What is it about?

This small study examined whether beginning transition-to-proof course students can validate (i.e., check the correctness of) other similar students' proofs. The short answer is "no" initially, but they get better after given time to reconsider the proofs.

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Why is it important?

This paper led to many other papers exploring the validations of math majors and mathematicians by Keith Weber, Lara Alcock, Matthew Inglis, etc.

Perspectives

This is an important paper because (in retrospect) one can see that it led to many other papers, some of which have also been published in highly respected mathematics education research journals, such as the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education.

Dr. John Selden
New Mexico State University

This was a seminal paper and led to a lot of subsequent research on validation of math majors and mathematicians.

Dr. Annie Selden
New Mexico State University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Validations of Proofs Considered as Texts: Can Undergraduates Tell Whether an Argument Proves a Theorem?, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, January 2003, JSTOR,
DOI: 10.2307/30034698.
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