• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.1-36
• /
• 1999

The case of four classrooms analyzed in this study point to many commonalities in the challenges of reforming mathematics teaching in Korea and the U. S. In both national contexts we have seen the need fur a clear distinction between implementing new student-centered social practices in the classroom, and providing significant new loaming opportunities for students. In particular, there is an important need to distinguish between attending to the social practices of the classroom and attending to students conceptual development within those social practices. In both countries, teachers in the less successful student-centered classes tended to abdicate responsibility fur sense making to the students. They were more inclined to attend to the literal statements of their students without analyzing their conceptual understanding (Episodes KA5 and UP 2). This is easy to do when the rhetoric of reform emphasizes student-centered social practices without sufficient attention to psychological correlates of those social practices. The more successful teachers tended to monitor the understanding of the students and to take proactive measures to ensure the development of that understanding (Episodes KO5 and UN3). This suggests the usefulness of constructivism as a model (or successful student-centered instruction. As Simon(1995) observed, constructivist teachers envision a hypothetical learning trajectory that constitutes their plan and expectation for students learning from the particular if the trajectory is being followed. If not, the teacher adjusts or supplements the task to obtain a more satisfactory result, or reconsider her or his assumptions concerning the hypothetical learning trajectory. In this way, the teacher acts proactively to try to ensure that students are progressing in their understanding in particular ways. Thus the more successful student-centered teacher of this study can be seen as constructivist in their orientation to student conceptual development, in comparison to the less successful student-centered teachers. It is encumbant on the authors of reform in Korea and the U. S. to make sure that reform is not trivialized, or evaluated only on the surface of classroom practices. The commonalities of the two reform endeavores suggest that Korea and the U. S. have much to share with each other in the challenges of reforming mathematics teaching for the new millennium.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.42 no.5
• /
• pp.637-646
• /
• 2003

Visual representation is very important topic in Mathematics Education since it fosters understanding of Mathematical concepts, principles and rules and helps to solve the problem. So, the purpose of this paper is to analyze and clarify the various meaning and roles about the visual representation. For this purpose, I examine the status of the visual representation. Since the visual representation has the roles of creatively mathematical activity, we emphasize the using of the visual representation in teaching and learning. Next, I examine the errors in relation to the visual representation which come from limitation of the visual representation. It suggests that students have to know conceptual meaning of the visual representation when they use the visual representation. Finally, I suggest some examples of problem solving via the visual representation. This examples clarify that the visual representation gives the clues and solution of problem solving. Students can apprehend intuitively and easily the mathematical concepts, principles and rules using the visual representation because of its properties of finiteness and concreteness. So, mathematics teachers create the various visual representations and show students them. Moreover, mathematics teachers ask students to design the visual representation and teach students to understand the conceptual meaning of the visual representation.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.1-25
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to extract the conceptual nature of contextualization in mathematical problems and to analyze problems according to its conceptual framework based on the perspective of RME (Realistic Mathematical Education) which emphasizes mathematising through realistic context in mathematics textbooks of the 4th grade in Korean textbooks and the U. S. materials. "Contextualization" was analyzed by three elements such as everydayness, variety, and mathematical immanence. As results, Korean textbook showed much less in the amount of contextual problems and also represented lower contextualization in contextual problems than that of American textbooks.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.45 no.2 s.113
• /
• pp.205-215
• /
• 2006

One of the most important concepts in the 7th curriculum of Korea is the student-centered education. Since educational evaluation has significant influence on the whole curriculum, if we realize the importance of the student-center education on the curriculum we should establish the student-centered educational evaluation system. Educational evaluation is defined by the theory of information to permit information users to identify, to measure, to manipulate and to communicate useful educational information concerning an educational curriculum for making decisions. If we accept the above definitions, the demands of information users are significant in the light of conceptual framework of educational evaluation. The purpose of this study is to analyze the conceptual framework of educational evaluation from information users' perspectives and to investigate the qualitative characteristics which satisfy information users' need for making decisions. We also show that students aren't provided sufficient evaluation results information to decide for their study plans by analyzing an evaluation study of the 7th primary curriculum. Finally, this study suggests how to improve an evaluation system for students in mathematics.

• Research in Mathematical Education
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.201-225
• /
• 2022

This paper details case study vignettes that focus on enhancing the teaching and learning of geometry and measurement in the elementary grades with attention to pedagogical practices for teaching through problem solving with rigor and centering equitable teaching practices. Rigor is a matter of equity and opportunity (Dana Center, 2019). Rigor matters for each and every student and yet research indicates historically disadvantaged and underserved groups have more of an opportunity gap when it comes to rigorous mathematics instruction (NCTM, 2020). Along with providing a conceptual framework that focuses on the importance of equitable instruction, our study unpacks ways teachers can leverage their deep understanding of geometry and measurement learning trajectories to amplify the mathematics through rigorous problems using multiple approaches including learning by doing, challenged-based and mathematical modeling instruction. Through these vignettes, we provide examples of tasks taught through rigorous problem solving approaches that support conceptual teaching and learning of geometry and measurement. Specifically, each of the three vignettes presented includes a task that was implemented in an elementary classroom and a vertically articulated task that engaged teachers in a professional learning workshop. By beginning with elementary tasks to more sophisticated concepts in higher grades, we demonstrate how vertically articulating a deeper understanding of the learning trajectory in geometric thinking can add to the rigor of the mathematics.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.47 no.2
• /
• pp.197-219
• /
• 2008

Unlike ordinary situations, deifinitions play a very important role in mathematics education in schools. Mathematical concepts have been mainly acquired by given definitions. However, according to didactical intentions, mathematics education in schools has employed mathematical concepts and definitions with less strict forms than those in pure mathematics. This research mainly discusses definitions used in geometry (promising) course in primary schools to cope with possibilities of creating misconception due to this didactical transformation. After analyzing problems with potential misconceptions, a survey was conducted $\underline{with}$ 80 primary school teachers in Jeju to investigate their recognitions in meaning of mathematical concepts in geometry and attitudes toward teaching. Most of the respondents answered they taught their students while they knew well about mathematical definitions in geometry but the respondents sometimes confused mathematical concepts of polygons and circles. Also, they were aware of problems in current mathematics textbooks which have explained figures in small topics (classes). Here, several suggestions are proposed as follows from analyzing teachers' recognitions and researches in mathematical viewpoints of definitions (promising) in geometric figures which have been adopted by current mathematics textbooks in primary schools from the seventh educational curriculum. First, when primary school students in their detailed operational stage studying figures, they tend to experience $\underline{a}$ collision between concept images acquired from activities to find out promising and concept images formed through promising. Therefore, a teaching method is required to lessen possibility of misconceptions. That is, there should be a communication method between defining conceptual definitions and Images. Second, we need to consider how geometric figures and their elements in primary school textbooks are connected with fundamental terminologies laying the foundation for geometrical definitions and more logical approaches should be adopted. Third, the consistency with studying geometric figures should be considered. Fourth, sorting activities about problems in coined words related to figures and way and time of their introductions should be emphasized. In primary schools mathematics curriculum, geometry has played a crucial role in increasing mathematical ways of thoughts. Hence, being introduced by parts from viewpoints of relational understanding should be emphasized more in textbooks and teachers should teach students after restructuring this. Mathematics teachers should help their students not only learn conceptual definitions of geometric figures in their courses well but also advance to rigid mathematical definitions. Therefore, that's why mathematics teachers should know meanings of concepts clearly and accurately.

• Research in Mathematical Education
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.81-93
• /
• 2004

This study investigated three preservice teachers' mathematical problem solving among hand-in-write-ups and final projects for each subject. All participants' activities and computer explorations were observed and video taped. If it was possible, an open-ended individual interview was performed before, during, and after each exploration. The method of data collection was observation, interviewing, field notes, students' written assignments, computer works, and audio and videotapes of preservice teachers' mathematical problem solving activities. At the beginning of the mathematical problem solving activities, all participants did not have strong procedural and conceptual knowledge of the graph, making a model by using data, and general concept of a sine function, but they built strong procedural and conceptual knowledge and connected them appropriately through mathematical problem solving activities by using the computer technology.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.157-177
• /
• 2006

The concepts of ratio and proportion do not develop in isolation. Rather, they are part of the individual's multiplicative conceptual field, which includes other concepts such as multiplication, division, and rational numbers. The current study attempted to clarify the beginning of this development process. One fourth student, Kyungsu, was encourage to schematize his trial-and-error-based method, which was effective in solving so-called missing-value tasks. This study describes several advancements Kyungsu made during the teaching experiment and analyzes the challenges Kyungsu faced in attempting to schematize his method. Finally, the mathematical knowledge Kyungsu needed to further develop his ratio and proportion concepts is identified. The findings provide additional support for the view that the development of ratio and proportion concepts is embedded within the development of the multiplicative conceptual field.

• Journal of applied mathematics & informatics
• /
• v.32 no.1_2
• /
• pp.83-98
• /
• 2014

We reformulate an interpolation-based unique decoding algorithm of AG codes, using the theory of Gr$\ddot{o}$bner bases of modules on the coordinate ring of the base curve. The conceptual description of the reformulated algorithm lets us better understand the majority voting procedure, which is central in the interpolation-based unique decoding. Moreover the smaller Gr$\ddot{o}$bner bases imply smaller space and time complexity of the algorithm.

• Research in Mathematical Education
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.5-12
• /
• 1998

The COM curriculum provides first a core of mathematics for all students, and then offers opportunities for students to enter different streams of mathematics studies. The flexible curriculum (COM) is certainly welcome as it focuses on a transition from concrete to conceptual mathematics and on sequentially learning the power of mathematical language and symbols from simple to complex. This approach emphasizes the use of computers in mathematics education in the upper secondary grades. In Mathematics A, one unit is developed to computer operation, flow charts and programming, and computation using the computer. In mathematics B, a chapter addresses algorithms and the computer where students learn the functions of computers, as well as programs of various algorithms. Mathematics C allots a chapter for numerical computation in which approximating solutions for equations, numerical integration, mensuration by parts, and approximation of integrals. But, unfortunately, they do not have any plan for the cooperation study.