Open Conference Systems, MISEIC 2019

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Student’s Proof Scheme for Mathematical Proving and Disproving of Divisibility’s Propositions
Ditya Rifky Rahmawati

Last modified: 2019-10-09

Abstract


The arguments used in the proof process and students’ proof schemes are crucial components of mathematics to understand how proved statements are understood by students. Previous studies examined student’s proof scheme of Calculus, Elementary Numbers Theory, Quadratic, and Geometry’s Propositions. This study examined student proof schemes of Divisibility’s Proposition which has never been studied before. The study participants were 20 students from XI MIPA 3 students in SMA Hang Tuah 5 Sidoarjo. All participants had to answer two tests, namely the mathematics ability test and the proof test. Three volunteer students (1 male and 2 female), with high mathematics ability and high score in proof test, were selected as research subjects. For investigating the students’ proof schemes, semi-structured interview was conducted to three subjects. The data quality of proof schemes was categorized in Lee's proof scheme descriptors. The results show that all of the participants were able to disprove divisibility’s propositions in the 4th level because they were able to state that the falseness of the mathematics proposition by a specific counterexample. They couldn’t change the specific counterexample to become a general counterexample with mathematics symbols. Meanwhile, for the true mathematical proposition, one subjects concluded that the proposition is true with informal deductive proof, the other subjects proved the proposition inductively by using specific examples. Therefore, the first subject is categorized into 5th level and 2 subjects are categorized into 2nd level. This finding suggests, the need for further research regarding to gender.

Keywords


Proving; Disproving; Proof Schemes; Mathematical Proposition