Lessons learned from an instructional intervention on proof comprehension

Abstract

In previous research, we proposed a set of proof reading strategies that we hypothesized can help students better understand the proofs that they read. The goal of the present paper is to report lessons that we learned from two instructional interventions in which students were taught to apply these strategies. We found suggestive evidence that implementing these strategies helped students understand the proofs that they read, but also found students’ implementation of these strategies to sometimes be problematic. We present instructional modifications, as well as refinements to the strategies themselves, that enabled the students to implement the strategies more effectively.