Pre-service teachers’ use of the word explain when working on mathematical reasoning and proving

Overview & Synopsis

In this paper, we look at different ways pre-service teachers use the word explain when evaluating student arguments. The word was not used in the assignment or the lesson, but 20 of 28 groups of PSTs still used it in their responses. This indicates that it is natural for PSTs to use the word explain in the context of mathematical reasoning and proving. However, the word was used in different ways: to address what is done or why the statement is true and also to denote the whole argument or the textual part of the argument. In addition, it was often ambiguous what PSTs wanted to express by using the word. We discuss some possible implications for teaching reasoning and proving.