A Study of Mathematical Problem Solving in Korea

우리나라에서의 수학적 문제해결연구

Mathematical Problem solving has had the largest focus in the spread of mathematical topics since 1980. In Korea, most of the articles on problem solving appeared 1980s and 1990s, during which there were special concerns on this issue. And there is general acceptance of the idea that the famous statement "Problem solving must be the focus of school mathematics"(NCTM, 1980, p.1) in Agenda for Action, reflected in the curriculum of Korea. In a historical review focusing on the problem solving in the National Curriculum of Mathematics, we can infer that the primary goal of mathematics instruction should be to have students become competence problem solver. However, the practices of mathematics classroom and the trends of research in mathematical problem solving have oriented to ′teaching about problem solving′ and ′teaching for problem solving′. The issue of teaching via problem solving′ remain unsolved in the community of mathematics education and we need much more attention to this issue.