PROCEEDINGS OF THE 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2019
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Why don’t students check their solutions to mathematical problems? A field-based hypothesis
Page: 756
This theoretical paper introduces a field-base hypothesis, according to which the intensity and type of an intellectual need that students can experience for checking their solution to a problem might be related to the epistemological status of methods that they employed for solving the problem. The hypothesis emerged from the analysis of a final exam in a first-year course where 421 students worked on four problems in linear algebra. In one of them, 33 students provided evidence of checking their solutions, all of which appeared as educated guesses. No written evidence of checks was indicated in the deductive solutions, in which the students utilized algorithms, procedures, and theorems that were introduced to them in the course. Thus, it might be proposed that problem-solving methods with a low epistemological status (e.g., educated guesses) may instigate the need for checking a solution as a means to compensate for their status.