• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.89-106
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• 2006

The purposes of this study are to find out differences of the causes of mathematics anxiety in elementary school students according to the Grades and sex, and to find out which causes have more influence on achievement of mathematics and how much it is. For this purposes, the problems of this study are defined as follows: First, are there any differences in the influences of each super-causes and sub-causes of mathematics anxiety according to the Grades? Second, are there any differences in the influences of each super-causes and sub-causes of mathematics anxiety according to the sex? Third, what relation do the super-causes of mathematics anxiety have to the achievement of mathematics? The conclusions of this study are as follows: First, mathematics anxiety is much more affected by the internal cause like the cause of student attitude than the external cause like the causes of circumstance and the cause of teacher. Second. mathematics anxiety is much more affected by a direct experience like the causes of a shortage of time and the causes of student interest than indirect experience like the causes of teacher's authority and the causes of the application of daily life. Third, the causes of circumstance and parent's attitude. its sub-cause, have greater influence on the female group than on the male group. Fourth, in the middle Gradess, the female group is more affected by the cause of student attitude and the cause of circumstance than the male group, but in the higher Grades. the differences disappear and those two become common causes of anxiety. Fifth, As the students go up to the next Grades in school, the cause of teacher, the characteristic of the curriculum and the cause of prejudice have more influence on the mathematics anxiety. Sixth, the causes of teacher, the causes of mathematical curriculum and the causes of student attitude among super-causes of mathematics anxiety have a negative effect on the achievement of mathematics. But the causes of circumstance have a positive effect on it. And also, the causes of mathematical curriculum among super-causes is much related to the causes of teacher and the causes of circumstance.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.143-151
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• 2017

An increasing number of students are giving up on learning mathematics at all grade levels, including elementary school. The study in this paper considers seven non-cognitive student characteristics to identify which are strongly correlated with giving up on mathematics at the elementary school level. Data were collected with a survey on the non-cognitive domain of mathematics learning that was developed by the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity in 2015. The data were collected from 3,636 elementary school students in Korea, and we analyzed the data using the statistical computing program R. Of the seven components, efficacy and interest have a strong correlation with students' tendency to profess that they have given up trying to learn mathematics. The findings of the study shed light on which non-cognitive domain areas mathematics teachers need to pay more attention to in order to make their teaching effective. This study further investigated the correlation between responses to each of the 24 survey items and students' claim that they have given up on mathematics. Using the 8 items with the highest correlations, we have developed a shorter, 8-item version of the survey, which will be useful for similar future studies.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.51-72
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• 2015

This study aimed to analyze the characteristic of undergraduate students' perception and preference for mathematics. For this purpose, I surveyed 124 undergraduate students' metaphorical expressions about mathematics. I classified the expressions as four categories: a positive form, a negative form, a mixed form, an undecidable form. I investigated the proportion and characteristic of the metaphorical expressions according to the above four categories. Also, I surveyed the students' preference and nonpreference moments for mathematics and categorized them into 6-cases: elementary school, middle school, high school, university, always, and none. In addition, I examined the students' preference and nonpreference reasons for mathematics and classified them according to the 5-factors: grade factor, affective factor, content factor, teacher factor, and other factors. The results of this study as follows: First, the 27% of university students expressed their metaphorical expressions for mathematics as a positive form, 42% as a negative form, and 27% as a mixed form. Also, the preference rate for mathematics was higher as their school years increase and the main reasons of preference were grade and affective factors. The result of nonpreference rate was also higher as their school year increased. Students said that the contents and grade factor were the main factors among the 5-factors.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.19-40
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• 2006

There are various efforts to alleviate problems about the learning disabilities each year, however, the number of the learning disabilities has been increasing. Therefore, we need to consider and develop practical methods to help them. In this aspect, we review and examine previous research regarding the learning disabilities which are known to be general and comprehensive. Then we suggest math clinic as one of the methods to alleviate the problem. There are purposes of the math clinic. The first is to make a comprehensive diagnosis for basic (emotional, environmental, psychological) reasons as well as the learning anxiety; not only the lower achievement in learning. The second is to provide them suitable corrective programs which would help them to gain a better understanding about mathematics and a positive learning attitude. The third is to provide them applicabilities in their learning and potentialities so that we have given them foundation in mathematics. In this article, we operate math clinic for the learning disabilities, and then make an analysis of the student's error occurred in learning, and finally we suggest a demonstrative operating program of math clinic for learning disabilities.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.67-83
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• 2016

Correcting an imbalance between cognitive and affective aspects of mathematics in schools is recognized as a crucial issue with regards to mathematics education in Korea. Therefore, research and studies about affective aspects have been increasing and themes relating to affective aspects were diverse. Their theme included the improvement of affective aspect, investigation of factors of affective aspect, and development of measurement tools for affective aspect. The purpose of this study is to analyze and organize the research that has been done with respect to affective aspect and drive trend, implication, and their instruction to mathematics education. This study has investigated 103 studies released from 2005 to 2015 on KCI, Korea Citation Index. The results of this study are as follow. First, since released research of affective aspects in mathematics has not increased in number in the last 11 years, academic interest in the affective aspects seems lower than recent interest arousing in Korea. Second, most studies utilized quantitative research as a tool to analyze phenomena and the cause and effect of affective aspects. Third, middle school students were the most common subjects of the studies, followed by elementary school students. Fourth, the studies had various themes such as analyzing the cause and effect of affective aspect, recognizing changes of affective aspects, and measuring affective aspects. The studies, especially, focused most on analyzing how to improve affective aspects by applying it to programs such as mathematic activities and solving mathematic problems. It is necessary for future research to have a long-term perspective and to provide a space for communication. Research should not only focus on how recognize affective aspects differently, which is based on its cultural background, but also to draw affective solutions from them.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.187-206
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to know what is the difficulties that mathematics underachievers are suffering from the area of mathematical function and how to overcome this difficulties. For this study, we have selected two mathematics underachievers and carried out the inspection. The mathematics underachievers have undergone the difficulties of understanding mathematical problems, the difficulties from the deficit of prerequisite and basic learning, the difficulties of finding the answer typically and the difficulties of classifying an algebraic symbol, the difficulties of calculating the gradient of the straight line passing through two points.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-77
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• 2016

SENKs (Students who Emigrated from North Korea to South Korea) are exposed to the general problem of Su-Po-Ja(mathematics give-uppers) as well as their own difficulty in learning mathematics. In this study, we conducted the FGI (focus group interview) in order to examine the recognition on mathematics teaching and learning in South Korea with 6 SENKs and 3 teachers who teach the SENKs. As a result, it was found that SENKs' had difficulties in understanding math because of the differences in math terminology used in South and that in North Korea, the unfamiliar problem situation used in math lesson, and the shortage of time for solving math problem. And the teachers reported that they had difficulties in teaching great deal of basic math, SENKs' weak will to learn math, and SENKs' lack of understanding about problem situation because of the inexperience about culture and society in South Korea.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.133-152
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• 2004

In this paper, we discuss students' conceptual development of eigen value and eigen vector in differential equation course based on reformed differential equation using the mathematical model of mass spring according to historico-generic principle. Moreover, in setting of small group interactive learning, we investigate the students' development of mathematical attitude.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.199-213
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• 2011

The factors contributing to learning can be broadly classified into four different groups; Learner's characteristic variable, Instructor's characteristic variable, Learning task characteristic variable and environmental characteristic variable. And the first thing we need to do here is understanding of learner's characteristics among those factors in order to devise a plan for education. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to find out what impact the affective traits (self-concept learning habits learning attitude), one of the learner's features, have on the mathematics-learning achievement and to seek for a good teaching method with reference to elementary school students' learning accomplishments and attitudes. For this, a questionnaire survey was conducted of 78 students of two fifth-grade classes in an elementary school located in South Chungcheong Province in this study. In consequence, it has been shown that the mathematics-learning achievement has the greatest relevance to the self-concept in connection with mathematics followed by the self-concept in connection with learning, the learning habits relating to mathematics, the attitude towards mathematics, the learning habits concerning studies and the attitude towards learning.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.563-585
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• 2010

The major goals of this study are to find the factors that enhance self-directed math learning in college math classes and to provide the students with the opportunities to check and develop their self-directed math learning attitude. For these research goals, we prepared the questionnaires that asked about their learning motivations, basic learning ability, self-discipline strategies, and self-directed learning strategies. Another purpose of the questionnaires was to give them the chances to check and improve their attitude toward those learning strategies, motivation and ability. From the research results, we find that the important factors for self-directed learning are internal & external motivations, concentration ability, and the goal-setting and plan-making abilities. In addition, concentration ability, good habit, stress-control, recognition of math value, and self-directing ability are found to be necessary for the desirable learning environment. On the other hand, we find that the ability to perform note-taking, class preparation and review, time-control, and test-control is required for the selection and practice of self-fitting learning strategies. Finally, we provided our own self-directed math learning model. Our model, containing the necessary factors for self-directed math learning, is the revised and modified one of Knowles(1975)'s 5 stage self-directed learning model that comprises diagnosis of learning desire, setting learning goals, grasping human&material resources, selection and practice of proper learning strategies, and evaluation of learning results.