RUME 27
2025
Alexandria, Virginia
Using Intertextuality to Study (Student) Conceptions of Proofiness
Page: 880
This work provides a theoretical grounding for proof education studies that utilize proof comparison tasks. We leverage the notion of intertextuality, borrowed from genre theories, to discuss mathematics education theory and methods. Intertextuality involves the implicit or explicit comparison of two or more texts with regard to a given genre. We discuss how this comparison can serve explorations of (student) conceptions of the genre of proof and argue that intertextual comparisons lead to novel insights into (student) conceptions of the genre. Specifically, we illustrate how someone's comparison of two (or more) justifications relative to the genre of proof can provide insights into how they view (a) proof as a genre, (b) which attributes of a justification are relevant to that justification's (potential) status as a (good) proof, (c) the relative importance of those attributes, and (d) the reasons for that relative importance.