Research in Mathematical Education (한국수학교육학회지시리즈D:수학교육연구)

Korean Society of Mathematical Education (한국수학교육학회)
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Secondary Teachers' Views about Proof and Judgements on Mathematical Arguments

  • Kim, Hangil (STEM Education, University of Texas at Austin)
  • Received : 2022.01.27
  • Accepted : 2022.03.21
  • Published : 2022.03.31
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Abstract

Despite its recognition in the field of mathematics education and mathematics, students' understanding about proof and performance on proof tasks have been far from promising. Research has documented that teachers tend to accept empirical arguments as proofs. In this study, an online survey was administered to examine how Korean secondary mathematic teachers make judgements on mathematical arguments varied along representations. The results indicate that, when asked to judge how convincing to their students the given arguments would be, the teachers tended to consider how likely students understand the given arguments and this surfaces as a controversial matter with the algebraic argument being both most and least convincing for their students. The teachers' judgements on the algebraic argument were shown to have statistically significant difference with respect to convincingness to them, convincingness to their students, and validity as mathematical proof.

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Drs. Eric J. Knuth, Carlos Nicholas Gomez Marchant, and Flavio S. Azevedo for their thoughtful comments on the earlier versions of the manuscript. I extend thanks to the editor in chief and anonymous reviewers for their efforts in providing constructive feedback on the manuscript and College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin for providing the funding for this study to collect the survey data.

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