• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.361-383
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• 2011

This study is on teaching about the areas of plane figures through open instruction, which aims to discover the pedagogical meanings and implications in the application of open methods to math classes by running the Math A & B classes regarding the areas of parallelogram, triangle, trapezoid and rhombus for fifth graders of elementary school through open instruction method and analyzing the educational process. This study led to the following results. First, it is most important to choose proper open-end questions for classes on open instruction methods. Teachers should focus on the roles of educational assistants and mediators in the communication among students. Second, teachers need to make lists of anticipated responses from students to lead them to discuss and focus on more valuable methods. Third, it is efficient to provide more individual tutoring sessions for the students of low educational level as the classes on open instruction methods are carried on. Fourth, students sometimes figured out more advanced solutions by justifying their solutions with explanations through discussions in the group sessions and regular classes. Fifth, most of students were found out to be much interested in the process of thinking and figuring out solutions through presentations and questions in classes and find it difficult to describe their thoughts.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.95-111
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to analyze cases on teaching solutions exploration of Wythoff's game through using the analogy for the gifted elementary students, to suggest useful teaching methods. Students recognized structural similarity among problems on the basis of relevance of conditions of problems. The discovery of structural similarity improves the ability to solve problems. Although 2 groups-NIM game with surface similarity is not helpful in solving Wythoff's game, Queen's move game with structural similarity makes it easier for students to solve Wythoff's game. Useful teaching methods to find solutions of Wythoff's game through using the analogy are as follow. Encoding process helps students make sense of the game. It is significant to help students realize how many stones are remained and how the location of Queen can be expressed by the ordered pair. Inferring process helps students find a solution of 2 groups-NIM game and Queen's move game. It is necessary to find a winning strategy through reversely solving method. Mapping process helps students discover surface similarity and structural similarity through identifying commonalities between the two games. It is crucial to recognize the relationship among the two games based on the teaching in the Encoding process. Application process encourages students to find a solution of Wythoff's game. It is more important to find a solution by using the structural similarity of the Queen's move game rather than reversely solving method.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.619-636
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• 2012

The main purpose of this study was to explore the process of generalization generated by mathematically gifted students. Specifically, this study probed how fourth, fifth, and sixth graders might generalize geometric patterns and represent such generalization. The subjects of this study were a total of 30 students from gifted classes of one elementary school in Korea. The results of this study showed that on the question of the launch stage, students used a lot of recursive strategies that built mainly on a few specific numbers in the given pattern in order to decide the number of successive differences. On the question of the towards a working generalization stage, however, upper graders tend to use a contextual strategy of looking for a pattern or making an equation based on the given information. The more difficult task, more students used recursive strategies or concrete strategies such as drawing or skip-counting. On the question of the towards an explicit generalization stage, students tended to describe patterns linguistically. However, upper graders used more frequently algebraic representations (symbols or formulas) than lower graders did. This tendency was consistent with regard to the question of the towards a justification stage. This result implies that mathematically gifted students use similar strategies in the process of generalizing a geometric pattern but upper graders prefer to use algebraic representations to demonstrate their thinking process more concisely. As this study examines the strategies students use to generalize a geometric pattern, it can provoke discussion on what kinds of prompts may be useful to promote a generalization ability of gifted students and what sorts of teaching strategies are possible to move from linguistic representations to algebraic representations.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.19-41
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• 2017

The purpose of this article was to a) identify how preservice teachers conceive feedbacks and subsequent classroom discourses, and b) compare them with those in reform-oriented mathematics classroom video for mathematics teachers' professional development about classroom discourse. This article analyzes feedback patterns and subsequent classroom discourses in preservice teachers' imaginary classroom scripts (lesson plays) and compares them with those in the reform-oriented classroom video dealing with the same teaching situation. Most of the preservice teachers' feedbacks focused the evaluation of students' responses and transmission of meaning (univocal function), whereas the teacher's feedback in the reform-oriented classroom allowed the whole class to validate or challenge the answers, thereby facilitating students' generation of meaning (dialogic function). The comparison analysis between the univocal discourse in a preservice teacher's lesson play and the dialogical discourse in the reform-oriented classroom video shows that teacher feedback serves as an important indicator for the main function of classroom discourse and the levels of students' cognitive participation, and also as a variable that determines and changes them. This case study suggests that to improve the quality of classroom discourse, preservice and in-service teachers need experience of perceiving the variety of feedback patterns available in specific teaching contexts and exploring ways to balance the univocal and dialogical functioning in their feedback move during the teacher training courses.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.127-134
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• 2008

Potential economic impact of a hypothetical severe accident at a nuclear power plant(Uljin units 3/4) was estimated by applying the Delphi method, which is based on the expert judgements and opinions, in the process of quantifying uncertain factors. For the purpose of this study, it is assumed that the radioactive plume directs the inland direction. Since the economic risk can be divided into direct costs and indirect effects and more uncertainties are involved in the latter, the direct costs were estimated first and the indirect effects were then estimated by applying a weighting factor to the direct cost. The Delphi method however subjects to risk of distortion or discrimination of variables because of the human behavior pattern. A mathematical approach based on the Bayesian inferences was employed for data processing to improve the Delphi results. For this task, a model for data processing was developed. One-dimensional Monte Carlo Analysis was applied to get a distribution of values of the weighting factor. The mean and median values of the weighting factor for the indirect effects appeared to be 2.59 and 2.08, respectively. These values are higher than the value suggested by OECD/NEA, 1.25. Some factors such as small territory and public attitude sensitive to radiation could affect the judgement of panel. Then the parameters of the model for estimating the direct costs were classified as U- and V-types, and two-dimensional Monte Carlo analysis was applied to quantify the overall economic risk. The resulting median of the overall economic risk was about 3.9% of the gross domestic products(GDP) of Korea in 2006. When the cost of electricity loss, the highest direct cost, was not taken into account, the overall economic risk was reduced to 2.2% of GDP. This assessment can be used as a reference for justifying the radiological emergency planning and preparedness.