Journal of the Mathematics Council of the Alberta Teachers’ Association
Volume 44 Issue 2, June 2007
11 – 19
The Teacher/Researcher and Proving in High School Mathematics
Shannon Sookochoff, Elaine Simmt and David Reid
Proof and proving is largely unsuccessful in school mathematics (Reid 1995). “This lack of success seems to be related to an incompatibility between the picture of proving portrayed in schools, and the role of deductive reasoning in professional mathematics and in students’ lives” (PhD diss). Based on our reading of the high school program of studies and support materials, there is certainly a narrow view of what constitutes proof and reasoning, and little, if any, advice on how to teach and assess it. For example, the Assessment Standards for Pure Mathematics 20 relegates reasoning to a set of seven seemingly simple outcomes 1 (Alberta Learning 2002), which some teachers choose to cover in a short take-home package.
