2021 Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education Reports
2021
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Semiotic Conflicts in Students’ Collective Proof Comprehension Activity
Page: 81
Making sense of proofs and statements is a fundamental part of advanced mathematics classes; however, researchers have established that students have limited approaches to reading proofs and may struggle to comprehend them. Converting between representation systems can play an essential role in comprehending formal mathematics including proofs and statements. While navigating representation systems, students are likely to evoke an array of personal meanings that can lead to semiotic conflicts in communication. In this study, we examine what conflicts arose as a group of students collectively worked to comprehend the Fundamental Homomorphism Theorem. Our results show that the students had conflicts related to functions and quotient groups that arose when converting between the formal and other representation systems. Although these conflicts can be problematic, we believe that with a productive discussion and instructor intervention (when necessary) these conflicts can be resolved.