Factors affecting techniques of teaching theorem proof

Abstract

Students’ mastering the art of proof is one of the most important educational results of teaching Mathematics in the secondary school. The study shows that there are significant challenges, gaps, and weaknesses in the practice of teaching reasoning and proving. The goal of the research is to determine the way of using traditional teaching practices to present reasoning and proving, the way of organizing the review and mastery of the theorem proofs. In addition, the obvious and hidden factors affecting the students’ productivity in these activities were identified. To study the problem, a survey that involved 136 Mathematics teachers across Ukraine was carried out. A standard close-ended questionnaire was developed. Factor analysis was used to analyze the results of the survey. The important factors determining the time efficiency when a teacher organizes teaching and learning of a theorem proof, were discovered. The analysis of the factors and numerical loadings of variables forming them, result in the conclusions presented in this paper.