PROCEEDINGS OF THE 16TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION (Vol 2)
2013
Denver, Colorado
Not All Informal Representations are Created Equal
Page: 2-570
Some mathematics educators and mathematicians have suggested that students should base their proofs on informal reasoning (Garuti et al. 1998). However, the ways in which students implement informal representations are not well understood. In this study, we investigate informal representations made by undergraduates during proof construction. Their use of informal representations will be compared to mathematicians’ use of informal representations as described in Alcock (2004) and Samkoff et al. (2012). Further, an analysis of different types of informal representations will investigate the necessity to treat these different representations more carefully in the future.