• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.547-573
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• 2021

Capacity is a concept that has been covered in elementary mathematics textbooks but its meaning has not been accurately defined in the textbooks. Two units, liter (L) and milliliter (mL), are introduced as the units of capacity in the textbooks, but they are the units of volume according to the International System of Unit. These stimulated us to analyze what capacity is, and how the capacity is related to the concept of volume. This study scrutinized how the different elementary mathematics textbooks that were developed from the first national curriculum to the most recently revised curriculum introduced the capacity and explained the relationship between capacity and volume. This study also examined the understanding of capacity by elementary school teachers using a questionnaire. The results of this study showed that the concept of capacity has been mostly introduced in the third grade in common but that there were differences among textbooks in terms of how they presented and used the concept of capacity as well as whether they described its definition or relationship with the concept of volume. Regarding the results of teachers' understanding, most teachers could explain the capacity as either "the size of the inner space of the container" or "the amount that can be contained" but some of them provided only superficial or inappropriate feedback for the students with the common misunderstandings of capacity. Based on these results, this paper presents implications for textbook developers and teachers to better address the concept of capacity.

• School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.301-322
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• 2016

Even though measurement is an important strand of elementary mathematics education, there has been lack of research in this field. This study analyzed topics related to length and time in a series of mathematics textbooks aligned to 2007 or 2009 revised mathematics curriculum. The analysis was focused on three aspects: (a) overall instructional components of measurement, (b) instructional components specific to the topics of measurement, and (c) key competencies in mathematics. The results of this study showed that many topics dealing with length and time were represented with relation to real-life contexts or other subjects. The meanings of measurement terms and the necessity of calculation were well explained but other aspects still had room for improvement when it comes to the necessity of measurement units, appropriate choice of units, and use of students' common misconceptions. Another noticeable result was that problem solving, communication, and reasoning among key competencies in mathematics have been emphasized in the mathematics textbooks. Based on these results, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in dealing with length and time.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.179-203
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• 2015

In this study, connections between the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and the contents of teacher's manual books according to it and the contents of elementary 1st grade mathematics curriculum and textbooks was analyzed to find the implications that can help to link the two curricula in the development of kindergarten and elementary school mathematics curriculum. The five following implications could be obtained from the analysis. First, it is necessary to connect the contents of the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children which were completed in that curriculum like 'spatial relation'in geometric figure domain and 'data collection'in probability and statistics domain to the contents of the 1st grade curriculum. Second, in the case of the contents not connected between the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and the contents of elementary 1st grade mathematics curriculum but connected between the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and the contents of elementary 2nd ~6th grade mathematics curriculum, it is necessary to re-adjust the hierarchy based on one of the curricula. Third, it is necessary to check whether $\ll$K-teacher's manual book$\gg$ obey the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children or not. Fourth, it is necessary to review the related elements of the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and elementary 2nd ~6th grade mathematics curriculum in [activity] in $\ll$K-teacher's manual book$\gg$. Fifth, it is necessary to handle the mathematics contents explicitly and systematically in [activity] in $\ll$K-teacher's manual book$\gg$.

• School Mathematics
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.537-555
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• 2008

The study aims to analyze elementary school students' understanding of the concept of equality sign in contexts, to reflect the types of contexts for equality sign which mathematics textbook series for $1{\sim}4$ grades on natural numbers and its operation provide, and to invetigate the effects of teaching methods of the concept of equality sign suggested in this research. In order to achieve these purposes, the origin, concept, and contexts of equality sign were theoretically reviewed and organized. Also the error types in using equality sign were reflected. Modelling, discussing truth or falsity of equations, identifying relations between numbers and their operation, conjecturing basic properties of numbers and their operations, experiencing diverse contexts for equality sign, and creating contexts for equality sign are set up as teaching methods for better understanding the concept of equality sign. The conclusions are as follows. Firstly, elementary school students' under-standing of the concept of equality sign varied by context and was generally far from satisfactory. In particular, they had difficulties in understanding the concept of the equal sign in contexts with operations on both sides. The most frequently witnessed error was to recognize equality sign as a result of operations. Secondly, student' lack of understanding of the concept of equality sign came from the fact that elementary textbooks failed to provide diverse contexts for equality sign. According to the textbook analysis, contexts with operations on the left side of the equal sign in the form of $a{\pm}b=c$ were provided excessively, with the other contexts hardly seen. Thirdly, teaching methods provided in the study were found to be effective for enhancing understanding the concept of equality sign. In other words, these methods enabled students to focus on relational understanding of concept of equality sign rather than operational one.

• School Mathematics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.323-343
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• 2011

The study of 2011 education course revision proposal suggests that middle school level function shall be taught with emphasis on its role as tool to understand the situations of actual world, and the concept shall be extended in high school into formularized setting that integrate various fields based on middle school function. In revising education course, the circumstances of other countries are desired to be considered to keep abreast of international standard education courses. In this study, the textbooks of Gesamtschule a general school a school type similar to the education system in Korea among various school forms of Germany were selected to look into the characteristics of function introduction and teaching & learning in Germany, and the textbooks were compared and analyzed with those of Korea. As a result of comparison and analysis on the system and contents with emphasis on function area, German textbooks differed from the 7th revised education course on the introduction of function concept, contents development method and method of instructing on graph etc. Such differences are anticipated to serve as data for reference in the development of revised education courses and textbooks in Korea.

• School Mathematics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.585-604
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• 2010

This study aims to investigate understanding of meanings of division, quotitive division and partitive division, by the third graders and preservice elementary teachers. To do this, we analysed and compared mathematics textbooks according to 9 mathematics curricula, gathered information about their understanding by questionnaire method targeting 5 third graders and 36 preservice elementary teachers, and analysed their responses in relation to recognition of division-based situations, solution using visual representations, and awareness of quotitive division and partitive division. In Korea, meanings of division have been taught in grade 2 or 3 in various ways according to curricula. In particular, the mathematics textbook of present curriculum shows a couple of radical changes in relation to introduction of division. We raised the necessity of reexamination of these changes, based on our results from questionnaire analysis that show lack of understanding about two meanings of division by the preservice elementary teachers as well as the third graders. And we also induced several didactical implications for teaching meanings of division.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.205-230
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• 2014

New teaching and learning theory on various aspects about class is needed to implement education which reflects constructivism, ideally. For an ideal learner-centered mathematics class, tangible and intangible elements related to education(view of knowledge, view of leaner, teacher's role, evaluation, the form of class, learning, teaching material, etc.) should be integrated from a constructive perspective and especially, teaching material has to be premised on that learners have intellectual abilities to construct knowledge themselves, and reflect integrity of knowledge, diversity and others, and contain open attributes. In addition to this, teaching material should have characteristics different from those when objective epistemology applies, so there is a need to analyze whether teaching material has those characteristics. For this, this study compared and analyzed <1. Three-Digit Numbers> which belongs to the domain of numbers and operations out of the units of mathematics(3) textbook of the 2009 revised curriculum for the first and second grade that first introduced story-telling, and <3. Understanding of Place Values> for the second grade of constructive math class used in the U.S.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.105-124
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• 2022

The contents of fraction division in textbooks are important because there were changes in situations and problem solving methods in textbooks according to the revision of the curriculum and the contents of textbooks affect students' learning directly. So, this study analyzed the achievement standards of the curriculum and formula types and situations, and the introduction process of non-standard and standard algorithms presented in Korean mathematics textbooks. The results are follows: there was little difference in the achievement standards of the curriculum, but there was a difference in the arrangement of contents by grades in textbooks. There was a difference in the types of formula according to textbooks. And the situation became more diverse; recent textbooks have changed to the direction of using the non-standard and the standard algorithm in parallel. In conclusion, I proposed categorizing rather than splitting the types of fraction division, the connection of non-standard and standard algorithm, and the need to prepare methods to pursue generalization and justification according to the common characteristics in the process of introducing standard algorithm.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.117-135
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• 2017

Even though patterns and correspondence serve a fundamental basis of function for elementary students, there has been lack of research in this field. This study explored prior studies to extract the key instructional elements on how to teach patterns and correspondence. This study then analyzed the unit of 'patterns and correspondence' in the mathematics textbooks in terms of four key instructional elements (i.e., relation to real-life contexts, diversity of pattern tasks, exploration for a correspondence relationship, and teaching variables). The results of this study showed that topics dealing with patterns and correspondence were represented with relation to real-life contexts but diversity of pattern tasks and exploration for a correspondence relationship were needed to be further considered in the textbooks. Another noticeable result was that teaching variables was not explicitly addressed in the textbooks. Based on these results, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in dealing with patterns and correspondence.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.183-197
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to support elementary teachers to use the teaching of weights and measures. To help the author of the next elementary mathematics textbook to be used as a reference for the quantitative narrative process. For this purpose, I focused on the contents of textbooks in terms of definition, a unit of measure, and calculation. As a result, first, as for the definition of weights and measures, it is taken as an example rather than as an explicit statement. Second, several problems were found in the metrology content and metric unit introduction order. Third, the computation between measurement units stood in simple computation rather than procedural knowledge. Fourth, it was concluded that the reason and groundbreaking of the grade-specific differences and the amount of a student's education are necessary.