• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.521-538
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of teaching mathematical proofs that made use of the 'proof assisted cards' at the second year of middle school and to investigate students' ability to geometric proofs as well as changes of mathematical attitudes toward geometric proofs. The subjects are seven students at the 2nd year of D Middle School in Daegu who made use of the 'proof assisted cards' during five class periods. The researcher interviewed the students to investigate learning questions made by students as well as the 'proof assisted cards' before and after use. The findings are as follows: first, the students made change of geometric proof ability by proof activity with the 'proof assisted cards' and second, the students made significant change of mathematical attitudes toward geometric proofs by proof activity using the cards.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.55-72
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• 1998

We prove many statements in middle and high school mathematics, so it is necessary to have some method for understanding the modes of proof. But it is hard to discuss about the modes of proof without knowing logics. Venn-diagrams can be used in a great variety of situations, and it is useful to the students unfamiliar with logical procedure. Since knowing a mode of proof that could be used may still not guarantee success of proof, it is also necessary to illustrate many cases of proof strategies. To achieve the above reguirements, (1)Even though intuition, the modes of proof used in middle school mathematics should be understood by using venn-diagrams and the students can use the right proof in the right statement. (2)We must illustrate many kinds of proof so that the students can get the proof stratigies from these illustrations. (3)If possible, logic should be treated in middle school mathematics for students to understand the system of proof correctly.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2003

This research reviewed literatures on proof in mathematics education. Several views of proof can be classified (and identified) such as psychological approach (Platonism, empiricism), structural approach (logicism, formalism, intuitionism) and social approach (ontology, axiomatic systems). All these views of proof are valuable in mathematics education society. The concept of proof can be found in the form of analytic knowledge not of constructive knowledge. Human beings developed their knowledge in the sequence of constructive knowledge to analytic knowledge. Therefore, in mathematics education, the curriculum of mathematics should involve the process of cognitive knowledge development.

• Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.853-855
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• 1994

The object of present note is to give a very short proof of Stirling's formula which uses only a formula for the generalized zeta function. There are several proofs for this formula. For example, Dr. E. J. Routh gave an elementary proof using Wallis' theorem in lectures at Cambridge ([5, pp.66-68]). We can find another proof which used the Maclaurin summation formula ([5, pp.116-120]). In [1], they used the Central Limit Theorem or the inversion theorem for characteristic functions. In [2], pp. Diaconis and D. Freeman provided another proof similarly as in [1]. J. M. Patin [7] used the Lebesgue dominated convergence theorem.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.73-85
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to investigate the understanding of middle school students on the meaning of proof and to suggest a teaching method to improve their understanding based on three levels identified by Kunimune as follows: Level I to think that experimental method is enough for justifying proof, Level II to think that deductive method is necessary for justifying proof, Level III to understand the meaning of deductive system. The conclusions of this study are as follows: First, only 13% of 8th graders and 22% of 9th graders are on level II. Second, although about 50% students understand the meaning of hypothesis, conclusion, and proof, they can't understand the necessity of deductive proof. This conclusion implies that the necessity of deductive proof needs to be taught to the middle school students. One of the teaching methods on the necessity of proof is to compare the nature of experimental method and deductive proof method by providing their weak and strong points respectively.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.195-210
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• 2024

Researchers and curricula continue to call for proof to serve a central role in learning of mathematics throughout kindergarten to grade 12 and beyond. Despite its prominence and recognition gained during past decades, proof is still a stumbling block for both teachers and students. Research efforts have been made to address issues related to teaching and learning of proof. An area in which such research efforts have been made is analysis of curriculum material (i.e. textbook analysis) with a focus on proof. This study is another research effort in this area of research through investigating the guidance offered in curriculum materials with the following research question: What is the nature (e.g., kinds of content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge) of guidance is offered for teachers to implement proof tasks in grade 8 geometry textbooks? Results indicate that the guidance offered for proof tasks are concerned more with content knowledge about the content-specific instructional goals than with pedagogical content knowledge which supports teachers in preparing in-class interactions with students to teach proof.

• Communications of the Korean Mathematical Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 2004

According to Diriclet's Theorem, there are infinitely many primes of the form An+ 1 for any fixed positive integer A. For this, there already exists a classical simple proof using cyclotomic polynomials. In this paper, we develop another elementary proof of this statement.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.291-315
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• 2001

There are some problems in the introduction of proof in middle school mathematics. Among the problems, one is the use of postulates and the another is the methods of proof how to connect a statement with others. The first case has been treated mainly in this note. Since proof means to state the reason logically why the statement is true on the basis of others which have already been known as true and basic properties, in order to prove logically, it is necessary to take the basic properties and the statement known already as true. But the students don't know well what are the basic properties and the statement known already as true for proving. No use of the term postulation(or axiom) cause the confusion to distinguish postulation and theorem. So they don't know which statements are accepted without proof or not accepted without proof, To solve this problems, it is necessary to use the term postulate in middle school mathematics. In middle school mathematics, we present same model of the introduction of proof which are used the postulates needed for the proof.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 2003

In this paper, we investigate the types and roles of ancient mathematical proof by exploring Gu-Jang-Sal-Sul. Gu-Jang-Sal-Sul is a ancient Chinese mathematics book. Types of proof contained in Gu-Jang-Sal-Sul are enactive proof and intuitive proof and the role of proof is explanation. And we suggest social background of proof in Gu-Jang-Sal-Sul topographically, culturally, and logically.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.161-185
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• 2019

This study aims to examine pre- and in-service mathematics teachers' reasoning and how they justify their reasoning. For this purpose, we developed a set of mathematical tasks that are based on mathematical contents for middle grade students and conducted the survey to pre- and in-service teachers in Korea. Twenty-five pre-service teachers and 8 in-service teachers participated in the survey. The findings from the data analysis suggested as follows: a) the pre- and in-service mathematics teachers seemed to be very dependent of the manipulation of algebraic expressions so that they attempt to justify only by means of procedures such as known algorithms, rules, facts, etc., rather than trying to find out a mathematical structure in the first instance, b) the proof that teachers produced did not satisfy the generality when they attempted to justify using by other ways than the algebraic manipulation, c) the teachers appeared to rely on using formulas for finding patters and justifying their reasoning, d) a considerable number of the teachers seemed to stay at level 2 in terms of the proof production level, and e) more than 3/4 of the participating teachers appeared to have difficulty in mathematical reasoning and proof production particularly when faced completely new mathematical tasks.