Lately, Mathematical justification is of major interest to the academic community. It is essential for students to have mathematical justification and to assert the justification in order to communicate well in mathematic class. The result of recent r...
Lately, Mathematical justification is of major interest to the academic community. It is essential for students to have mathematical justification and to assert the justification in order to communicate well in mathematic class. The result of recent researches say that the achievement of students is very low in mathematical justification. The reasons are reduced curriculum and poor teaching ways. Many researchers conclude that students can justify in their own way and on their own level. However, to simplify and summarize the procedure in the textbook still makes students and teachers fail to justify. Mathematical proof is not the fruit of the most advanced mathematics, but a process of making a constant development. For such reasons, we want to help students understand what mathematical justification is in the wide sense of interpreting mathematical proof.
First, this study established the definition of mathematical justification. Mathematical justification is a process of convicting ownself, and other people of the correct answer by using proper logic. This study examined mathematical justification from various perspectives; logic, personal, and social. Second, research on the types of mathematical justification and students skill level of mathematical justification was analyzed, and several implications were looked for. Results of the analysis were categorized into six steps of mathematical justification (Step 0: No justification, Step1 : Authority, Step 2: Empirical and inductive justification, Step 3: Deduction by generic examples, Step 4: Simple deduction, Step 5: Formal and theoretical justification). Third, students were assessed using worksheets, interviews, and field observations, based on mathematical justification, to know what the important facts are of the students' mathematical justification. Finally, a flame for this study's analysis was devised for student' mathematical justification i.e. PIRSO (Perceiving problems, operational Invariant, Representation, Steps of justifications, logical Organization).
Korean students are taught mathematical justification in the 8th grade. Recently, many researchers point out that justification should be taught from a younger age. An overwhelming amount of studies indicate that elementary school students can deduct and justify mathematically starting from lower grades in elementary school. Based on this statement, this study formed two research questions: first, where are 6th-grade students on Steps (PIRSO) of mathematical justification? Second, what are the distinctive features of mathematical justification of 6th graders?
Regarding the first research question, a survey was conducted. The result of the survey is following.
First, out of logic, personal and social perspectives, students answered that the personal aspects are most important. Second, geometry ranked higher than algebra on the Steps of students' mathematical justification. Third, the majority of students recorded obtaining high grades in school by using Simple deduction and Deduction by generic examples. On the other hand, students who have average or below average grades in school recorded using Empirical and inductive justification.
Regarding the second research question, the aforementioned worksheets, interviews, and field observations of students were qualified into PIRSO and data was analyzed based on mathematical justification's facts, students, and problems.
Results of the second research question is following.
First, Perceiving problems: when students felt that the problem of mathematical justification corresponded with their knowledge, the step of I, S, O were high. A noteworthy phenomenon was that I, S, O was higher on the difficult problems. Second, operational Invariant: there was a big gap according to the students mathematical ability. Based on mathematical ability, students justified by using either suitable properties, relations, definitions and so on. Third, Representation: 77.4% of students who participated in the research Represented their work by Language. And 7.1% of students Represented by Letter symbols (For example, ). 2.3% of students justified using Pictures. Forth, Steps of mathematical justification: no student justified using Authority even though they could not understand the problems or justify well using any other means. 51.2% of students justified using Simple deduction. 32.1% of students used Empirical and inductive justification. 16.7% of students deducted using generic examples. Fifth, Organization: 47.6% of students organized logically, and 42.9% of students had partial default logically on their mathematical justification.
This study yielded several implications.
First, student felt the necessity of justification in order to convince themselves of the correct answer. Therefore, teachers have to device adequate problems for students to justify, and offer various experience of mathematical justification. Second, 6th graders can justify on written problems well. Therefore, if teachers introduce mathematical justification with various methods before the 8th grade, they can reduce the fear that students have of mathematical justification. Third, students in the 6th grade justified not by using Authority but with Simple deduction and Deduction by generic examples. So, teachers need to improve students justification from Empirical and inductive justification to the higher level of logical deductive justification. Forth, As result of the survey and the PIRSO research qualified, the majority of students justified by using empirical and inductive ways in algebra, and by using Simple deduction and Deduction by generic examples in geometry. Namely, the Step of geometry is higher than algebra on mathematical justification. Fifth, when students made clear the operational Invariant, they justified on Step 3 and Step 4 of justification. this means that they think on a higher level of justification, and can organize logically. Sixth, Students in the 6th grade Represented with Language more than Letter symbols. Seventh, students' Step of justification correlated to their mathematical aptitude. Eighth, teachers can check the strong and weak point of students' mathematical justification by analyzing their workusing PIRSO. Therefore, based on these strong implications, we can conclude that PIRSO is a effective tool for revealing students distinctive features in mathematical justification and for improving their capacity to justify mathematically.