Possibilities of Preparing Pupils for Proof Problems of Synthetic Plane Geometry Solvable by Deductive Methods

Abstract

Proof problems, especially the ones of the synthetic plane geometry solvable by deductive methods, play a significant role in mathematical education and due to their demanding principle also in the above-standard education including mathematical competitions. Therefore, the issue of preparing pupils for solving the proof problems is very important. This study aimed to find out if the contemporary state of the system of pupils’ preparation for synthetic plane geometry proof problems is sufficient enough for the mentioned purpose. From the full set of schools of the Czech Republic, there were 14 schools identified as the successful ones based on the results of the national round of the Mathematical Olympiad. These schools were asked questions about literature used for pupils’ preparation and the publications named in the answers were then deeply inspected. The results showed a narrow range of the literature used by the schools and the didactic-methodical inspection of stated literature detected considerable space for improvements which led the author to the main theme of his dissertation.