematicians’ Perspectives on Features of a Good Pedagogical Proof
2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/07370008.2012.661814
ISSN1532-690X
AutoresYvonne Lai, Keith Weber, Juan Pablo Mejía-Ramos,
Tópico(s)Statistics Education and Methodologies
ResumoAbstract In this article, we report two studies investigating what mathematicians value in a pedagogical proof. Study 1 is a qualitative study of how eight mathematicians revised two proofs that would be presented in a course for mathematics majors. These mathematicians thought that introductory and concluding sentences should be included in the proofs, main ideas should be formatted to emphasize their importance, and extraneous or redundant information should be removed to avoid distracting or confusing the reader. Study 2 is a quantitative study assessing the extent to which a larger group of mathematicians (N = 110) agreed or disagreed with the eight mathematicians interviewed in Study 1. This quantitative study confirmed the findings of Study 1 by demonstrating a high degree of agreement among mathematicians regarding how they would revise proofs for pedagogical purposes. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments, to Aron Samkoff for transcribing interviews in the first study, and to the mathematicians who participated in the two studies. This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (#EHR-1008317, #DUE-081736, and #DRL-0643734) and by an Investigating Student Learning Grant from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.
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