Thoma-Iannone2022_Article_LearningAboutProofWithTheTheor.pdf (3.55 MB)
Learning about proof with the theorem prover LEAN: the abundant numbers task
journal contribution
posted on 2021-08-09, 14:57 authored by Athina Thoma, Paola IannoneThis exploratory study reports on characteristics of proof production and proof writing observed in the work of first-year university students who took part in workshops on the theorem prover LEAN (https://leanprover.github.io). These workshops were voluntary and offered alongside a transition to proof module in a UK university. Through qualitative analysis of 36 student produced proofs of an unfamiliar statement we highlight characteristics of proofs produced by students who did engaged and who did not engage with LEAN. The analysis shows two characteristics of proofs written by students who engaged with the programming language. The first concerns proof writing and includes the accurate and correct use of mathematics language and symbols, together with the use of complete sentences and punctuations in proofs. The second concerns proof structure and includes the overt break down of proofs in goals and sub-goals. We conclude by hypothesising a link between the characteristics observed and the experience of engaging with the theorem prover and we reflect on the potential that engagement with this theorem prover may have in mathematics instruction at university level.
Funding
Imperial College London through the Pedagogy Transformation Fund.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Mathematics Education Centre
Published in
International Journal of Research in Undergraduate Mathematics EducationVolume
8Issue
1Pages
64-93Publisher
SpringerVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© CrownPublisher statement
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Springer under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0). Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Acceptance date
2021-03-24Publication date
2021-07-07Copyright date
2021ISSN
2198-9745eISSN
2198-9753Publisher version
Language
- en
Depositor
Dr Paola Iannone. Deposit date: 22 March 2021Usage metrics
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