STUDENT CONCEPTIONS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BASE A PROOF ON AN INFORMAL ARGUMENT

• In Event: MATH PROCESSES. STUDENT CONCEPTIONS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BASE A PROOF ON AN INFORMAL ARGUMENT

Description

In this paper we explore how students construe what it means for an informal argument to be the basis of a formal proof and what students pay attention to when assessing whether a proof is based on an informal argument. The data point to some undergraduate mathematics students having underdeveloped conceptions of what it means for a proof to be based on an argument. These underdeveloped conceptions limit what students pay attention to during informal-to-formal comparison tasks and may have adverse effects on students’ ability to use their own informal arguments to construct proofs.

Authors

• Dov Zazkis, Arizona State University

• Matthew Villanueva, Rutgers University