We examine a commonly suggested proof construction strategy from the mathematics education literature-that students first produce a graphical argument and then work to construct a verbal-symbolic proof based on that graphical argument. The work of students who produce such graphical arguments when solving proof construction tasks was analyzed to distill three activities that contribute to students' successful translation of graphical arguments into verbal-symbolic proofs. These activities are called elaborating, syntactifying, and rewarranting. We analyze how engaging in these activities relates to students' success in proof construction tasks. Additionally, we discuss how each individual activity contributes to the translation of a graphical argument into a verbal-symbolic proof.

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Our study investigates perspectives of mathematics teacher educators related to the usage of their mathematical knowledge in teaching "Methods of Teaching Elementary Mathematics" courses. Five mathematics teacher educators, all with experience in teaching methods courses for prospective elementary school teachers, participated in this study. In a clinical interview setting, the participants described where and how, in their teaching of elementary methods courses, they had an opportunity to use their advanced mathematical knowledge and provided examples of such opportunities or situations. We outline five apparently different viewpoints and then turn to the similar concerns that were expressed by the participants. In conclusion, we connect the individual perspectives by situating them in the context of unifying themes, both theoretical and practical.

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a b s t r a c tWe examined the proof-writing behaviors of six highly successful mathematics majors on novel proving tasks in calculus. We found two approaches that these students used to write proofs, which we termed the targeted strategy and the shotgun strategy. When using a targeted strategy students would develop a strong understanding of the statement they were proving, choose a plan based on this understanding, develop a graphical argument for why the statement is true, and formalize this graphical argument into a proof. When using a shotgun strategy, students would begin trying different proof plans immediately after reading the statement and would abandon a plan at the first sign of difficulty. The identification of these two strategies adds to the literature on proving by informing how elements of existing problem-solving models interrelate.Published by Elsevier Inc.