PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
How peer mentors support students in learning to write mathematical proofs
Page: 484
We study how the mathematical beliefs and knowledge of peer mentors in a summer mathematics program influenced their efforts to help high school students learn to write proofs in number theory. Using Schoenfeld’s framework for understanding decision making, we analyze interviews of three undergraduate student mentors for evidence of how their views of the role of proof, norms for proof writing, and mathematical knowledge for teaching informed their pedagogical decisions. We find that each mentor developed a distinctive approach to providing feedback on student work consistent with their own values, and present evidence that the success of each approach depended on the mentor’s resources for interpreting student work.