• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.307-319
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• 2014

This research is a survey study on students' attitude toward a class employing small group discussion and presentation by the method of free-listing. Participants in this study were students who registered in the course of Mathematical Logics and Writing during 2011 and 2014. Senior students who took the course of theory of mathematics education previously usually registered the course. The class for this course used to be designed as a class adopting group discussion and presentation. Main theme of this research is not to demonstrate some theories or hypothesis on teaching and learning, but rather to inquire students' attitude toward a class employing the constituents first and then through analyzing the results of this study to find practical ideas and strategy for design and implementation of a class which brings cultivation of students' understanding, communication and moreover writing in mathematics. Since the survey was given in the $8^{th}$ week of this class, participants of this research could be expected to have more concrete idea for positive or negative aspects of the classes employing these constituents. We compared both research results of 2011 and 2014 to view any changes in students' attitude. Research results are follows. Students began to think that group discussions and presentation bring out better learning to them. Not to give students psychological burden of discussion and presentation, instructors need to provide comfortable atmosphere through arranging suitable grouping and enough time for discussion. Moreover, simple evaluations criteria for group discussions and presentation should be well structured and more concrete guides for them are required to make students to feel comfortable and to concentrate on the given subject for discussion.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.173-192
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• 2013

It may be replacement proofs with understanding and explaining geometrical properties that was a remarkable change in school geometry of 2009 revised national curriculum for mathematics. That comes from the difficulties which students have experienced in learning proofs. This study focuses on one of those difficulties which are caused by the forms of proofs: using letters for designating some sides or angles in writing proofs and understanding some long sentences of proofs. To overcome it, this study aims to investigate the applicability of Byrne's method which uses coloured diagrams instead of letters. For this purpose, the proofs of three geometrical properties were taught to middle school students by Byrne's visual method using the original source, dynamic representations, and the teacher's manual drawing, respectively. Consequently, the applicability of Byrne's method was discussed based on its strengths and its weaknesses by analysing the results of students' worksheets and interviews and their teacher's interview. This analysis shows that Byrne's method may be helpful for students' understanding of given geometrical proofs rather than writing proofs.

• School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.289-314
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• 2013

Achievement profile by attribute in Korean students' mathematics was analyzed by applying cognitive diagnostic model, which is the newest measurement theory, to 2011 NAEA(National Assessment of Educational Assessment) results. The results are as follows. As the level of school is higher from 6th grade, 9th grade to 11th grade, the percentage of students mastering cognitive attribute 9(expressions using picture, table, graph, formula, symbol, writing, etc) drastically declined from 78%, 35% to 26%. It is necessary to have learning strategies to reinforce their abilities of expressing table, graph, etc. that higher graders in mathematics are more vulnerable to. Next, the property of mastering cognitive attributes according to gender, multi-cultural family was analyzed. In terms of mathematics, the percentage of girls mastering most of the attribute generally is higher than that of boys from 6th grade to 9th grade, however, boys show higher mastery in almost attributes than girls in the 11th grade. Compared to boys, the part where girls have the most trouble is attribute 9 in mathematics(expressions using picture, table, graph, formula, symbol, writing, etc). As international marriage, influx of foreign workers, etc. increase, the number of students from Korea's multi-cultural families is expected to be higher, therefore, identifying the characteristics of their educational achievement is significant in reinforcing Korea's basic achievement. In mathematics, gap of mastery level of attributes between multi-cultural group and ordinary group is more severe in higher grade and the type of multi-cultural group that needs supports for improving achievement most urgently changed in 6th grade, 9th grade and 11th grade respectively. In the 6th and 11th grade, migrant students from North Korea show the lowest level of mastering attributes, however, in the 9th grade, the mastery rate of immigrant students is lowest. Therefore, there is an implication that supporting plans for improving achievement of students from multi-cultural family should establish other strategies based on the characteristics of school level.

• Korean Journal of Mathematics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.45-56
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• 2014

Modern society demands leaders who are trained with competence to not only approach knowledge but also create new knowledge by comprehensively understanding and applying it, and a leader with character and commitment to share one's ideas with others and be able to accept criticisms. In response to these societal changes, universities are increasingly adopting 'small group discussion-based classes with an attempt to develop and strengthen communication skills through reading, writing and speaking. This paper seeks to introduce a case of a math lecture, where discussion-based class was applied to mathematical education, requiring practical problem-solving through an argumentative thought process.

• School Mathematics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.325-354
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• 2001

The study aims to develop balanced performance assessment tasks for primary school mathematics which can be implemented in the primary school easily. In order to these purposes, I suggest the types of performance assessment tasks and the framework of assessment standards for the balanced performance assessment with describing the procedures of developing tasks and rubrics. The types of task are journal writing, problem posing, constructed task, and descriptive task. In the framework of assessment standards, I suggest holistic scoring which are classified as four levels according to the degree of excellence which students perform totally concerning about the criterion of implication, reasoning, accuracy, and communication. Also I analyse the responses of children to the task “make a beautiful pattern” and suggest its assessment rubric and anchor papers for each level for illustrating the process of developing a rubric in holistic scoring. In order to reflect the viewpoints of children and their Parents concerning about the tasks, the responses in self assessment and parent assessment are analysed. Finally, methods of implementing the assessment tasks and considerations are discussed.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.115-140
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper was to develop manipulative materials to teach the angle concepts and construct a teaching-learning program by using that. Furthermore, this study analyzed how does the program affect students understanding of the angle concepts. To check the effects of learning activities with manipulative materials on the understanding of an angle concepts, applied observation during class and write a mathematics journal writing, a description of students impressions at the end of the class and analyzed before and after test paper. We find that students approached the subject more friendly and knew well about the mathematical concepts by using materials. Furthermore, this activity helped that way to solve add and subtract of the angle, estimate ability, round angle concept, positive response in mathematics learning.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.121-132
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• 1999

We have compared Korean and American mathematics curriculums in 5 areas: whole number(concepts and its operations); geometry; pattern and relations; measurements; statistics and probability. We have found significant differences in geometry area. Korean curriculums contain simple planar figures (circles, triangles, rectangles, and squres) and some of the spatial figures until 3rd grades. But in America they learn various planar and spatial fugures(cone, pyramid, triangular prism, etc) since the 1st grade starts. They also start the 1st grade by dealing with topological concepts like open/closed, inside/outside, order, etc. As the grade goes on, students learn other geometrical concepts like congruence, symmetry, 3-dimensional views. We also found that American curriculum focuses on students' activities and courages communication through projects, groupwork, journal writing, etc. It's also superior in respects of motivation, and connections with real life and other subjects. Korean curriculum needs more improvements in these aspects. Furthermore for lower graders reviewing sections need to be enhanced for feedback.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.163-175
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• 2004

We believe new assessment strategies and practices need to be developed that will enable teachers and others to assess students' performance in a manner that reflect the 7th Korean curriculum reform vision for school mathematics. This research was conducted to develop the assessment tasks based on the current literatures such as National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1999) and Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation(KICE, 2002, 2003) in quadratic functions of the secondary school and to find the effect of these tasks by classifying students' responses. The research instrument were composed of three criteria, the previous knowledge, the application of quadratic functions, and the general properties in functions. The research data were collected from 32 high school students in a suburb of Seoul and sorted by their similarities and differences in mathematical understanding. Through the research, we could know more than ever before about how the students learned mathematics and about how to improve teachers' mathematical instruction.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.207-223
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• 2018

In this study, we studied Bumwoo KIM Chi Young's cogitation on mathematics, and analyzed his typical 3 essays on mathematics by KoNLP. Approximately 80% of Bumwoo's sentences consist of less than 30. His writing became clearer over the years. It is verified from the mean and standard deviation of the number of words in a sentence are decreasing. Bumwoo emphasized the structure in mathematics, and he was a strong advocate of importancy on axiom, topolized and category as the characteristics of modern mathematics. In particular, it can be seen that the relations between 'mathematics', 'axiom', 'structure', 'Euclid', 'axiomatic system' and 'set' were his main topic.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.87-103
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• 2013

This study was investigated to examine the effects of writing activities based on Polya's Problem Solving Stages on Learning Accomplishment and Attitudes. A total of 54 students were selected from two Grade 6 classes of P Elementary School in G City to form an experimental group(n=27) and a control group (n=27). The experimental group was applied to a class which was creating writing activities according to Polya's Problem Solving Stages to problem solving and inquiry activities. The control group was taught by the traditional method to the same activities. The five questions for each area were selected as a descriptive assessment of the second semester of Grade 5 in the area of the Academic Achievement pre-test, developed by the G Education and Science Research. The post-test was selected by a descriptive assessment of the content of the first semester in Grade 6. The same questions were posed for both the pre-test and the post-test of the Mathematical Attitudes assessment. We examined the pre-test at the beginning of the school term, then the students were re-examined after one semester, using the same questions as the pre-test. This research showed that there was a meaningful difference in Learning Accomplishment as a result of T-test in the 5% level of significance. Secondly, there was a meaningful difference in the Mathematical Attitudes as a result of T-tests. It shows that writing activities based on Polya's Problem Solving Stages have an influence on improving Learning Accomplishment and Attitudes.