Justifying geometrical generalizations in elementary school preservice teacher education
Résumé
This paper reports research based on a K-6 prospective teacher education experiment carried out in a geometry course in the 2nd year of studies. The study aims to understand how participants justify generalizations about families of geometric figures in a context of exploratory teaching. Data were collected by audio and video records and from participants’ written productions. In the analysis, special attention was given to the kind of arguments, their degree of generality, and the aspects that contribute for the learning of the justification process. The results show that initially the participants had difficulties in understanding how to justify generalizations. They progressed by using valid arguments, but they struggled in fully providing arguments and reasoning beyond specific cases. An improvement of justifications was achieved by the careful design of tasks, the interaction in the classroom and by relating the process of justification to understanding why a statement is true.
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
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