Procedures in proof construction: five proving strategies of first-year university students.

Kirsten, Katharina

Research article in digital collection (conference)

Abstract

As proof construction typically presents many difficulties to university students, there is an increasing interest in student-centred forms of in-process support. This is accompanied by a need for research on how studentseffectively or non-effectivelyproceed in proof construction. This study therefore examines the proof-construction behaviour of first-year university students in 24 cases. Following the principles of empirical type construction, the author identified five proving strategies, each of which is characterised by a specific combination of sub-processes. Comparing these strategies to each other provides new insights into both different approaches to proving and typical obstacles. However, a comparison between successful and non-successful students did not reveal a clear relationship between the strategy used and performance. Our results suggest that the crucial aspects of proof construction are related to implementation at the microscopic rather than macroscopic level.

Details zur Publikation

Release year: 2022
Language in which the publication is written: English
Link to the full text: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03746866/document