RUME 26
2024
Omaha, Nebraska
Proofs Project Partners: Implementing Research-Based Instruction Across Institutions
Page: 1305
The Proofs Project is an NSF-funded research project investigating persistent challenges students experience in Introduction to Proofs courses. These challenges are framed in terms of epistemological obstacles that students and instructors experience during classroom interaction, even within best (research-based) practice. The project has generated video modules illustrating such obstacles and tasks that instructors can use to begin eliciting and addressing them. Now, in the second year of the project, instructors at three different universities have begun using project materials in their Introduction to Proofs courses. These three instructors participated in a three-day Proofs Project workshop at Virginia Tech, during the Summer of 2023. Here, we report on their experiences implementing project materials to intentionally elicit and address obstacles they have experienced in prior instruction, or anticipate experiencing in future instruction. Data come from surveys conducted at the end of a summer workshop; at the start of the following Fall semester, as they taught their next (or first) section of Introduction to Proofs; and at the end of that semester. Findings from qualitative analysis of the surveys indicate that all three instructors were able to use project materials to elicit—and begin to address—epistemological obstacles identified in prior research. In addition to discussion of specific findings, the first three authors will report on their individual experiences in implementing project materials to elicit and address persistent challenges students and instructors experience in Introduction to Proofs courses.