• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.649-659
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to analyse students' achievement of 'Earth Science' in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat(TIMSS-R), which was performed in 1999 with 38 nations participating. Korean 8th grade students' achievement of 'Earth Science' was compared with those of other countries and other content areas in science. Average percent correct of items in each subcategory was also analysed. Most of the 'Earth Science' topics were included in the intended curricula of Korea; they were taught to most of the students in science classes. Korean students ' average scale score of 'Earth Science' was significantly higher than the international average, but in comparison with other science content areas, achievement of 'Earth Science' was relatively low. The teachers' confidence in teaching earth science was lower than their confidence in teaching other science areas. The paper presents the results of item analysis and their implications for science education.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.163-182
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of educational context variables on achievement and interest in mathematics in high and low achieving students in Korea. Students participated in TIMSS 2015 in Korea were divided into two groups according to their achievement in mathematics. And the effects of educational context variables on achievement and interest in mathematics were analyzed in each group using the Hierarchical Linear Model(HLM). Main findings of this study are as follows. First, variables which influence achievement also influence interest but any variables which influence interest don't influence achievement in upper-group students. Number of Books and Students' Perceived Mathematics Lessons have strong influence on achievement and interest in both fourth and eighth grade students. Second, variables which influence achievement or interest in mathematics in lower-group also influence achievement or interest in mathematics in upper-group students. But any variables which influence achievement or interest in upper-group students don't influence achievement or interest in lower-group students. For examples, Parents' Education, Students' Perceived Mathematics Lessons have effects on upper-group students' achievement. Number of Books, Home Learning Environment, and Numeracy Activities Before School have significant effects on the achievement of fourth grade students. Students' Perceived Mathematics Lessons is the variable that influence on the interest of both fourth grade and eighth grade students. This study suggests the ways to improve mathematics teaching and learning based on these results.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.44 no.3 s.110
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• pp.409-433
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• 2005

This article is to provide information on school contexts for learning and instruction of mathematics based on the results and data of TIMSS 1999. It is organized around two major topics: teacher and students achievement, instruction and students achievement In this article the following summarizes the major findings. First, about $50\%$ of Korean eight-grade students were taught mathematics by teachers in their 30s, and this was higher than the international average. Most of teachers in Korea had certification of teachers majors in mathematics. Korean teachers reported relatively low confidence to teach mathematics compared to other counties. And Korean students taught by teachers who believes they were well prepared attained low achievement scores in contrast to international result. Second, korean teachers spent about $50\%$ of their formally scheduled school time teaching their subject, but is was below the international average. They spent much more time on administrative duties and other related activities than other countries. Korean students reported that most of their class time were spent lecture style presentations by teacher. Also they reported that teachers showed them how to do mathematics. The percentages of Korean students were placed on the low level of index of emphasis on mathematics reasoning and problem-solving. The students taught by teachers who emphasized reasoning and problem-solving showed low achievement scores in contrast with result of the previous literatures. Korean teachers didn't seem to emphasize homework and assessments. Internationally, teachers frequently used teacher-made objective tests and projects or practical exercises, but Korean teachers die less in most of categories. Based on the above findings, this article presents implications about teacher education, reduction of administrative working in teachers tasks, using everyday life topics, as learning materials, specialization instruction methods for each subject matter. This article is a kind of descriptive and factual in nature, but some attempt has been made to contextualize these results focused on teachers and instruction.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.9 no.3 s.23
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• pp.203-231
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• 2005

Students in East Asia have consistently out-performed their counterparts in the West in recent international studies of mathematics achievement. But some studies also show that East Asian students are more rigid in thought, and lack originality and creativity. While different theories have been proposed to account for these student performances, relatively few research studies have been done on classroom practices, potentially a major variable for explaining student performances. This paper will report on the results of two classroom studies: the TIMSS 1999 Video Study and the Learners' Perspective Study (LPS). Results the quantitative analysis of the TlMSS 1999 Video Study data show that the East Asian classrooms were dominated by teacher talk, and the mathematics content learned was abstract and unrelated to the real life. On the other hand, the characteristics of the instructional practices in Hong Kong as judged by an expert panel are that student learned relatively advanced mathematics content; the components of the lessons were more coherent, and the presentation of the lessons was more fully developed. Hong Kong students seemed to be more engaged in the mathematics lessons, and the. overall quality of the lessons was judged to be high. Results of the analysis of the LPS data also show that the classrooms in the East Asian city of Seoul were in general teacher dominated, but students were usually actively engaged in the mathematics learning. Emphasis on exploration of mathematics and practicing exercises with variation was common. It is argued that the quality teaching in the East Asian classrooms laid a firm foundation in mathematics for students, and that constitutes a necessary condition for the development of students' creativity. In order to fully develop the creativity of East Asian students, they need to be given the right environment and encouragement.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.19-44
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• 2014

This study aims to develop strategies for improving the affective characteristics of Korean students based on results from international achievement tests. In pursuing the goal, different research methods are employed including a) analysis of the theories and literature regarding the affective domains included in PISA and TIMSS studies; b) analysis of the current situation and needs of Korean students with respect to the affective factors based on PISA and TIMSS results; c) case studies of best practices in relation to students' affective domains in Korea and abroad; and d) development of strategies for improving and supporting Korean students' affective characteristics. In this paper, first of all, relevant theories on affective characteristics in literature are introduced. In other words, the concepts of three affective domains in question - interest, self-efficacy, and value - are reviewed, and their definitions for the present study are made. Also, teaching strategies and support plans for improving students' affective factors are extracted from previous studies. Furthermore, this paper reviews recent trends in research on how the affective domains are related to mathematics education and how one can teach them effectively. The teaching guidelines for each affective domain are developed according to the instruction principles extracted through literature review in general for all subjects. Based on the results of the findings mentioned above, this paper establishes and suggests the guidelines on how to teach mathematics reflecting the affective characteristic.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.487-498
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• 2015

This research is for acquiring implications to science education based on learner's characteristics by analyzing the relationship between contents on science learning and cognitive domain of students in elementary schools through TIMSS 2011-based academic achievement test. Forty one multiple choice items from by TIMSS 2011 were used on 317 primary school students, fourth to sixth grade, and according to grade and achievement level of research targets, test results were analyzed. With these data, the relationship between contents on science learning and the score by cognitive domains, and through correlation by items, we drew static and negative correlations, and then compared the value. The result are as follows: First, other fields except for 'physical science' and 'inference' revealed meaningful differences by learners' grade, and the interrelationship between all contents domains and cognitive fields also appeared statically different. Second, both achievement level of contents and cognition of learners presented significant differences, but the correlation between scientific contents and cognitive field of learners showed different aspects. Third, in static and negative correlation by items, the complexity and their aspects could be classified by targets' academic achievement levels.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.607-616
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• 2016

In the 2009 revised science curriculum, comprehensive verbs such as 'know (38%)' and 'understand (46%)' are used in more than 80% of the achievement standard. Many readers, such as teachers, textbook makers, etc. have difficulties in interpreting the meaning of achievement standard sentences with these comprehensive verbs. On the other hand, 'Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)' uses more various and specific verbs to express the cognitive domain. In this study, we analyzed the 2009 revised science curriculum achievement standard focusing on the TIMSS cognitive domain assessment framework. We divided achievement standard to 228 sentences and three teachers analyzed the meaning of verbs in achievement standard. There were two main results of this study. First, the verb 'Know' was analyzed into different kinds of meanings, such as 'Describe (27%)', 'Recall/Recognize (25%)' and 'Relate (17%)', etc; and the verb 'Understand' was analyzed into 'Explain (37%)', 'Relate (27%)' and 'Describe (21%)', etc. Second, there appeared to have a disagreement among the three analysts during the process of interpreting the achievement standards when the level and scope of the contents of each grade is not clear. This study concludes that there's a need for continuous discussion on the use of verbs in achievement standard to promote clearer expressions for better understanding.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.19-29
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• 2012

According to the result of PISA and TIMSS, it was reported that interest for Math and Science was far lower compared to high achievement of Them. The purpose of this study is to investigate effects of robot based STEAM education on elementary school students' Math learning behavior and Science motivation. Robot based STEAM education integrated science, mathematics and art with a theme of 'Energy' was practiced for test group and For control group, those three subjects were taught separately in order to achieve this purpose. Curriculum of fourth grade second semester's science, mathematics and art was analysed to teach a robot based STEAM class and STEAM class Model with the theme 'Energy was designed and applied to elementary students. In science class, heat transfer experiment was conducted with robots and the result was related to drawing polygonal lines in mathematics. In art class, robot components were used to describe the heat energy in shapes and colors. The research shows that students' Math learning behavior and Science motivation were improved more with robot based STEAM education than with traditional lessons(p<.05). It proves that robot based STEAM class can be effective for improving interest in elementary Math and Science.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.31-46
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• 2010

Theory of minimal surfaces has always been in the center of differential geometry. The most difficult part in minimal surfaces is how to find meaningful examples. In this paper we survey the history of search for minimal surfaces. We also introduce examples of recently emerging maximal surfaces in the Lorentz-Minkowski space and compare the processes in the search for the minimal and the maximal surfaces.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.175-189
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• 2020

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the structural relationships between elementary teachers' mathematics instruction, teachers' mathematics teaching efficacy, students' mathematical interest, and mathematics achievement. To achieve this goal, we used TIMSS 2015 Korean data and implemented multilevel structural equation modeling given that student data were nested within the school data. The findings reveled that at the student level, the instructional quality rated by students positively affected student mathematical interest. Additionally, student mathematical interest positively affected student mathematics achievement. Although the direct effect of instructional quality on student mathematics achievement was insignificant, the total was significant. At the school level, there were positive direct effects of instructional quality and teacher's mathematics teaching efficacy on student mathematical interest. The direct effects of instructional quality, teachers' mathematics teaching efficacy, and student mathematical interest on mathematics achievement were not significant. However, the total effects of instructional quality and teachers' mathematics teaching efficacy on mathematics achievement were significant. Based on the results, we discussed the implications of the study.