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Dragging, instrumented abduction and evidence, in processes of conjecture generation in a dynamic geometry environment

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Abstract

In a dynamic geometry environment (DGE) conjectures can be generated by manipulating figures with different dragging strategies. One strategy (maintaining dragging) that has been the focus of various studies, consists of inducing a specific geometric property and trying to maintain it. In this paper I focus on abduction and evidence within such processes of the generation of conjectures. I discuss the particular nature of the abductive process associated with the use of maintaining dragging (instrumented abduction). In respect of other forms of abduction reported in the literature, I highlight their key role in bridging phenomenological evidence and theoretical evidence. Results from analysis of a case study suggest that using maintaining dragging leads students to the generation of conjectures with solid phenomenological evidence. On the other hand, the process withholds a potential fragility with respect to proof of the conjectures generated, due to the scarce theoretical evidence stemming from it.

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Notes

  1. Peirce’s classical example for this general form is given using as fact “These beans [oddly] are white”, as rule “All the beans from this bag are white” and as hypothesis “These beans are from this bag”.

  2. In his famous example the rule is “all the beans from this bag are white”.

  3. The name echoes Vergnaud’s construct of theorem-in-action (2009).

  4. Indeed, this is what led to the name instrumented abduction in the first place, since maintaining dragging can be seen as an instrument for generating conjectures.

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Samuele Antonini, with whom I have discussed students’ excerpts from this study at length, as well as Maria Alessandra Mariotti for her precious guidance; discussions and exchanges with them have led to many ideas in this paper. This work was funded by the MIUR (PRIN 2007B2M4EK) and by the University of New Hampshire (Dissertation Fellowship).

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Correspondence to Anna Baccaglini-Frank.

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Baccaglini-Frank, A. Dragging, instrumented abduction and evidence, in processes of conjecture generation in a dynamic geometry environment. ZDM Mathematics Education 51, 779–791 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-019-01046-8

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