The use of logic is an integral part of mathematical reasoning and communication. This exploratory study explored the reasoning by 122 science students from a university in Lesotho about the truth or falsity of conditional statements. Written tasks and interviews were used as methods of data collection to produce qualitative data. The tasks required the students to classify the given conditional statements as either true or false and explain their answers. The word ‘explain’ carried the meaning that students should provide reasons for their choice of answers. The analysis took into account whether students classified the statements correctly and if the reasons they gave resonated with their choice of answers. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of students correctly classified the statements as either true or false. What became of great interest was that most students classified the statements and their converses and their equivalences correctly with appropriate reasoning. Very few students could not give proper mathematical reasoning for their choice of answers. Implications for the findings of the study for teaching and future research are provided.

中文翻译：

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理科大学生对条件陈述赋予真实性或虚假性的原因

逻辑的使用是数学推理和交流的组成部分。这项探索性研究探索了来自莱索托一所大学的122名理科学生对条件陈述的真实性或虚假性的推理。书面任务和访谈被用作收集定性数据的数据收集方法。这些任务要求学生将给定的条件陈述分类为对还是错，并解释其答案。“解释”一词的含义是学生应提供选择答案的理由。该分析考虑了学生是否正确地对陈述进行了分类，以及他们给出的理由是否与他们选择的答案产生了共鸣。研究结果表明，大多数学生正确地将陈述归类为对或错。引起极大兴趣的是，大多数学生使用适当的推理正确地对了陈述及其对立和对等进行分类。很少有学生无法给出正确的数学推理来选择答案。提供了对研究结果的启示，对教学和未来的研究。