Fostering Indonesian Prospective Mathematics Teachers' Geometry Proof Competence

It is widely accepted that comprehending and constructing mathematical proof is an essential topic at any level of mathematics education, including higher education. Prospective mathematics teachers (PMTs) learn mathematical proof in university because proof competence could help them understand and explain mathematical concepts to their students when they are a high school teacher. From a small-scale observational study at a university in Malang, Indonesia, I learned that most students faced difficulties understanding and constructing mathematical proof. This situation motivated me to investigate and improve PMTs’ proof competence.
For that purpose, I designed a course and investigated how this course supported PMTs in developing proof competence in geometry. My findings indicated that the course supported PMTs in developing their proof competence, particularly in conjecturing, which is a precursor activity of proving, and their understanding and construction of proof. A quasi-experimental study showed that students achieved better results than in the regular course. The designed learning trajectory can inform curriculum designers about effective teaching strategies for geometrical proof, particularly in an early stage at Indonesian universities. I recommend that in the future, PMTs at all Indonesian universities should acquire not only the content knowledge of mathematical proofs (on which this study focused) but also the pedagogical content knowledge. Following this study, proof should be promoted in Indonesian secondary schools, along with guidance for teachers about implementation in their classrooms.