• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.207-219
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• 2004

There have been studies reporting the increase in student confidence in mathematics when using technology. However, past studies indicating a positive correlation between technology and confidence in mathematics do not explain why they see this positive outcome. With increased availability and easy access to the Internet in schools and the development of free online virtual manipulatives, this research was interested in how the use of virtual manipulatives in mathematics can affect students confidence in their mathematical abilities. Our hypothesis was that the classes using virtual manipulatives which allows students to connecting dynamic visual image with abstract symbols will help students gain a deeper conceptual understanding of math concept thus increasing their confidence and ability in mathematics. The participants in this study were 46 fifth-grade students in three ability groups: one high, one middle and one low. During a two-week unit on fractions, students in three groups interacted with several virtual manipulative applets in a computer lab. Data sources in the project included a pre and posttest of students mathematics content knowledge, Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale, field notes and student interviews, and classroom videotapes. Our aim was to find evidence for increased level of confidence in mathematics as students strengthened their understanding of fraction concepts. Results from the achievement score indicated an overall main effect showing significant improvement for all ability groups following the treatment and an increase in the confidence level from the preassessment of the Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale in the middle and high ability groups. An interesting finding was that the confidence level for the low ability group students who had the highest confidence level in the beginning did not change much in the final confidence scale assessment. In the middle and high ability groups, the confidence level did increase according to the improvement of the contest posttest. Through interviews, students expressed how the virtual manipulatives assisted their understanding by verifying their answers as they worked and facilitated their ability to figure out math concept in their mind and visually.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.161-171
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• 2005

In Experiment 1, 4- and 5-year-olds were shown either continuous(i.e., pizza) or discontinuous Stimuli(i.e., biscuit) by the experimenter. After a proportion(e.g., 2/8, 4/8, or 6/8) was removed, children were asked to remove an equivalent proportion. Whereas 4-year-olds proportional reasoning was correct only when they shared the same stimulus with the experimenter, 5-year-olds reasoned correctly regardless whether or not they shared the stimulus with the experimenter. In Experiment 2, where the discontinuous stimulus was changed, 4-year-olds also made correct proportional reasoning even when their stimulus was different from the experimenter's. Contrary to other studies, quantity didn't affect children's proportional reasoning except the proportion 1/4, where problems with discontinuous quantity were solved more successfully than problems with continuous quantity.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.437-448
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• 2017

This study was conducted as a qualitative case study for examining what transformed primary concepts and transformed schemas were formed for the addition of decimals and how they were formed, and how the relational understanding of the addition of decimals was in three 3rd grade elementary school children who had studied the primary concepts of division, fraction and decimal. That is, this study investigated how the subjects approached problems of decimal addition using transformed primary concepts and transformed schemas formed by themselves, and how the subjects formed concepts and transformed schemas in problem solving. According to the results of this study, transformed primary concepts and transformed schemas formed through the learning of the primary concepts of division, fraction, and decimal functioned as important factors for the relational understanding of decimal addition.

• School Mathematics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.29-43
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• 2012

This paper investigated the conceptual schemes in which four children constructed a strategy representing the situation as a figure and partitioning it related to the work which they quantify the result of partitioning to various types of fractions when an equal sharing situation was given to them in contextual or an abstract symbolic form of division. Also, the paper researched how the relationship of factors and multiples between the numerator and denominator, or between the divisor and dividend affected the construction. The children's partitioning strategies were developed such as: repeated halving stage ${\rightarrow}$ consuming all quantity stage ${\rightarrow}$ whole number objects leftover stage ${\rightarrow}$ singleton object analysis/multiple objects analysis ${\rightarrow}$ direct mapping stage. When children connected the singleton object analysis with multiple object analysis, they finally became able to conceptualize division as fractions and fractions as division.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

This study investigates students' conceptions of fractions from a measurement approach while providing a technological environment designed to support students' understanding of the relationships between quantities and adjustable units. 13 third-graders participated in this study and they were involved in a series of measurement tasks through task-based interviews. The tasks were devised to investigate the relationship between units and quantity through manipulations. Screencasting videos were collected including verbal explanations and manipulations. Drawing upon the theory of semiotic mediation, students' constructed concepts during interviews were coded as mathematical words and visual mediators to identify conceptual profiles using a fine-grained analysis. Two students changed their strategies to solve the tasks were selected as a representative case of the two profiles: from guessing to recursive partitioning; from using random units to making a relation to the given unit. Dragging mathematical objects plays a critical role to mediate and formulate fraction understandings such as unitizing and partitioning. In addition, static and dynamic representations influence the development of unit concepts in measurement situations. The findings will contribute to the field's understanding of how students come to understand the concept of fraction as measure and the role of technology, which result in a theory-driven, empirically-tested set of tasks that can be used to introduce fractions as an alternative way.

• School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2016

In this paper, in order to lay the foundation for clearly determining the scope of contents handled in elementary math textbooks in Korea, what may be issues are discussed with respect to the contents handled in the current math textbooks. First of all, handling of percent point, concave polygons, and possibilities of event that will happen are discussed, the handling of them can be a issue in the sense of inconsistencies to the curriculum. Next, handling of fractions attaching units of discrete quantities and fractions attaching 'times' are discussed, the handling of them can be a issue in the sense of gap between everyday life and definition in math textbooks. Finally, handling of representing natural numbers into fractions and the positional relationship of geometrical figures are discussed, the handling of them can be a issue in the sense of a logical jump. The following three implications obtained from these discussions are presented as conclusions. First, it is necessary to establish clearly the relationship of textbooks and curriculum. Second, it is necessary to give attention to using the way to define or deal with concepts in math textbooks mixed with the way to use them in everyday life. Third, it is necessary to identify and eliminate the logical jumps in math textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.303-326
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• 2018

Fraction has difficulties in learning because of the diversity of meanings, the ways of presenting contents and teaching methods in elementary school mathematics. Therefore, the various strategies of teaching of fraction concept is proposed as an alternative. The problem of equal sharing problem is that children can experience the concept of fractions naturally in the context of everyday distribution. Even before learning formal fractions, children can solve them in various ways based on their own experiences. The purpose of this study is to investigate the degree of problem solving and problem solving strategies for children in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades in elementary school. As a result of the research, the percentage of correct answers increased as the grade increased, but the grade levels showed a difference depending on the numbers given to the problems. Also, there were differences in the problem solving strategies according to the grade levels. Also, according to the numbers presented in the problem, the percentage of correct answers was high in items that were easy to divide, and the percentage of correct answers was low in items that were difficult to divide. When children solved the problems, they were affected by the strategies they could use immediately according to the number presented in the problem, and their learning experiences were also affected.

• School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.647-666
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• 2016

This study investigates pre-service teacher's understanding of the concept and representations of irrational numbers. We classified the representations of irrational numbers into six categories; non-fraction, decimal, symbolic, geometric, point on a number line, approximation representation. The results of this study are as follows. First, pre-service teachers couldn't relate non-fractional definition and incommensurability of irrational numbers. Secondly, we observed the centralization tendency on symbolic representation and the little attention to other representations. Thirdly, pre-service teachers had more difficulty moving between symbolic representation and point on a number line representation of ${\pi}$ than that of $\sqrt{5}$ We suggested the concept of irrational numbers should be learned in relation to various representations of irrational numbers.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.483-498
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the dispositions of university students' understanding and reasoning about rational number concept. For this, we surveyed for the subject groups of prospective math teachers(33), engineering major students(35), American engineering and science major students(28). The questionnaire consists of four problems related to understanding of rational number concept and three problems related to rational number operation reasoning. We asked multi-answers for the front four problem and the order of favorite algorithms for the back three problems. As a result, we found that university students don't understand exactly the facets of rational number and prefer the mechanic approaches rather than conceptual one. Furthermore, they reasoned illogically in many situations related to fraction, ratio, proportion, rational number and don't recognize exactly the connection between them, and confuse about rational number concept.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.457-481
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• 2013

Since the importance of teacher knowledge in teaching mathematics has been emphasized, there have been many studies exploring the nature or characteristics of such knowledge. However, there has been lack of research on the tools of investigating teacher knowledge. Given this background, this study explored teachers' knowledge of fraction lessons using classroom video analysis. The analyses of this study showed that knowledge of teaching methods was activated better than that of student thinking or mathematical content. Knowledge of fraction operation was activated better than that of fraction concept. The degree by which teacher knowledge was activated depended on the characteristics of the video clips used in the study. This paper raised some issues about teachers' knowledge of fraction lessons and suggested classroom video analysis as an alternative tool to measure teacher knowledge in the Korean context.