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Agenda 2/10/26

  1. Review Ch5 - Proofs, pp.171-231
    • Two notions of "following from": syntactic vs. semantic entailment
    • Proof setup
    • Intelim rules
    • Assumptions and subproofs
    • Derived rules
    • Practice, Practice, Practice
  2. Pedagogical Issues
    • Student frustrations and common frustrations
      • I don't know where to start
      • What do I assume?
      • Using other resources
      • I need a tutor
      • Trying to think through the entire proof
      • Skipping ahead
    • Instructional issues
      • How many rules? Intelim vs. non-intelim
      • Derived rules?
      • Common sources of anxiety
      • Dealing with student frustration
      • Testing, e.g., quizzes, homework, exams, exam layout
      • Board Races
    • A proof contest?

Pedagogical Issues in Logic

For each scenario below, think about (1) what you might do in response and (2) what you could do to prevent the situation from occurring in the future.

Student scenarios

  1. Student did well on the first exam and now is skipping lots of classes (trees, tables).
  2. Several students emailed you the day before exam 2 and now exam 3 claiming they are not prepared to take the exam and need to make it up on in the future. They want to individually meet with you before they take the exam so they can practice / study.
  3. Student expresses significant anxiety / worry about an upcoming exam. Says that they have failed math classes in the past and they believe they will fail the next exam.
  4. Student writes to you complaining about the book. They claim that the book has typos and that all of the answers are not found in the back of the book.
  5. Student is upset about how much homework is assigned in the course. They claim that you are overloading them with work and that life is hard enough without you making things worse.
  6. Student fails exam 3 on proofs. Earns 13/100. Says they need this class to graduate (they are in their "last semester").

Instructor scenarios

  1. For exam 1, you see students looking around the room at the papers of the students around them.
  2. Student asks you a conceptual question that you don't know the answer to.
  3. Student asks you to complete a proof, but you forget how to do the proof.
  4. You wrote your exams and notes in shorthand (e.g., P->Q, P^Q rather than \(P\rightarrow Q\) or \(P\wedge Q\)) and have been contacted by the Accessibility office. They say that you need to make your course materials ADA compliant, e.g., equations need to be capable of being read using a screenreader and proofs / trees need to have alt text.

Next Time

Next class we will look at the language of QL.

  1. Read ch.6
  2. Complete module 6 quizzes