RUME 14 (Volume 1)
2011
Portland, Oregon
USING TOULMIN ANALYSIS TO LINK AN INSTRUCTOR’S PROOF-PRESENTATION AND STUDENT’S SUBSEQUENT PROOF-WRITING PRACTICES
Page: 68
This paper provides a method for analyzing undergraduate teaching of proof-based courses based on Toulmin’s model of argumentation. The paper presents a case-study of one instructor’s presentation of proofs and shows that she was inconsistent in the amount of detail that she included in her written proofs. The paper then describes how that analysis can be used as a predictor of subsequent student proof-writing performance. Second, student work is analyzed using Toulmin’s (1969) model for argumentation. The data shows that the students had adopted the modeled proof-writing behavior of the instructor in terms of the type and quantity of elements of argumentation. The method of analysis was developed via research in a lecture- based abstract algebra class, but has applications to any lecture-based proof-intensive course. This method provides one way to link classroom teaching activities to student performance that forces instructors to assume more responsibility for their students’ demonstrated end-of-course performance.