PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Difficult dialogs about degenerate cases: A proof script study
Page: 511
The purpose of the reported study is to explore students’ reasoning about the “within argument contradictions” that arise from logically degenerate cases by analyzing the problematics noticed in students’ proof scripts. The work proposes a framework for students’ noticed proof problematics and explores the viability of the proof script methodology as a mechanism for identifying difficulties experienced by students but unseen by experts. In the case of logically degenerate cases, findings indicate students held conceptions of proofs by cases that inhibited students’ reasoning about the encountered contradictions.