The role of examples in mathematical reasoning Seminar

Many of the claims and counterclaims about the role of examples in mathematics learning are based on particular mathematical contexts. When these are analysed it is often the case that the context matters less than the cognitive moves necessary to construct a view of a mathematical object. In this talk I will present some examples of example use, offer some plausible analyses, and then move to discussion of pedagogic implications of a fine grained understanding of the processes involved in learning from examples.