PROCEEDINGS OF THE 23RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2020
Boston, Massachusetts
Affective pathways of undergraduate students while engaged in proof construction tasks
Page: 511
The transition to proof is a known point of struggle for many undergraduate mathematics majors. This work examines this difficult transition point from an affective lens, specifically students’ affective pathways while working on proof construction tasks. A series of four semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 undergraduate students enrolled in a transition to proof course, and affective pathways were studied using non-traditional instruments: an emotion word selection task and an emotion graph. Open coding and constant comparative methods were used to identify common affective pathways within the emotion words and graphs. These pathways reveal common student experiences while working on proofs, which may be used to fine tune external learning conditions to positively influence engagement and experience.