• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2010

This paper analyzed the contents and instructional methods of various plane figures presented mainly in a series of elementary mathematics textbooks on the basis of the analysis of related contents in the 2007 revised national mathematics curriculum. As such, this paper provided detailed analyses of how textbooks would implement the vision and intention of the curriculum, how the definition of each plane figure in the textbooks might be different from its mathematical definition, and how textbooks would introduce each plane figure. It is expected that the issues and suggestions stemming from this analysis will be informative in designing new instructional materials.

• School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.847-866
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze students' various solution methods revealed in the lessons of finding out the area of plane figures, and to explore instructional implications on how to draw meaningful formalization out of such multiple methods. The teacher in this study tended to select a few solution methods that were easy for students to understand and to induce formalization. An analysis of students' solution methods and the process of formalization showed that students need to understand what parts of the length of the given plane figure they should know, and to identify the base, height, and diagonal line of the figure. The analysis also showed that it was effective to choose the solution methods that were used by many students and that could be easily transformed into a concise formula. Based on these results, this paper provides instructional suggestions for a teacher to orchestrate classroom discussion toward formalization based on students' multiple solution methods.