Authority and Whole-Class Proving in a High School Geometry Class

• In Event: Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Student Reasoning and Understanding in K–12 Mathematics Classrooms

Abstract

In this session, we investigate how authority manifests in whole-class proving episodes within Ms. Finley’s high school geometry classroom. To identify authority relations, we coded the proving processes and forms of interaction that occurred during whole-class proving episodes and how Ms. Finley and her students contributed to those proving processes. By considering the authority of proof initiation, authority of proof construction, and authority of proof validation, the episodes illustrate how whole-class proving interactions might relate to students’ development of authoritative proof schemes. In particular, the authoritative emphasis on the teacher and textbook limited students’ opportunities to engage collectively in proving and sometimes allowed invalid arguments to be accepted in the public discourse of the classroom.

Authors

• Samuel Otten, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Sarah Kathleen Bleiler-Baxter, Middle Tennessee State University

• Christopher Engledowl, University of Missouri