The goal of this paper was to investigate the role of formal constraints (e.g. definitions, theorems) in geometric reasoning. Four students participated in a task-based interview including 2D Euclidean geometric locus problems. Data were obtained from observations, interviews, and video recordings and analyzed by Toulmin's argumentation model. The…

Logical statements are prevalent in mathematics, science and everyday life. The most common logical statements are conditionals, 'If H … , then C … ', where 'H' is a hypothesis and 'C' is a conclusion. Reasoning about conditionals depends on four main conditional contexts (intuitive, abstract, symbolic or counterintuitive). This study tested a…

Research in psychology and in mathematics education has documented the ubiquity of "intuition traps" -- tasks that elicit non-normative responses from most people. Researchers in cognitive psychology often view these responses negatively, as a sign of irrational behaviour. Others, notably mathematics educators, view them as necessary…

While a significant amount of research has been devoted to exploring why university students struggle applying logic, limited work can be found on how students actually make sense of the notational and structural components used in association with logic. We adapt the theoretical framework of unitizing and reification, which have been effectively…

In this paper, we report a pilot study on engaging a group of undergraduate students to explore the limits of sin(x)/x and tan(x)/x as x approaches to 0, with the use of non-graphic scientific calculators. By comparing the results in the pretest and the post-test, we found that the students had improvements in the tested items, which involved the…

This study reports on an analysis of students' textbook task-solving in Swedish upper secondary school. The relation between types of mathematical reasoning required, used, and the rate of correct task solutions were studied. Rote learning and superficial reasoning were common, and 80% of all attempted tasks were correctly solved using such…

In this article, ambiguous street and park signs are analysed and deciphered using symbolic logic. These examples showcase the ways in which instructors of undergraduate mathematics courses can blend their students' everyday exposure to logical reasoning with classroom experiences. (Contains 4 tables and 6 figures.)

The main purpose of this note is to present and justify proof via iteration as an intuitive, creative and empowering method that is often available and preferable as an alternative to proofs via either mathematical induction or the well-ordering principle. The method of iteration depends only on the fact that any strictly decreasing sequence of…

Many exercises in mathematical induction require the student to prove a divisibility property of a function of the integers. Such problems are generally presented as being independent of each other. However, many of these problems can be presented in terms of difference equations, and the theory of difference equations can be used to provide a…

Many undergraduate students have difficulty writing mathematical proofs even though this skill is important for the development of future teachers and those who may be involved in instruction or training as a graduate student or supervisor. In addition, research indicates that mathematics majors and secondary education mathematics majors possess…

This note presents an alternative approach to the reasoning process and derivation of the hypergeometric probability mass function (pmf), and contrasts it with a binomial model. It utilizes the essential concept of sampling without replacement directly in the development of the mass function.

Four proofs, designed for classroom use in varying levels of courses on abstract algebra, are given for the converse of the classical Chinese Remainder Theorem over the integers. In other words, it is proved that if m and n are integers greater than 1 such that the abelian groups [double-struck z][subscript m] [direct sum] [double-struck…

Upper secondary students' task solving reasoning was analysed, with a focus on grounds for different strategy choices and implementations. The results indicate that mathematically well-founded considerations were rare. The dominating reasoning types were algorithmic reasoning, where students tried to remember a suitable algorithm, sometimes in a…