• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.49-58
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• 2002

The present paper aims to show basic substitution between metaphysics and mathematical abstraction in the philosophy of mathematics. The general troths of metaphysics and the truths particularly relevant to tile nature of mathematical abstraction serve as speculative guides in ordering the content and discussing the nature of the multiple questions which lie between the disputed frontiers of metaphysics and mathematical abstraction.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.299-311
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of abstraction offer of basic concept principle and feedback of self-efficacy attributional and mathematical study ability of math underachievers in high school based on the attribution theory and self-efficacy theory. The hypothesis were posed as below : Hypothesis 1: The experimental group that takes the abstraction offer of concept principle and attributional feedback training would be better at most self-efficacy than the control group that doesn't. Hypothesis 2: The experimental group that takes the abstraction offer of concept principle and attributional feedback training would have better math achievement than the control group that doesn't. They were divided into an experimental group and a control group, and the attribution disposition, self-efficacy and academic achievement of the children were measured by pretest and posttest. For data analysis, SPSS/PC+ program was employed and t-test was conducted. The main findings of this study were as below : First, the abstraction offer of concept principle and attributional feedback training was effective for enhancing the math self-efficacy in high school underachievers. Second, the abstraction offer of concept principle and attributional feedback training was effective for increasing the math achievement in high school underachievers.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.221-224
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• 2008

The article shows that the concept 'weight' and the concept 'heaviness' give rise to different abstractions in the sense of Piaget and that these two concepts are differentiated by set-theoretic devices. The failure of differentiation of these two concepts 'weight' and the 'heaviness' can cause the failure of learning of the difference between reflective abstraction and empirical reflective abstraction. To explain the Piagetian abstrcation in a classroom, the author suggests to use the concept 'color' instead of the concept 'weigtht'.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.43-64
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the progress of children's abstraction and to investigate how elementary students understand through mathematical modeling approach in the sixth grader's learning of surface area. Each small group showed their own level on abstraction in mathematical modeling progress. The participants showed improvements in understanding regarding to surface area context.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.197-216
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle and high school mathematics teachers' levels and multiple approaches in United States practicing their abstraction levels and, different strategies and method of solutions towards given number theory problems. The mathematics teachers taking part in this study are consisted of 25 members of online graduate and undergraduate course (MAE 5641 and MAE 4813) delivered through Online Learning System called as the Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com). Data collection methods include journal entries, written solutions to problems, the teachers' reflections on said problems, and post interviews. Data analysis was done based on [Hazzan, O. & Zazkis, R. (2005). Reducing abstraction: The case of school mathematics. Educ. Stud. Math. 58(1), 101-119]. Analysis of students' written solutions revealed that transitions among the solution methods have major effect on abstraction levels. Elevation and reducing abstraction is a dynamic process.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.383-404
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• 1999

This study began with an epistemological question about the nature of mathematical cognition in relation to the learner's activity. Therefore, by examining Piaget's 'reflective abstraction' theory which can be an answer to the question, we tried to get suggestions which can be given to the mathematical education in practice. 'Reflective abstraction' is formed through the coordination of the epistmmic subject's action while 'empirical abstraction' is formed by the characters of observable concrete object. The reason Piaget distinguished these two kinds of abstraction is that the foundation for the peculiar objectivity and inevitability can be taken from the coordination of the action which is shared by all the epistemic subjects. Moreover, because the mechanism of reflective abstraction, unlike empirical abstraction, does not construct a new operation by simply changing the result of the previous construction, but is forming re-construction which includes the structure previously constructed as a special case, the system which is developed by this mechanism is able to have reasonability constantly. The mechanism of the re-construction of the intellectual system through the reflective abstraction can be explained as continuous spiral alternance between the two complementary processes, 'reflechissement' and 'reflexion'; reflechissement is that the action moves to the higher level through the process of 'int riorisation' and 'thematisation'; reflexion is a process of 'equilibration'between the assimilation and the accomodation of the unbalance caused by the movement of the level. The operational learning principle of the theorists like Aebli who intended to embody Piaget's operational constructivism, attempts to explain the construction of the operation through 'internalization' of the action, but does not sufficiently emphasize the integration of the structure through the 'coordination' of the action and the ensuing discontinuous evolvement of learning level. Thus, based on the examination on the essential characteristic of the reflective abstraction and the mechanism, this study presents the principles of teaching and learning as following; $\circled1$ the principle of the operational interpretation of knowledge, $\circled2$ the principle of the structural interpretation of the operation, $\circled3$ the principle of int riorisation, $\circled4$ the principle of th matisation, $\circled5$ the principle of coordination, reflexion, and integration, $\circled6$ the principle of the discontinuous evolvement of learning level.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.213-228
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• 2002

We know that curriculum is, first of all, related to teaching materials, namely, contents. Therefore, when we think of mathematics curriculum, we must take account of characteristic of mathematics. Vygotsky has studied the development of scientific concepts and everyday concepts. According to Vygotsky, scientific concepts grow down through spontaneous concepts; spontaneous concepts grow upward through scientific concepts. And mathematics is a representative of subjects dealing with scientific or theoretical concept. Therefore, his study provides scientific basis for mathematics curriculum design. In this context, Davydov notes that everyday concepts are developed through empirical abstraction, while scientific concepts require a theoretical abstraction. And Davydov constructed the curriculum materials for the teaching of number concept. Davydov's curriculum is an example of reflecting Vygotsky' theoretical view and his view about the types of abstraction. In particular, it represents mathematical characteristic of a 'science' by introducing number concept through quantitative relationship and use of signs. In conclusion, stance mathematical concepts have scientific characteristic, mathematics curriculum reflects this characteristic.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.247-265
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• 2015

Mathematics textbook plays a significant role in shaping students' learning of mathematics. Logic, rigor and abstraction as typical features of the formalization of mathematics, dominate mathematics textbooks around the world, which is regarded as one of the important origins of students' learning difficulties in mathematics. An innovative series of Chinese mathematic textbooks is presented in this paper. Supported by the supplementary materials excerpts from the textbooks, it gives a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the principles of design and implementation of this series of mathematics textbooks. The effectiveness of this series of textbooks is demonstrated by student achievement and secondary research data. It shows that series of Chinese mathematic textbooks has largely decreased students' learning difficulties in mathematics and enhance classroom teaching efficiency. It suggests that prioritizing the essence of mathematics and reducing abstraction is an important notion for mathematics textbook design and implementation.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.303-325
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• 2003

This study sought to provide an explanation of university students' concept understanding on the infinity and infinite process and utilized a psychological constructivist perspective to examine the differences in transitions that students make from static concept of limit to actualized infinity stage in context of problems. Open-ended questions were used to gather data that were used to develop an explanation concerning student understanding. 47 university students answered individually and were asked to solve 16 tasks developed by Petty(1996). Microgenetic method with two cases from the expert-novice perspective were used to develop and substantiate an explanation regarding students' transitions from static concept of limit to actualized infinity stage. The protocols were analyzed to document student conceptions. Cifarelli(1988)'s levels of reflective abstraction and Robert(1982) and Sierpinska(1985)'s three-stage concept development model of infinity and infinite process provided a framework for this explanation. Students who completed a transition to actualized infinity operated higher levels of reflective abstraction than students who was unable to complete such a transition. Developing this ability was found to be critical in achieving about understanding the concept of infinity and infinite process.

• School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.159-173
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• 2016

In real educational field, there are cases that concrete problematic situations are introduced after abstract concepts are taught on the contrary to process that abstract from concrete contexts. In other words, there are cases that abstract knowledge has to be concreted. Freudenthal expresses this situation to antidogmatical inversion and indicates negative opinion. However, it is open to doubt that every class situation can proceed to abstract that begins from concrete situations or concrete materials. This study has done a comparative analysis in difference of mathematical thinking between a process that builds abstract context after being abstracted from concrete materials and that concretes abstract concepts to concrete situations and attempts to examine educational implication. For this, this study analyzed the mathematical thinking in the abstract process of concrete materials by manipulating AiC analysis tools. Based on the AiC analysis tools, this study analyzed mathematical thinking in the concrete process of abstract concept by using the way this researcher came up with. This study results that these two processes have opposite learning flow each other and significant mathematical thinking can be induced from concrete process of abstract knowledge as well as abstraction of concrete materials.