The flow of a proof -Establishing a basis of agreement

Mika Gabel , Tommy Dreyfus (1)

1 TAU - Tel Aviv University

The notion of flow of a proof encapsulates mathematical, didactical and contextual aspects of proof presentation, related to the lecturer's choices regarding the presentation. We explore the relationship between mathematics teaching and rhetoric, suggesting Perelman's New Rhetoric (PNR) as theoretical framework to assess different rhetorical aspects of the flow of a proof. In this paper we relate particularly to the establishment of a shared basis of agreement between the lecturer and the students, and to potential fallacies in this basis. We present examples of analysis of the basis of agreement from a lesson in Number Theory, at the beginning undergraduate level.

Keywords: Proof teaching; flow of proof; Perelman's New Rhetoric; mathematical argumentation

Domains: Mathematics [math]; Humanities and Social Sciences

Mika Gabel, Tommy Dreyfus. The flow of a proof -Establishing a basis of agreement. CERME 10, Feb 2017, Dublin, Ireland. ⟨hal-01865664⟩