Teaching natural deduction in the right order with Natural Deduction Planner

TL;DR

This paper presents a strategy-based teaching approach for natural deduction, emphasizing deduction order, supported by tools like a LaTeX package and Java app, tailored for beginners in philosophy and mathematics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel notation and educational tools to improve natural deduction teaching, specifically designed for students with limited mathematical background.

Findings

Effective in undergraduate philosophy classes

Enhances understanding of deduction construction order

Supports classroom demonstrations

Abstract

We describe a strategy-based approach to teaching natural deduction using a notation that emphasises the order in which deductions are constructed, together with a {\LaTeX} package and Java app to aid in the production of teaching resources and classroom demonstrations. Our approach is aimed at students with little exposure to mathematical method and has been developed while teaching undergraduate classes for philosophy students over the last ten years.