Enhancing the Deductive Reasoning of Mathematics Teachers in a Constructivist Environment

Auxencia  A. Limjap,

Enhancing the Deductive Reasoning of Mathematics Teachers in a Constructivist Environment

Discipline: Education

Abstract:

This paper discusses the implementation of an instructional design for some topics of symbolic logic contained in a master's course in Foundations of Mathematics. The course includes a thorough presentation of the logico-deductive rules of replacement and inference applied in deriving conclusions from given premises. The design, based on the theory of constructivism, includes teaching strategies used to present the lessons in logic, the corresponding nonroutine activities and the assessment of the responses to the activities by five selected college mathematics teachers who took the 3-month course. 1 he leaching methodologies and activities employed were designed to foster a constructivist-motivated environment. A qualitative analysis of the activities and journal entries of the five college mathematics teachers is included. Based on the results of the qualitative analysis, the students were each classified as either reflective, transitional, or intuitive thinker. The result of the summative test on deductive proofs reveals that 4 out of the 5 teachers enhanced their ability to prove the validity of arguments by mathematical inference.