Proof construction was more difficult than mathematical understanding tasks, with students showing seven recurring proof difficulties¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2011 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2016: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The proof construction process was more difficult than mathematical understanding tasks for all students. → Maya and Sumarmo 2011 q2 i? Analysis of students' work identified difficulties including inability to generate examples, not understanding standard notation and language, not knowing how to start a proof, and being unable to seek relations among concepts, definitions and theorems. → Maya and Sumarmo 2011 (2)

Evidence¶

Maya and Sumarmo 2011¶

Rippi Maya, Utari Sumarmo. (2011). Mathematical Understanding and Proving Abilities: Experiment With Undergraduate Student By Using Modified Moore Learning Approach. IndoMS. J.M.E, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 231-250. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1078509

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Finding reported from the post-test experimental control group study of 56 undergraduates; MPA total means (56.35 MLA, 55.17 CNV) were lower than MUA means (65.65, 68.77) in Table 2.

"The study found that proof construction process was more difficult than mathematical understanding task for all students , and students still posed some difficulties on constructing mathematical proof task"

Maya and Sumarmo 2011 (2)¶

Rippi Maya, Utari Sumarmo. (2011). Mathematical Understanding and Proving Abilities: Experiment With Undergraduate Student By Using Modified Moore Learning Approach. IndoMS. J.M.E, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 231-250. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1078509

q2 · i? · causal · r1

Qualitative analysis of students' work in the Findings and Discussion section listed seven difficulties, including that students 'did not understand standard mathematical notation and mathematical language' and did not know how to start a proof.

"From analysis of students’ work, it were found some students’ difficulties namely: 1) Students were not able to generate an example."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• More MLA students reached medium/high understanding scores while conventional students did so more often on proving scores — related
• Modified Moore learning approach and conventional teaching produced no significant difference in undergraduate mathematical understanding or proving ability in advanced abstract algebra — related
• Mathematical understanding ability and proving ability were fairly strongly associated — related
• Mathematical proof was the most difficult MLTA component for students in both teaching approaches — related
• Students at all levels have serious difficulties constructing proofs, with instruction explicitly teaching expert heuristics substantially increasing proof-writing ability — related