A Study on the didactical phenomenology of the negative numbers

음수의 교수 현상학적 연구

In the school mathematics, the negative numbers have been instructed by means of intuitive models(concrete situation models, number line model, colour counter model), inductive-extrapolation approach, and the formal approach using the inverse operation relations. These instructions on the negative numbers have caused students to have the difficulty in understanding especially why the rules of signs hold. It is due to the fact that those models are complicated, inconsistent, and incomplete. So, students usually should memorize the sign rules. In this study we studied on the didactical phenomenology of the negative numbers as a foundational study for the improvement of teaching negative numbers. First, we analysed the formal nature of the negative numbers and the cognitive obstructions which have showed up in the historic-genetic process of them. Second, we investigated what the middle school students know about the negative numbers and their operations, which they have learned according to the current national curriculum. The results showed that the degree they understand the reasons why the sign rules hold was low Third, we instructed the middle school students about the negative number and its operations using the formal approach as Freudenthal suggest ed. And we investigated whether students understand the formal approach or not. And we analysed the validity of the new teaching method of the negative numbers. The results showed that students didn't understand the formal approach well. And finally we discussed the directions for improving the instruction of the negative numbers on the ground of these didactical phenomenological analysis.