• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.483-500
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• 2019

This study compared and analyzed the van Hiele levels of geometry contents in middle school mathematics textbooks and those of students' thinking. As the mathematics curriculum was revised recently, the amount of contents in the geometry area were reduced, but the van Hiele level did not change much, and the gap between the van Hiele level of geometric contents presented in the textbooks and the level of students' geometric thinking still remained unchaged. The van Hiele levels of the geometric contents in the textbooks were distributed in the levels of 1, 2, 3 in the first grade, and 2, 3, 4 in the second and third grade. In the case of the first grade, 69% of the students were less than or equal to level 2, and 73.7% and 47.6% of the students in the second and third grades were less than or equal to level 3, respectively. Especially, in the case of the second and third grade, the ratio of the 4th level of the contents presented in the textbook is higher than the problem, which can cause difficulties for the students.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.443-458
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• 2011

There has been a lively discussion on improving Korean students' academic achievement and the imbalance in their recognition of the value of mathematics. In this context, there is a need for a program that enables the majority students who regards mathematics as a subject for the entrance examination to recognize the practicality and historicity of mathematics. Educational books on mathematics in everyday life or the history of mathematics are also expected to serve as an effective tool. In addition, Web 2.0 Map is another means of representing mathematics in everyday life and the history of mathematics in connection with the practical context. The active storytelling process in which mathematics in the practical context in mathematical educational books is represented in Web 2.0 Map is expected to help to understand in depth the practicality and historicity of mathematics. Nevertheless, mathematical educational books and Web 2.0 Map may lead to a considerable variety of outcomes and speeds if carrying out tasks depending on the student's competence and may have practical difficulties in being operated in class. These concerns, however, can be resolved through the creative activity programs adopted in conformance with the 2009 revised curriculum. Therefore, this study intends to develop a program for creating mathematical story maps through mathematical educational books and the Mashup of Web 2.0 Map in accordance with the process of developing activity programs. This study also intends to determine its effectiveness in enabling students to recognize the practical and historical values of mathematics.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-63
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• 2023

The activity of finding rules is useful for enhancing the algebraic thinking of elementary school students. This study analyzed the pattern activities of a finding rules unit in 10 different government-authorized mathematics curricular materials for fourth graders aligned to the 2015 revised national mathematics curriculum. The analytic elements included three main activities: (a) activities of analyzing the structure of patterns, (b) activities of finding a specific term by finding a rule, and (c) activities of representing the rule. The three activities were mainly presented regarding growing numeric patterns, growing geometric patterns, and computational patterns. The activities of analyzing the structure of patterns were presented when dealing mainly with growing geometric patterns and focused on finding the number of models constituting the pattern. The activities of finding a specific term by finding a rule were evenly presented across the three patterns and the specific term tended to be close to the terms presented in the given task. The activities of representing the rule usually encouraged students to talk about or write down the rule using their own words. Based on the results of these analyses, this study provides specific implications on how to develop subsequent mathematics curricular materials regarding pattern activities to enhance elementary school students' algebraic thinking.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.183-198
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• 2018

In this paper, I theoretically considered joining and separating activities and revisited the textbooks from 7 countries and Korean mathematics textbooks from 5th revised curriculum to 2015 revised curriculum to find implication for the treatment of 0 in the joining and separating activities. The 'joining' has definition and properties similar to addition, but the 'separating'is difficult to define and is not considered to have properties similar to subtraction. In the sense of computation, joining and separating can be seen as' part-part-to-whole' situations, but are just part of the addition and subtraction situations. The analysis of textbooks from 7 counties showed that Singapore and Malaysia textbooks already studied zero and then included it in joining and separating activities, but other countries did not include it as joining and separating activities. The textbooks of South Korea have consistently suggested not to include zero, but teacher's guide has shown that there is a little consistency in the treatment of zero. As a conclusion, I suggested that it was necessary to propose a proper context of the situation in order to introduce joining and separating without including 0 in terms of student level and to propose that a more consistent presentation of zero handling in the teaching in the teacher's guide.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.153-176
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to rethink the importance of manipulative materials and to extract of manipulative materials program and its application methods. Activity, construction, and operation is stressed in the elementary mathematics. For this, various technological tools and manipulative materials is emphasized in mathematics teaching-learning methods. Applications of manipulative materials in the elementary mathematics is gradually increased together with curriculum revisions and textbook developments. As a result, tangram, geo-board etc., many tools ate introduces to school mathematics. This study is executed in this contexts. To achieve this, We introduce Australian 'Maths With Attitude' program. This program is composed of the primary level and secondary level. Each level consists of four domains - Number & Computation, Space & Logic, Chance & Measurement, Pattern & Algebra -, and each domains is made up of 20 tasks(i.e. manipulative materials) and programs. This study takes the focus to 5-6 grades programs in the mid of the primary level. First, We introduce 'Monkeys & Bananas'(Number & Computation) and 'Triangles & Colours' (Pattern & Algebra) tasks, and investigate the examples of lessons using these tasks. Second, We think the probability of these tasks' application and draw examples in the elementary mathematic textbooks. Through this works, We respect teaching-learning methods is rich and various in the elementary mathematics lessons.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.92-111
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• 2020

The 2015 revised science curriculum and NGSS (Next Generation Science Standard) suggest computational thinking as an inquiry skill or competency. Particularly, concern in computational thinking has increased since the Ministry of Education has required software education since 2014. However, there is still insufficient discussion on how to integrate computational thinking in science education. Therefore, this study aims to prepare a way to integrate computational thinking elements into scientific inquiry by analyzing the related literature. In order to achieve this goal, we summarized various definitions of the elements of computational thinking and analyzed general problem solving process and scientific inquiry process to develop and suggest the model. We also considered integrated problem solving cases from the computer science field and summarized the elements of the Computational Thinking-Scientific Inquiry (CT-SI) model. We asked scientists to explain their research process based on the elements. Based on these explanations from the scientists, we developed 'Problem-finding' CT-SI model and 'Problem solving' CT-SI model. These two models were reviewed by scientists. 'Problem-finding' model is relevant for selecting information and analyzing problems in the theoretical research. 'Problem solving' is suitable for engineering problem solving process using a general research process and engineering design. In addition, two teachers evaluated whether these models could be used in the secondary school curriculum. The models we developed in this study linked with the scientific inquiry and this will help enhance the practices of 'collecting, analyzing and interpreting data,' 'use of mathematical thinking and computer' suggested in the 2015 revised curriculum.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.289-307
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• 2018

Although mixed calculation of natural numbers is important in that it completes arithmetic calculation of natural numbers in elementary school, few studies have been conducted regarding its instruction methods. Given this, this study analyzed Korean mathematics textbooks (from the fifth textbooks to the 2009 revised textbooks) along with Japanese and Singaporean textbooks in terms of the parentheses and the order of operations regarding mixed calculation of natural numbers. The results of this study showed that there were differences in introducing the parentheses and representing them in an explicit way per textbooks. In the Korean textbooks, the order of operations was presented mostly with the real-life contexts but it was not always in a diagrammatic representation. In contrast, in the Singaporean textbooks, the order of operations was presented without the real-life contexts and the use of calculators was emphasized. In the Japanese textbooks, the order of operations was presented with the real-life contexts and a hierarchy of operations was emphasized. Based on these results, this study suggested several implications of textbook development and instructional methods regarding mixed calculations of natural numbers.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.39-55
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• 2024

Recently, the 2022 revised mathematics curriculum has established achievement standards for equal sign and equality, and efforts have been made to examine teaching methods and student understanding of relational understanding of equal sign. In this context, this study conducted a lesson that emphasized relational understanding in an introduction to equal sign, and compared and analyzed the understanding of equal sign between the experimental group, which participated in the lesson emphasizing relational understanding and the control group, which participated in the standard lesson. For this purpose, two classes of students participated in this study, and the results were analyzed by administering pre- and post-tests on the understanding of equal sign. The results showed that students in the experimental group had significantly higher average scores than students in the control group in all areas of equation-structure, equal sign-definition, and equation-solving. In addition, when comparing the means of students by item, we found that there was a significant difference between the means of the control group and the experimental group in the items dealing with equal sign in the structure of 'a=b' and 'a+b=c+d', and that most of the students in the experimental group correctly answered 'sameness' as the meaning of equal sign, but there were still many responses that interpreted the equal sign as 'answer'. Based on these results, we discussed the implications for instruction that emphasizes relational understanding in equal sign introduction lessons.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.189-202
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• 2021

The teacher's questions presented in the problem-solving situation stimulate students' mathematical thinking and lead them to find a solution to the given problem situation. In this research, the types and functions of questions presented in chapters of Pattern area of the 2015 revised elementary school mathematics textbooks were compared and analyzed by grade cluster. Through this, it was attempted to obtain implications for teaching and learning in identifying the characteristics of questions and effectively using the questions when teaching Pattern area. As a result of this research, as grade clsuter increased, the number of questions per lesson presented in Pattern area increased. Frequency of the types of questions in textbooks was found to be high in the order of reasoning questions, factual questions, and open questions in common by grade cluster. In chapters of Pattern area, relatively many questions were presented that serve as functions to help guess, invent, and solve problems or to help mathematical reasoning in the process of finding rules. It can be inferred that these types of questions and their functions are related to the learning content by grade cluster and characteristics of grade cluster. Therefore, the results of this research can contribute to providing a reference material for devising questions when teaching Pattern area and further to the development of teaching and learning in Pattern area.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.97-118
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• 2011

This study aimed finding effective models for the teaching the concept of function. We selected two models. One is discrete model which focuses on the 'corresponding relation of the elements of the sets(domain and range). The other is continuous model which focuses on the dependent relationship of the two variables connected in variable phenomenon. A vending machine model was used as a discrete model, and a water bucket model was used as a continuous model in our study. We taught 2 times about the concept of function using two models to the 60 students (7th grade, 2 classes) living in Taebak city, and tested it twice, after class and about 3 months later. A vending machine model was helpful in understanding the definition of function in the 7th grade math textbook. Also, it was helpful to making concept image and to recalling it. On the other hand, students who used the water bucket model had a difficultly in understanding the all independent variables of the domain corresponding to the dependent variables. But they excelled in tasks making formula expression and understanding changing situations.