Procept


A procept is an amalgam of three components: a process which produces a mathematical object and a symbol which is used to represent either process or object. It derives from the work of Eddie Gray and David O. Tall, and is a much used construct in mathematics education research.
The notion was first published in a paper in the in 1994, and is part of the process-object literature. This body of literature suggests that mathematical objects are formed by encapsulating processes, that is to say that the mathematical object 3 is formed by an encapsulation of the process of counting: 1,2,3...
Gray & Tall's notion of procept improved upon the existing literature by noting that mathematical notation is often ambiguous as to whether it refers to process or object. Examples of such notations are: