Prospective Teachers’ Approach to Reasoning and Proof: Affective and Cognitive Issues

Reasoning and proof (R&P) are key elements in current reform efforts, but notorious for the problems they create for teachers. We present results from a pilot to an intervention study that seeks to alleviate these problems for prospective primary and lower secondary teachers in Denmark. The study introduces R&P in contexts that are “sufficiently close” to both academic mathematics and to instruction in school. The pilot asks if this is a feasible approach. The part of the pilot presented here consists of responses by 57 prospective teachers to a qualitative questionnaire. The results show that many feel strongly about R&P, one way or another, but also that they have considerable problems with these processes to some extent irrespectively of their affective commitment. The results of the pilot confirm our approach for the main study.