Kinds of Mathematical Reasoning Addressed in Empirical Research in Mathematics Education: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Mathematical reasoning is gaining increasing significance in mathematics education. It has become part of school curricula and the numbers of empirical studies are growing. Researchers investigate mathematical reasoning, yet, what is being under investigation is diverse—which goes along with a diversity of understandings of the term reasoning. The aim of this article is to provide an overview on kinds of mathematical reasoning that are addressed in mathematics education research. We conducted a systematic review focusing on the question: What kinds of reasoning are addressed in empirical research in mathematics education? We pursued this question by searching for articles in the database Web of Science with the term reason* in the title. Based on this search, we used a systematic approach to inductively find kinds of reasoning addressed in empirical research in mathematics education. We found three domain-general kinds of reasoning (e.g., creative reasoning) as well as six domain-specific kinds of reasoning (e.g., algebraic reasoning). The article gives an overview on these different kinds of reasoning both in a domain-general and domain-specific perspective, which may be of value for both research and practice (e.g., school teaching).

Keywords

• mathematics education
• mathematical reasoning
• systematic literature review
• kinds of reasoning