• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.229-252
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• 2022

This study analyzed the introduction of addition and subtraction, including the composition and decomposition of numbers in the Korean, Singaporean, American, and Japanese elementary mathematics textbooks. The analytic foci of this study included visual models and their connections with the given problem contexts, the introduction of addition/subtraction or addition/subtraction sentences and their connections with the visual models, and additional activities for students to develop a relational understanding of the equal sign. The results of the analysis demonstrated diverse connections, mainly because the problem contexts, visual models, and the introduction of addition/subtraction or addition/subtraction sentences were implemented differently for each textbook. There were differences among the textbooks in what order of problem contexts were presented. Regarding the use of visual models, two textbooks tended to use one model consistently, whereas the other textbooks used various models depending on the problem contexts. There were subtle but significant differences in introducing addition/subtraction or addition/subtraction sentences. For a relational understanding of the equal sign, all textbooks included activities emphasizing that both sides of the equal sign are equal. Based on the results of this study, this paper closes with several implications related to the problem contexts to introduce addition/subtraction and addition/subtraction sentences as well as the use of visual models, which can serve as a basis for a new unit for the subsequent textbook.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.663-690
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• 2017

The aim of this study is to look into the meaning and sub-factors of spatial orientation, compare and analyze mathematics curriculums and textbooks of several countries with respect to spatial orientation and offer suggestions to improve teaching spatial orientation in elementary school mathematics in Korea. In order to attain these purposes, this study examined the meaning and sub-factors of spatial orientation through the theoretical consideration regarding various studies on spatial sense. Based on such examination, this study compared and analyzed mathematics curriculums and textbooks used in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Finland, United States of America, and Germany with respect to contents of mathematics curriculum and textbooks in grades, sub-factors of spatial orientation, and contexts for spatial orientation. In the light of such theoretical consideration and analytical results, this study provided suggestions for improving teaching spatial orientation in elementary schools in Korea as follows: extending content of spatial orientation in mathematics curriculum, emphasizing spatial orientation across the several grades, especially in the upper grades, providing opportunities to learn the sub-factors of location, direction, coordinates, route, and distance variously, and utilizing various familiar and realistic contexts in the world around students.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.89-108
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• 2007

Finding the lack of meaningful approaches in teaching multiplication of decimal fractions, this paper tries to show from the standpoints of Dewey, Vergnaud and Brousseau that the cognition of ratio and proportion is essential to the understanding of multiplication of decimal fractions. Based upon such posture, this paper compares the characteristics and approaches to multiplication of decimal fractions in Korean and Japanese textbooks. Finally, this paper suggests ways to develop the concept of multiplication of decimal fractions in Korean textbooks.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.115-134
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• 2021

This study implemented a comparative analysis of the international mathematics curriculum on time learning. It aimed the improvement of challenges students facing when they learn time. As a preliminary step, I reviewed the previous literature on teaching and learning of time, and based on this, I drew five issues that require to be considered for better time learning. The coverage of time contents and the learning periods of respective time contents were compared across the mathematics curriculum of Korea, Japan, Australia, the United States, and Finland. The textbook cases of those countries were analyzed with a special focus on the five issues. The results showed that the Korean curriculum assigned time learning contents compressively during short periods compared to other countries. responded to the issues on teaching and learning of time, several improvement ideas were deduced from textbook cases of other countries. Implications for the curriculum reform were discussed underlying the results.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.627-654
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• 2016

Despite the significance of the measurement strand in elementary mathematics education, it is not easy to teach it meaningfully. This study analyzed instructional methods related to capacity and weight in a series of mathematics textbooks of Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the US. The overall analysis was conducted in the following two aspects: (a) what and when to teach main learning content, and (b) how to teach the learning content tailored to the instructional components specific to the topics of measurement (i.e., the necessity of measurement unit, the meanings of measurement terms, appropriate choice of units, appropriate choice of measurement tools, and the necessity of calculation). The results of this study showed overall similarities in using real-life contexts to teach major topics on capacity and weight as well as emphasizing the relations among measurement units. However, noticeable differences were also analyzed in dealing with the meanings of measurement terms, appropriate choice of units, and appropriate choice of measurement tools. Based on these results, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in dealing with capacity and weight.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.181-203
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• 2019

Even though the properties of operations in multiplication serve a fundamental basis of conceptual understanding the multiplication with whole numbers for elementary students, there has been lack of research in this field. Given this, the purpose of this study was to analyze instructional methods related to the properties of operations in multiplication (i.e., commutative property of multiplication, associative property of multiplication, distributive property of multiplication over addition) in a series of mathematics textbooks of Korea, Japan, and the US. The overall analysis was conducted in the following two aspects: (a) when and how to deal with the properties of multiplication in three instructional context (i.e., introduction, application, generalization), and (b) what models use to represent the properties of multiplication. The results of this showed that overall similarities in introducing the properties of multiplication .in (one digit) ${\times}$ (one digit) as well as emphasizing the divers representation. However, subtle but meaningful differences were analyzed in applying and generalizing the properties of multiplication. Based on these results, this paper closes with some implications on how to teach the properties of operations in multiplication properties in elementary mathematics.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.235-255
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• 2017

This study compared and contrasted the topics related to congruence and symmetry in the elementary mathematics textbooks series of Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, and Singapore in three aspects: (a) when to teach, (b) what to teach, and (c) how to teach. Firstly, the results of when to teach showed differences across the countries with a variation of teaching the topics among grades from 3 to 6. Secondly, the results of what to teach revealed subtle but significant differences. Regarding congruence, Korea and Japan deal with congruence in a systematic manner, while Finland tends to address the brief definition of congruence, and Hong Kong and Singapore focus on teaching tessellation which implies congruence. Regarding symmetry, Korea and Japan deal only with a symmetric figure for a line and that for a point, while Hong Kong includes a rotational symmetry and Finland extends further to cover the figures positioned in a symmetry both for a line and for a point. Lastly, the results of how to teach demonstrated that Korea tends to focus on the procedure of drawing both triangles to be congruent and symmetric figures. This implies that we need to consider alternative methods such as using various instructional materials and making an explicit connection among mathematical concepts in teaching congruence and symmetry.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.441-457
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to analyze Korean students' mathematics achievement characteristics and draw implications for better math education in schools through comparing the results of three east Asian top level countries, Korea, Singapore, and Japan in PISA 2012 results. As a results, the rate of correct answers of Korea students was relatively low compared with those of Singapore, but relatively higher than Japan. From the results of effect size, similar results from t-test was discovered. As shown in analysis according to sub-elements in math assessment framework, the Korean students had low effect size in every sub-elements than Singapore. and they had high effect size at most of sub-elements than Japan, except "personal" context. In top performing level(above level 5), the Korean students had high effect size at "quantities" in mathematical contents, and "employ" in mathematical processes compared with Singapore. And they had row effect size at 6 sub-elements compared with Japan.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.445-467
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• 2018

In this study, we analyzed the contents of pi and the area of a circle presented in Korean, Japanese, Singapore, and American mathematics textbooks, and drew implications for the teaching of pi and the area of a circle in school mathematics. We developed a textbook analysis framework by theoretical discussions on the concept of the pi based on the various properties of pi and the area of a circle based on the central ideas of measurement and the previous researches on pi and the area of a circle in elementary mathematics. We drew five suggestions for improving the teaching of pi and three suggestions for improving the teaching of the area of a circle in Korean elementary schools.

• School Mathematics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.103-121
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• 2005

This article compares and analyzes mathematics textbooks of North Korea, South Korea, China and Japan and draws meaningful ways for introducing the division algorithm of fractions. The analysis is based on the five contexts: 'measurement division', 'determination of a unit rate', 'reduction of the quantities in the same measure', 'division as the inverse of multiplication or Cartesian product', 'analogy with multiplication algorithm of fractions'. The main focus of the analysis is what context is used to introduce the algorithm and how much it can appeal to students. This analysis supports that there is a few differences of introducing methods the division algorithm of fractions among those countries and more meaningful way can be considered than ours. It finally suggests that we teach the algorithm in a way which can have students easily see the reason of multiplying the reciprocal of a divisor when they divide with fractions. For this, we need to teach the meaning of a reciprocal of fraction and consider to use the context of determination of a unit rate.