Examining Regularities for Presenting and Checking Proofs in Geometry: A Planned Comparison Study

• In Event: 52.030 - Investigations in Geometry, Measurement, and Spatial Reasoning

Abstract

We report a planned comparison study (n =73) of secondary mathematics teachers’ responses to a multimedia survey. Storyboard representations of classroom episodes that differed from each other in controlled ways were authored to determine whether mathematics teachers recognize fine-grained regularities in how proofs are presented and checked in geometry classrooms. Different realizations of the storyboards were shown to different groups of secondary teachers. Teachers viewed the storyboards then answered rating questions about the teaching the storyboards represented. From the answers to the rating questions, we defined measures of appropriateness that were compared across and within experiment groups, using independent and paired-samples t-tests. The results of the significance testing indicate that participants recognized the hypothesized regularities.

Authors

• Justin Kelly Dimmel, University of Maine

• Patricio G. Herbst, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor