Who should learn proving and why: An examination of secondary mathematics teachers’ perspectives
Loading...
Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Modestum
Abstract
Reasoning-and-proving is a crucial part of students’ mathematical experiences in secondary school. There is
scholarly debate, however, on the extent to which proving at the secondary level needs to be formal and whether
all students should be held to disciplinary standards of rigor. In this study, we investigated the notion of “proof for
all” from the perspective of secondary mathematics teachers. We analyzed, using the framework of practical
rationality, the justifications teachers gave for whether or not all students should learn proof. Based on interviews
with twenty-one secondary teachers from a socioeconomically-diverse set of schools, we found that teachers
differ in their opinions of who should learn proving but they were similar in their feelings of obligation toward
individual student learning; some teachers cited obligations to individual students as a justification for teaching
proving to all students and others cited those obligations as a justification for not teaching proving to some
students. We also share teachers’ perspective with regard to their obligations to the discipline, educational
institutions, interpersonal dynamics among students, and the worldly relevance of mathematics education.
Description
Keywords
High school education, Equity, Diversity, Mathematics
Citation
Otten, S. et al. (2021). Who should learn proving and why: An examination of secondary mathematics teachers’ perspectives. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 16(3), em0662. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11298