An Analysis of Seventh Graders Skills in Doing Proofs

This research explores how 48 seventh graders’ ability to do proofs have changed as a result of a treatment consisting of 14 hours of instruction, aimed at developing formal approach to proofs, spread to 13-weeks. In this study, first activities focusing on formal proofs were carried out, in a classroom setting, followed by a Proof Test, designed to measure students’ ability to do proofs. After the test, clinical interviews were carried out with the students. After the interventions, an improvement on students’ ability to do proofs was observed. Students were more successful doing proofs by contradiction than other methods. Students clearly had difficulty in writing proofs by cases.