• The Mathematical Education
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.111-136
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• 2018

This study suggests a framework for analyzing items based on the characteristics, and shows the relationship among the characteristics, difficulty, percentage of correct answers, academic achievement and the actual mathematical problem solving competency. Three mathematics educators' classification of 30 items of Mathematics 'Ga' type, on 2017 College Scholastic Ability Test, and the responses given by 148 high school students on the survey examining mathematical problem solving competency were statistically analyzed. The results show that there are only few items satisfying the characteristics for mathematical problem solving competency, and students feel ill-defined and non-routine items difficult, but in actual percentage of correct answers, routineness alone has an effect. For the items satisfying the characteristics, low-achieving group has difficulty in understanding problem, and low and intermediate-achieving group have difficulty in mathematical modelling. The findings can suggest criteria for mathematics teachers to use when developing mathematics questions evaluating problem solving competency.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.389-403
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• 2020

This study aims to examine how information processing competency as one of the mathematical competencies has been interpreted and applied in mathematics education by analyzing tasks in middle school mathematics textbooks under the 2015 revised national curriculum. Based on the sub-elements of information processing competency organized by Park et al.(2015), we analyzed 191 tasks in 30 different middle school mathematics textbooks using descriptive statistics and ANOVA. Also, we investigated the meaning of information processing competency embedded in the tasks by distinguishing the characteristics of several different types of tasks. The results from this study showed that the number of tasks related to information processing competency in mathematics textbooks was too small and there was a huge difference across the textbooks in terms of the sub-elements. Even though there were four sub-elements of information processing competency, 'the use of manipulative and technological tools' was extremely dominant in the tasks in general. Even many of them used technology and manipulatives superficially. Furthermore, any textbook did not provide tasks dealing with all the four sub-elements. Such an unbalanced and fragmented approach to information processing competency could produce biased knowledge and insufficient experiences for information processing competency. It calls for further investigation and discussion about how to improve information processing competency in school mathematics.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.149-166
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• 2024

This study is to establish the domains and the standards of instructional evaluation on the teacher knowledge dealing with the knowledge of 'teaching and learning methods and assessment'. Especially, in this study, the instruction assessment standards are developed focused on the five types of mathematics competencies such as problem solving, communication, reasoning, connection, information and handling, which were emphasized in the mathematical curriculum revised in 2022. By the result, ten domains such as an instruction involving instruction goal and content, problem-solving competency, data treatment competency, learners' achievement level and attitude, communication competency, reasoning competency, connection competency, the assessment method and procedure based on the competency, the assessment tool development based on the competency, assessment result based on the competency were new established. According to those domains, the total 20 instructional evaluation standards were developed. This study is limited to consider the domain of 'teaching and learning methods and assessment' among the domains of teacher knowledge, while dealing with the elements of mathematics competencies in the standards. However, instructional evaluation standards reflecting these competencies should be developed in the other diverse domains of teacher knowledge.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.165-185
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• 2022

The six core competencies have been emphasized in the mathematics curriculum revised in 2015. In particular, the communication is very important for students' representing their own thinking and enhancing much higher mathematical thinking. Based on this competency, this study selected the four elements of the communication such as the understanding of mathematical representation, development and transition of mathematical representation, the representation of his own thinking, the understanding of the others' thinking. And also this study selected the domain of function which is comprised of the content of the coordinate plane, the graph, proportionality in the seventh grade mathematics textbook. By the subject of the ten kinds of textbook, this study examined how the four elements of the communication competency were shown in each textbook.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.235-252
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• 2023

We investigated the classification of learner groups for students' mathematical modeling competency and analyzed the characteristics in each profile group for each country and variable using PISA 2012 data from six countries. With a perspective on measuring sub-competency, we applied the latent profile analysis method to student achievement for mathematical modeling variables - Formulate, Employ, Interpret. The findings showed the presence of 4-6 profile groups, with the variables exhibiting high and low achievement within each profile group varying by country, and a hierarchical structure was observed in the profile group distribution in all countries, interestingly, the Formulate variable showed the largest difference between high-achieving and low-achieving profile groups. These results have significant implications. Comparison by country, variable, and profile group can provide valuable insights into understanding the various characteristics of students' mathematical modeling competency. The Formulate variable could serve as the most suitable predictor of a student's profile group and the score range of other variables. We suggest further studies to gain more detailed insights into mathematical modeling competency with different cultural contexts.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.407-427
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• 2019

The six core competencies included in the mathematics curriculum revised in 2015 are problem solving, reasoning, communication, attitude and practice, creativity and convergence, information processing. In particular, the problem solving is very important for students' enhancing much higher mathematical thinking. Based on this competency, this study selected the four elements of the problem solving such as problem solving process, cooperative problem solving, mathematical modeling, problem posing. And also this study selected the domain of function which is comprised of the content of the coordinate plane, the graph, proportionality in the seventh grade mathematics textbook. By the subject of the ten kinds of textbook, this study examined how the four elements of the problem solving competency were shown in each textbook.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.149-167
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• 2021

The six core competencies included in the mathematics curriculum revised in 2015 are problem solving, reasoning, communication, attitude and practice, creativity and convergence, information processing. In particular, the reasoning is very important for students' enhancing much higher mathematical thinking. Based on this competency, this study selected the four elements of investigation and fact guess, justification, the logical performance of mathematical content and process, reflection of reasoning process, And also this study selected the domain of function which is comprised of the content of the coordinate plane, the graph, proportionality in the seventh grade mathematics textbook. By the subject of the ten kinds of textbook, this study examined how the four elements of the reasoning competency were shown in each textbook.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.179-195
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• 2022

Mathematical communication competency, one of the six mathematical competencies emphasized in the latest mathematics curriculum, plays an important role both as a means and as a goal for students to learn mathematics. Therefore, it is meaningful to find instructional methods to improve students' mathematical communication competency and analyze their communication competency in detail. Given this background, this study analyzed 64 sixth graders' mathematical communication competency after they participated in the lessons of fraction division emphasizing mathematical communication. A written assessment for this study was developed with a focus on the four sub-elements of mathematical communication (i.e., understanding mathematical representations, developing and transforming mathematical representations, representing one's ideas, and understanding others' ideas). The results of this study showed that students could understand and represent the principle of fraction division in various mathematical representations. The students were more proficient in representing their ideas with mathematical expressions and solving them than doing with visual models. They could use appropriate mathematical terms and symbols in representing their ideas and understanding others' ideas. This paper closes with some implications on how to foster students' mathematical communication competency while teaching elementary mathematics.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.377-394
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the characteristics of a teacher's discursive competence on the basis of mathematical competencies. For this purpose, we observed all semester-long classes of a middle school teacher, who changed her own teaching methods for the last 20 years, collected video clips on them, and analyzed classroom discourse. Data analysis shows that in problem solving competency, she helped students focus on mathematically important components for problem understanding, and in reasoning competency, there was a discursive competence which articulated thinking processes for understanding the needs of mathematical justification. And in creativity and confluence competency, there was a discursive competence which developed class discussions by sharing peers' problem solving methods and encouraging students to apply alternative problem solving methods, whereas in communication competency, there was a discursive competency which explored mathematical relationships through the need for multiple mathematical representations and discussions about their differences. These results can provide concrete directions to developing curricula for future teacher education by suggesting ideas about how to combine practices with PCK needed for mathematics teaching.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.207-222
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• 2015

Mathematics preservice teachers' Mathematical Content Knowledge ("MCK") includes not only knowledge for mathematics, but also academic knowledge for school mathematics and mathematical process knowledge. We can consider the items in PISA 2012 as suitable tools to assess process knowledge as well as mathematical content knowledge because these items are developed by competent international educational experts. Therefore, the responses to items with the low percentage of correct answers in conjunction with the mathematical contents were analyzed with focus on FMC. The results showed the reasoning competency in responses using the conditions of the problem and of understanding the conditions after reading the complex problems within the context (i.e. the reasoning and argumentation competency, and communication competency) requires improvements. Furthermore the results indicated the errors due to a lack of ability of devising strategies for problem solving. Based on the foregoing results, the implications towards the directions of the education for the preservice mathematics teachers have been derived.