Undergraduates' reasoning while solving integration tasks: discussion of a research framework

In this paper we investigate the extent to which the research framework on reasoning developed by Lithner (2008) is adequate for characterizing undergraduate students’ mathematical reasoning. We conducted a small number of individual task-based think-aloud interviews in which students solved integration tasks. Several examples illustrate how we characterized reasoning types by using the framework. However, we found that some reasoning types were not covered by the framework. We propose to extend the framework by introducing a reasoning type that is mathematically founded but not creative, and as a consequence, may be intertwined with imitative reasoning.