PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Undergraduate students proof-reading strategies: A case study at one research institution
Page: 684
Weber and Mejia-Ramos (2013) identified five effective proof-reading strategies that undergraduate students in proof-based courses can use to facilitate their proof comprehension. Following their study, we designed a survey study to examine how undergraduate students’ proof-reading strategies relate to what proficient learners of mathematics (mathematics professors) say undergraduates should employ when reading proofs. Our preliminary findings are: (i) Majority of the professors in our study claimed that undergraduates should use the strategies identified in Weber and Mejia-Ramos’ (2013) study, (ii) Professors’ response significantly differed from undergraduates’ in only two of the five proof-reading strategies described in Weber and Mejia-Ramos’ (2013) study (trying to prove a theorem before reading its proof and illustrating confusing assertions with examples), and finally (iii) Undergraduate students, for the most part, tend to agree with their professors’ preferred proof-reading strategies.