• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.165-180
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• 2011

Mathematical symbols concisely represent mathematical contents related to terms by describing their mathematical meanings implicitly. All symbols in elementary school mathematics textbooks are stated as to be read so that elementary school students could understand their mathematical meanings. The same is somewhat true as in middle school mathematics textbooks, however it is often the case that some symbols are difficult to be read and understood because their statements are unclear or different. In this study, we analyze problems and suggest implications on teaching and learning mathematics based on the statements and understanding of reading symbols in middle school mathematics textbooks.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.347-365
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• 2019

It is important to pay attention to how teachers recognize and use curriculum materials in order to link written curriculum and enacted curriculum. In this study, 90 preservice mathematics teachers were surveyed to identify their perspective and reading of curriculum materials. Especially, we focused on the curriculum documents, textbooks, and teachers' guidebooks containing the concept of conditional probability which is addressed in highschool mathematics curriculum. The various misconceptions of conditional probability were reported in the many researches, and there are multiple methods to introduce conditional probability in mathematics classes. As a result, curriculum materials have some limits to be used as they are and considered to be reconstructable by participants, but their curriculum reading were mainly classified to be descriptive and evaluative, not to be interpretive. However, unlike curriculum documents, textbooks and teachers' guidebooks were partially interpreted by participants using their knowledge of conditional probability. The purpose of this study is to investigate the profession of mathematics teachers in terms of curriculum implementation. We expect that this study will provide a basic framework for analyzing mathematics teachers' works and suggest some implications for the professional development of mathematics teachers.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.337-358
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate how storytelling is embodied in the Mathematics I textbooks for first grade high school students in the 2009 revised curriculum and the perception of secondary math teachers and students of those books. Furthermore, in order to have some implications on newly ongoing textbook development, this thesis sets up the following goals for inquiry into the effect on storytelling. First, are there any noticeable differences among the 10 types of mathematics I textbooks for high school first graders in the 2009 revised curriculum? Second, what do teachers and students think of textbooks which apply storytelling techniques? The results are as follows. The frequency of storytelling types that appeared in the textbooks is as follows: real-life connection type and inter-scholarship type take up 47.55% and 24.51% respectively, followed by decision-making type with 10.52%, math history type with 10.17% and tool-using type with 7.05%. Within the contents, math history type showed up on reading material from every textbook. And it is worth considering that real-life-connection type has the most various topics and is mainly for arousing interest and checking up on some concepts. However, inter-scholarship type is usually related to science, and decision-making type is included for error analysis and tool-using type for reading materials about math programs. The results of this study suggest that many of the teachers who participated showed some kind of understanding of storytelling but there were not many who are actually incorporating that into their own classes. It is also essential that we develop textbooks that are effective for storytelling classes, hold regular symposiums as well as teacher training, and create tools for proper assessment. Furthermore, students think that textbooks based on storytelling would have positive effects as long as they are supported by enough time, a sufficient number of classes and tests with validity.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.81-98
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• 2006

The main aim of this study is to discover ways of promoting elementary school children's reading. The study provides a feasibility analysis of utilizing children's books in reading lessons, which is proposed as one of the ways. The contents of the four reading textbooks for Year 1 and 2 in Korea were analyzed and it was examined what and how children learn in reading lessons. The contents and methods of reading lessons in the UK and the USA were also investigated. It is considered that utilizing children's books in reading lessons which is the proposed way for promoting children's reading corresponds well with the goal of the curriculum of Korean. There is a high feasibility of applying the way to elementary schools in Korea. This is because the way has more advantages than the present textbook based reading lessons and the way is well utilized in elementary schools in the UK.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.580-595
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• 2007

To respond to the announcement of the revised version of science curriculum early this year, it has been necessary to develop new science textbooks which can be appropriate and effective to achieve the goals of the revised curriculum. The system of new textbooks needs to embrace the concerns of cognitive development in scientific knowledge, skills, and attitudes as well as social and cultural demands in the rapidly changing society. To develop an innovative framework of science textbooks, we examined previous studies on textbook analysis in Korea and analyzed science textbooks in the United States, Singapore, and Japan. We analyzed various ways of introducing and developing conceptual knowledge, leading scientific inquiry skills and process, enhancing scientific attitudes toward science, technology, society and the environment in those science textbooks. In the process of framing the structures of textbooks, we focused on ways of increasing educational effects of visualized texts, leaners' interest, user-friendly procedure, scientific inquiry, effectiveness of hands-on activities, scientific reading and writing skills, and usage of workbook. Based on those aspects and analyses of textbooks, we attempted to propose a feasible framework of Grade $3{\sim}4$ Science textbook which can effectively respond to the educational changes and demands in the local and global society.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.26-30
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• 2012

Nowadays, fewer Japanese university students are taking PhD degrees in the U.S.A than Koreans or Taiwanese. The language barrier is considered as one of major reasons for this. This lack of international education is one of the reasons cited, as Japan has been falling behind in industrial globalization. Reading aloud is a good practice for learning a foreign language, since many areas of our brains are simultaneously activated. Furthermore, students have a chance to overcome the psychological barrier in reading aloud in front of others, in a meeting. The authors start the voluntary meeting (which is unrelated to official classes of the curriculum) by reading English articles aloud. Topics in the meeting are selected from articles on web sites, therefore, (1) textbooks were not needed, (2) voice data could be listened to, and (3) the meaning and the pronunciation of an unknown word could be checked by web tools. Once the methodology has been mastered, volunteer students can manage the meeting. The authors introduce our experiments conducted at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ehime University.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-24
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• 2012

It has long been shown that Korean EFL students have not practiced extensive reading in school curriculum. Their vocabulary knowledge is limited and a tool for measuring text readability for them has hardly been developed and used. The study aimed to check the current situations on the above issues and develop a reading framework appropriate for extensive reading within the national English curriculum, including the Readability Formula in Korean EFL contexts (KRF). The study consists of four steps. The study does a survey to check the current Korean EFL situations on the issues, suggests a new vocabulary learning size, develops a readability formula as a tool for measuring text difficulty based on the newly suggested vocabulary size, and finally validates the formula with various kinds of English books, including the primary and secondary school English textbooks. It is expected that this study will provide a model for the vocabulary size and the readability index for extensive reading in EFL contexts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.155-164
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• 2003

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of explanations about physical phenomena given in non-physics textbooks on the formation of student physical conceptions. Two classes, 39 students in each, were sampled from two middle schools in Pusan, Korea, and two kinds of test tools for investigating student conceptions were developed for the study. The first test tool(a) investigated student conceptions after reading explanations about physical phenomena in non-physics textbooks, while the second(b) investigated student conceptions after reading explanations revised by physics education experts about the same physical phenomena. The two test tools were applied to each class, and for a fair invetigation, test(a) followed by test(b) was applied to one class, while test(b) followed by test(a) was applied to the other class. The results were as follows: In both classes, the students' level of understanding from explanations revised by physics education experts was significantly (p < .01) higher than that from explanations in non-physics textbooks. As such, it is feasible that false or inappropriate explanations in non-physics textbooks can cause student misconceptions. Moreover, the improper expression of physical science concepts, improper choice of scientific terms, and incorrect grammatical structures, along with the use of unsuitable examples and improper model pictures can make it difficult for students to understand physics concepts. Furthermore, differences in the terms used in physics textbook and those used in other textbooks can also confuse students' learning.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2012

In this study, we analyzed the proportions of STS content, components, topics, and types of the activities of STS content in the elementary science textbooks developed under the 2007 Revised National Curriculum. The analyses of the results revealed that the percentage of STS content included was 15.9% by the number of pages, and 13.5% by the lesson hour. By the components of the STS content, the proportion of 'application of science', 'science-technology and our life' and 'social problems and issues' were large. Most STS topics were related to the 'effects of technological developments' and 'environmental issue', and the topics of 'family and population' and 'human engineering' were few. By the types of the activities, reading was the most, and investigation and writing were also found. Compared with those of the science textbooks developed under the 7th National Curriculum, the variety of components of the STS content increased, but the proportion of STS content and the variety of activities of STS content decreased in the science textbooks developed under the 2007 Revised National Curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.97-107
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• 1992

ln this study, we analyzed 5 science textbooks currently used for the 7th graders quantitatively by using the science textbook rating system of Collette and Chiappetta(1986), making meta-analysis of the results of 17 graduate school students of Seoul National University. The rating system consists of 11 categories with detailed items respectively : content, organization, reading level, instruction approach, illustrations, end-chapter teaching aids, laboratory activities in text and/or accompanying manual, teacher aids, indices and glossaries and mechanical makeup of text. Each item in the checklist is to be given between one and five points and the total number of possible points in this rating system is 290. It was shown that 5 science textbooks currently used for 7th-year-students were all "poor" in terms of total points and had, at large, uniformed results especially in 10 items; 7 items concerning moral and ethical implications of science, vocabulary lists, accompanying laboratory manual, annotated editions for test, supply list for laboratory program, student workbook and glossary with low points, while 3 items concerning facilities needed for laboratory activities, activities relevant to the content and textbook size with high points. A Science teachers could get a broad view with a correct impression of the books usefulness in making an evaluation of available textbooks.