Proof in mathematics education: research, learning and teaching

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1. I was disappointed to see little or no discussion of the small but growing literature on the reading of (rather than the construction of) mathematical proofs. Reading proofs seems to be a critical (but under-researched) aspect of how students engage with higher-level mathematics. It also seemed strange to omit discussion of influential papers by Weber (2001, 2008) and Stylianides (2007).

2. A further problem for R&K's characterisation comes from Balaguer's surprisingly compelling argument that platonism and “fictionalism” (similar to R&K's description of social constructivism) are, in fact, the same philosophy (Balaguer 2008).