On making epistemological inferences based on linguistic observations: a commentary on Shinno et al.

This was my first reaction to the Shinno et al. (2018) article in 38(1). Indeed, as Mason (2010) has argued, brief-andvivid recollections of observations that would resonate or trigger the others’ own recollections has special value in mathematics education research. For me, the article was definitely resonating and triggering. My second thought was about Shinno and colleagues’ approach to situating their observations in international context, by means of a proposal for a particular reference epistemological model (REM). I asked myself: how can the proposed three-layer REM account for the complexity of teaching and learning proof in school mathematics instructions in different countries? I briefly discuss these two questions in this commentary.