• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.31-54
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• 2008

The discovery method is known to be the most effective in improving students' mathematical thinking. Recently, the long-term slow thinking(LST) is suggested as a possible method to implement the discovery method into the real classroom. In this concept, we examined whether students can solve such a problem, as appears to be beyond their ability, by themselves(LST) or not. 10 middle school students of the ninth grade were selected for the study, who had no previous experience on the infinite concept of calculus of the high school course. They had tried to solve a problem about the calculus by their LST for three days. Two of students solved the problem by themselves and seven of students solved it with help of hints. This result shows that if students are given the opportunity of LST for rather difficult mathematical problem with appropriate guidance of a teacher, they might solve it by themselves. That is, LST could be a possible method for implementation of the discovery method.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.45-63
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to analyze the status and gifted students' perception on curriculum implementation for gifted education at Busan Science Academy. For the purpose, we investigated the curriculum documents, the process of implementing curriculum and the result of the questionnaire. The questionnaire about the curriculum courses, teaching strategies and evaluation method was answered by 143 students at Busan Science Academy. The curriculum courses are composed of general courses and specialized courses: general courses comprise of Korean language, social studies, foreign languages, arts, and physical education. Specialized courses consist of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, information science. Elective courses are divided into basic elective courses and in-depth courses. Each in-depth course deals with more specialized content. The significant results of the questionnaire are as follows: First, according to gifted students' perception, the credits of specialized courses and in-depth elective courses need to be increased and the credits of general courses need to be reduced. Second, teachers at this school mainly use teaching strategies such as lecture, group activities and discussion, but the students prefer diverse teaching strategies such as lecture, discussion, experiment, individual research, problem solving and field studies. Third, students prefer a paper-and-pencil testing assesment rather than a written report assesment and lab experiment assesment. According to this study, the characteristics of the acceleration curriculum at Busan Science Academy were too intensive. Thus it is difficult to implement the enrichment education according to the demand of gifted students in this school. Therefore, this study suggests that we need to revise the curriculum courses of Busan Science Academy and develop contents and strategies for gifted education in science and mathematics.