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

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.155-173
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to offer the implication for elementary school mathematics teaching by analyzing teachers' reflection on the cognitive demands of mathematical tasks they give in class. During the setup phase and the implementation phase in math class, the researchers analyzed the change of cognitive demands on mathematical tasks and the factors which had influence on such changes. After teachers' reflection on teaching, the researchers analyzed the change of cognitive demands on mathematical tasks and the factors which had influence on such changes in math classes. As a result, before teachers' reflection on the cognitive demands of mathematical tasks, the higher-level demands of mathematical tasks had a tendency to decline. However, after teachers' reflection on the cognitive demands of mathematical tasks, higher-level demands of mathematical tasks were maintained.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.439-460
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• 2019

In this study, we examined classroom interaction to explore the relationships among teacher questions, turn-taking patterns, and student talks in mathematics classrooms. We analyzed lessons given by three elementary teachers (two first-grade teachers and one second-grade teacher) who worked in the same school using a conversation-analytic approach. We observed individual classrooms three times in a year. The results revealed that when teachers provided open-ended questions, such as "why and how" questions and "agree and disagree" questions, and used a non-IRE pattern (teacher initiation-student response-teacher feedback; Mehan, 1979), students more actively engaged in classroom discourse by justifying their ideas and refuting others' thinking. Conversely, when teachers provided closed-ended questions, such as "what" questions, and used an IRE pattern, students tended to give short answers focusing on only one point. The findings suggested teachers should use open-ended questions and non-IRE turn-taking patterns to create an effective math-talk learning community. In addition, school administrators and mathematics educators should support teachers to acquire practical knowledge regarding this approach.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.409-432
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to find out the importance of process - based evaluation and to find a way to set up and operate the formative assessment which is getting attention. As one of the ways, we investigated the effect of formative assessment through student's interactive feedback on mathematics achievement and attitude of fourth grade students in elementary school. In order to conduct the study, two groups of homogeneous grades were selected. In the experimental group, formative assessment was conducted through student's interactive feedback. In comparison group, formative assessment was conducted through self - confirmation feedback. Statistical analysis of the results after the experiment showed that the formative assessment through student's interactive feedback was found to have a positive effect on the improvement of mathematics achievement. In addition, the formative assessment through student's interactive feedback positively changed the mathematics attitude. Therefore, this suggests that applicability of formative assessment through student's interactive feedback in elementary school classroom instruction, as well as implications for follow - up study for effective implementation of formative assessment.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.549-568
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• 2010

This paper analyzed the topics dealing with three-dimensional figures in most recently revised mathematics textbooks on the basis of the national mathematics curriculum announced in 2007. First, the overall content was analyzed with regard to how textbooks were aligned to the curriculum as well as how the main elements including the definitions of specific solid figures were introduced and developed in different units across grades. Second, the instructional methods of three-dimensional figures were analyzed, which specifically revealed the lack of inquiry phase before introducing cones and pyramids. Third, the instructional methods to foster students' spatial sense with solid figures were analyzed, which showed the increased focus on the prediction and representation of figures. It is expected that the issues and suggestions from this study are informative revising curricular materials and applying them to the classroom.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.349-368
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the small-group instruction of mathematics in elementary schools. For this, a sample of 742 teachers of elementary schools completed the survey. As a result, about 27.8% of the teachers reported using small group instruction while they worked with one group or they assigned to other groups worked alone. Only 2% of the teachers reported using small group in which students were encouraged to participated cooperatively. This study discusses the five issues about small group instruction in elementary school. The five issues were investigated in this survey. First, major teaching method in mathematics classroom and using of small group instruction were described. Second, frequency and period of small-group instruction were reported. Third, grouping method in small-group instruction was described. And Fourth, effect grouping practices of small-group instruction were described. Fifth, the model of small group instruction and assessment in small-group instruction were reported.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.1131-1148
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• 2009

Algebra is one of the important subjects that not only mathematics but many science major students should know at least at the elementary level. Unfortunately abstract algebra, specially, is seen as an extremely difficult course to learn. One reason of difficulties is because of its very abstract nature, and the other is due to the lecture method that simply telling students about mathematical contents. In this paper we study about the teaching and learning abstract algebra in universities in corporation of a programming language such as ISETL. ISETL is a language whose syntax closely imitates that of mathematics. In asking students to read and write code in ISETL before they learn in class, we observe that students can much understand and construct formal statements that express a precise idea. We discuss about the classroom activities that may help students to construct and internalize mathematical ideas, and also discuss about some barriers we might overcome.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.565-587
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze the understanding of the meaning of fraction division and fraction division algorithm of elementary mathematical gifted students through the process of problem posing and solving activities. For this goal, students were asked to pose more than two real-world problems with respect to the fraction division of ${\frac{3}{4}}{\div}{\frac{2}{3}}$, and to explain the validity of the operation ${\frac{3}{4}}{\div}{\frac{2}{3}}={\frac{3}{4}}{\times}{\frac{3}{2}}$ in the process of solving the posed problems. As the results, although the gifted students posed more word problems in the 'inverse of multiplication' and 'inverse of a cartesian product' situations compared to the general students and pre-service elementary teachers in the previous researches, most of them also preferred to understanding the meaning of fractional division in the 'measurement division' situation. Handling the fractional division by converting it into the division of natural numbers through reduction to a common denominator in the 'measurement division', they showed the poor understanding of the meaning of multiplication by the reciprocal of divisor in the fraction division algorithm. So we suggest following: First, instruction on fraction division based on various problem situations is necessary. Second, eliciting fractional division algorithm in partitive division situation is strongly recommended for helping students understand the meaning of the reciprocal of divisor. Third, it is necessary to incorporate real-world problem posing tasks into elementary mathematics classroom for fostering mathematical creativity as well as problem solving ability.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.253-266
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• 2017

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of Elementary school teachers on mathematics instruction. To do this, 7 test items were developed to obtain data on teacher's perception of mathematics instruction and 73 teachers who take mathematical lesson analysis lectures were selected and conducted a survey. Since the data obtained are all qualitative data, they were analyzed through coding and similar responses were grouped into the same category. As a result of the survey, several facts were found as follow; First, When teachers thought about 'mathematics', the first words that come to mind were 'calculation', 'difficult', and 'logic'. It is necessary for the teacher to have positive thoughts on mathematics and mathematics learning, and this needs to be stressed enough in teacher education and teacher retraining. Second, the reason why mathematics is an important subject is 'because it is related to the real life', followed by 'because it gives rise to logical thinking ability' and 'because it gives rise to mathematical thinking ability'. These ideas are related to the cultivating mind value and the practical value of mathematics. In order for students to understand the various values of mathematics, teachers must understand the various values of mathematics. Third, the responses for reasons why elementary school students hate mathematics and are hard are because teachers demand 'thinking', 'because they repeat simple calculations', 'children hate complicated things', 'bother', 'Because mathematics itself is difficult', 'the level of curriculum and textbooks is high', and 'the amount of time and activity is too much'. These problems are likely to be improved by the implementation of revised 2015 national curriculum that emphasize core competence and process-based evaluation including mathematical processes. Fourth, the most common reason for failing elementary school mathematics instruction was 'because the process was difficult' and 'because of the results-based evaluation'. In addition, 'Results-oriented evaluation,' 'iterative calculation,' 'infused education,' 'failure to consider the level difference,' 'lack of conceptual and principle-centered education' were mentioned as a failure factor. Most of these factors can be changed by improving and changing teachers' teaching practice. Fifth, the responses for what does a desirable mathematics instruction look like are 'classroom related to real life', 'easy and fun mathematics lessons', 'class emphasizing understanding of principle', etc. Therefore, it is necessary to deeply deal with the related contents in the training courses for the improvement of the teachers' teaching practice, and it is necessary to support not only the one-time training but also the continuous professional development of teachers.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.61-80
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• 1998

Whereas research on telelearning in educational technology area is lively done, that in mathematics education area is not. Related to the open education, telelearning has 4 models: the distance classroom model, the front-end system design, the knowledge construction model, and the teaching model based on data. S/W, C/W, and H/W are the components of telelearning system. For an effective mathematics telelearning system, H/W and S/W which use multimedia with complex multimode information such as text, graphics, animation, video, and audio are necessary. Examples of telelearning systems on going are MIPOS, SDS telelearning system, telelearning system of the Naechon Elementary School, and Doorae Multimedia Application Development Platform.