PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2013
Denver, Colorado
Students’ axiomatizing in a classroom setting
Page: 2-290
The purpose of this paper is to examine descriptive axiomatizing as a classroom mathematical activity. More specifically, if given the opportunity, how do students select axioms and how might their intellectual needs influence these decisions? These two case studies of axiomatizing address these questions and elaborate on how students engage in this practice within a classroom setting. The results of this research suggest that while students may at first be resistant to axiomatizing, this mathematical activity also affords them opportunities to create meaning for new mathematical content and for the axiomatic method itself.