Validation actions in Mathematics in high school classes

Abstract

In this article, an exploratory research on how a group of students of higher secondary level (16–17 years old) validates their mathematical knowledge is reported. The research took place in the classes of a course at a secondary school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Actions that students manifest in activities designed to promote justification, confrontation, defence and refutation are studied. Through identified actions, students elaborate reasons to build an argument and may lead to a proof, either pragmatic or intellectual type (Brousseau, 1995). Although experience has developed into a time-extended regular school classes, in teams of peers, the study shows a large fluctuation in the appropriation of shares for validation, i.e. resources or actions that are used in a problem and could be used again in other one, they do not appear in the same degree as before.