Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Improving Proof-Writing With Reading Guides, Mike Janssen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

One of the barriers in the transition to advanced mathematics is that the proofs and ideas in even the best mathematics texts must be read more carefully than many students are accustomed to. Yet in order to learn to write proofs well, one must learn how to read proofs well. Borrowing an idea from Lewis Ludwig, I flipped my introduction to proofs (discrete structures) course in Spring 2016 with the use of reading guides. Each day, students were responsible for reading a section of the text and completing a worksheet that highlighted the main points, asked students to create their …