A research on Mathematical Invention via Real Analysis Course in University

대학교의 해석학 강좌에서 학생들의 수학적 발명에 관한 연구

Inventive mathematical thinking, original mathematical problem solving ability, mathematical invention and so on are core concepts, which must be emphasized in all branches of mathematical education. In particular, Polya(1981) insisted that inventive thinking must be emphasized in a suitable level of university mathematical courses. In this paper, the author considered two cases of inventive problem solving ability shown by his many students via real analysis courses. The first case is about the proof of the problem "what is the derived set of the integers Z?" Nearly all books on mathematical analysis sent the question without the proof but some books said that the answer is "empty". Only one book written by Noh, Y. S.(2006) showed the proof by using the definition of accumulation points. But the proof process has some mistakes. But our student Kang, D. S. showed the perfect proof by using The Completeness Axiom, which is very useful in mathematical analysis. The second case is to show the infinite countability of NxN, which is shown by informal proof in many mathematical analysis books with formal proofs. Some students who argued the informal proof as an unreasonable proof were asked to join with us in finding the one-to-one correspondences between NxN and N. Many students worked hard and find two singled-valued mappings and one set-valued mapping covering eight diagrams in the paper. The problems are not easy and the proofs are a little complicated. All the proofs shown in this paper are original and right, so the proofs are deserving of inventive mathematical thoughts, original mathematical problem solving abilities and mathematical inventions. From the inventive proofs of his students, the author confirmed that any students can develope their mathematical abilities by their professors' encouragements.

본 연구에서는 해석학 강좌를 운영하는 과정에서 얻어진 학생들의 수학적 발명의 사례를 제시하고 분석하여, 수학적 발명과 관련된 구체적인 교수-학습 과정, 얻어진 수학적 산출물들, 이들의 수학적 의의를 기술하였다.