• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.157-177
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• 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 the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.97-115
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• 2008

In high school mathematics class, to subtract a number b from a, we add the additive inverse of b to a and to divide a number a by a non-zero number b, we multiply a by the multiplicative inverse of b, which is the formal approach for operations of real numbers. This article aims to give a connection between the intuitive models in middle school mathematics class and the formal approach in high school for teaching operations of negative integers. First, we highlight the teaching methods(Hwang et al, 2008), by which subtraction of integers is denoted by addition of integers. From this methods and activities applying the counting model, we give new teaching methods for the rule that the product of negative integers is positive. The teaching methods with horizontal mathematization(Treffers, 1986; Freudenthal, 1991) of operations of integers, which is based on consistently applying the intuitive model(number line model, counting model), will remove the gap, which is exist in both teachers and students of middle and high school mathematics class. The above discussion is based on students' cognition that the number system in middle and high school and abstracted number system in abstract algebra course is formed by a conceptual structure.