Timeline for Textbook recommendations for undergraduate proof-writing class
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 22, 2011 at 19:52 | history | undeleted | David White | ||
| Jun 22, 2011 at 19:49 | history | deleted | David White | ||
| Apr 26, 2011 at 14:27 | comment | added | David White | Hmm, I guess I can't comment about how the book is for "weak students" but I will say that when I took this course I had no experience with proof writing whatsoever. I was pretty hopeless when I started, but the instructor met with me many many times and this book was a great supplement for those meetings. In particular, I learned a ton from the "backwards-forwards method" of solving a problem...reducing your problem to simpler pieces and solving those. I can't remember well enough to comment on the exercises, but I do know the book covers all proof methods you see in early undergrad math | |
| Apr 26, 2011 at 0:17 | comment | added | anon | I recommend anything but this book. When I taught out of it, prepared students liked it a lot, but borderline students (who need such a class more) struggled more than they might have without any book. It hurts weak students. It seems to feed an expectation in them that all proof-writing is done "step-by-step", with the precise sequence of steps dictated entirely by the formal structure of the statement to be proved, and the exercises do not carefully delineate between what math can be taken for granted and what cannot--- giving the impression that "proof writing" can be done in a vacuum. | |
| Apr 23, 2011 at 0:25 | history | answered | David White | CC BY-SA 3.0 |