• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.105-120
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• 2006

The Seventh Curriculum makes sure that those students who don't have a proper understanding of contents required at a certain stage take a remedial course. But a trend contrary to the intention is formed since there is no systematic education for such a course and thus more students get to fall into the group of low achievement. In particular, solving a simultaneous equation in a rote way without understanding influences negatively students' achievement. Schoenfeld introduced the basic elements of one's own mathematical problem solving process and behavior, referred to Polya's. Employing Schoenfeld's strategy, this study aimed to induce students' active participation in math classes, as well as to focus on a mathematical problem solving process during the study. Two students were selected from a remedial course at 00 Middle School and administered with a qualitative case study method over 17 lessons, each of which lasted for 30 minutes. In the beginning, they used such knowledge as facts and definitions a lot. There was a tendency of their resorting to intuitive knowledge more when they lacked basic knowledge or met with a difficult question. As the lessons were given, however, they improved their ability to implement algorithm procedures and used more familiar ones with the developed common procedures in the area of resources.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.363-384
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• 2001

The purpose of this thesis is, through analysing the characteristics of the definitions in Korean school mathematics textbooks, to explore the levels of them and to make suggestions for definition - teaching as a mathematising activity, Definitions used in academic mathematics are rigorous. But they should be transformed into various types, which are presented in school mathematics textbooks, with didactical purposes. In this thesis we investigated such types of transformation. With the result of this investigation we tried to identify the levels of the definitions in school mathematics textbooks. And in school mathematics textbooks there are definitions which carry out special functions in mathematical contexts or situations. We can say that we understand those definitions, only if we also understand the functions of definitions in those contexts or situations. In this thesis we investigated the cases in school mathematics textbooks, when such functions of definition are accompanied. With the result of this investigation we tried to make suggestions for definition-teaching as an intellectual activity. To begin with we considered definition from two aspects, methods of definition and functions of definition. We tried to construct, with consideration about methods of definition, frame for analysing the types of the definitions in school mathematics and search for a method for definition-teaching through mathematization. Methods of definition are classified as connotative method, denotative method, and synonymous method. Especially we identified that connotative method contains logical definition, genetic definition, relational definition, operational definition, and axiomatic definition. Functions of definition are classified as, description-function, stipulation-function, discrimination-function, analysis-function, demonstration-function, improvement-function. With these analyses we made a frame for investigating the characteristics of the definitions in school mathematics textbooks. With this frame we identified concrete types of transformations of methods of definition. We tried to analyse this result with van Hieles' theory about levels of geometry learning and the mathematical language levels described by Freudenthal, and identify the levels of definitions in school mathematics. We showed the levels of definitions in the geometry area of the Korean school mathematics. And as a result of analysing functions of definition we found that functions of definition appear more often in geometry than in algebra or analysis and that improvement-function, demonstration-function appear regularly after demonstrative geometry while other functions appear before demonstrative geometry. Also, we found that generally speaking, the functions of definition are not explained adequately in school mathematics textbooks. So it is required that the textbook authors should be careful not to miss an opportunity for the functional understanding. And the mathematics teachers should be aware of the functions of definitions. As mentioned above, in this thesis we analysed definitions in school mathematics, identified various types of didactical transformations of definitions, and presented a basis for future researches on definition teaching in school mathematics.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.49-70
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• 2002

There have recently been increasing exchanges between South and North Korea in many areas of society, involving politics, economics, culture, education. In response to these developments, research activities are more strongly demanded in each of these areas to help prepare for the final unification of the two parts of the nation. In the area of mathematics education, scholars have started to conduct comparative studies of mathematics education in South and North Korea. As a response to the growing demand of the time, in this thesis we compared the secondary mathematics education in South Korea with that in North Korea. To begin with, we examined the background of education, in North Korea, particularly predominant ideological, epistemological and teaching theoretical aspects of education in North Korea. Thereafter, we compared the mathematics curriculum of South Korea with that of North Korea. On the basis of these examinations, we compared the secondary school mathematics textbooks of South and North Korea, and we attempted to suggest a guideline for researches preparing for the unification of the mathematics curriculum of South and North Korea. As a communist society, North Korea awards the socialist ideology the supreme rank and treats all school subjects as instrumental tools that are subordinated to the dominant communist ideology. On the other hand, under the socialist ideology North Korea also emphasizes the achievement of the objective of socialist economic development by expanding the production of material wealth. As such, mathematics in North Korea is seen as a tool subject for training skilled technical hands and fostering science and technology, hence promoting the socialist material production and economic development. Hence, the mathematics education of North Korea adopts a so-called "awakening teaching method," and emphasizes the approaches that combine intuition with logical explanation using materials related with the ideology or actual life. These basic viewpoints of North Korea on mathematics education are different from those of South Korea, which emphasize the problem-solving ability and acquisition of academic mathematical knowledge, and which focus on organizing as well as discovering knowledge of learners' own accord. In comparison of the secondary school mathematics textbooks used in South and North Korea, we looked through external forms, contents, quantity of each area of school mathematics, viewpoints of teaching, and term. We have identified similarities in algebra area and differences in geometry area especially in teaching sequence and approaching method. Many differences are also found in mathematical terms. Especially, it is found that North Korea uses mathematical terms in Hangul more actively than South Korea. We examined the specific topics that are treated in both South and North Korea, "outer-center & inner-center of triangle" and "mathematical induction", and identified such differences more concretely. Through this comparison, it was found that the concrete heterogeneity in the textbooks largely derive from the differences in the basic ideological viewpoints between South and North Korea. On the basis of the above findings, we attempted to make some suggestions for the researches preparing for the unification in the area of secondary mathematics education.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-18
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• 2018

This study aims to analyze the mathematics curriculum in the gifted school and obtain the understanding of the current situation of education for the math-gifted children in Korea, therefore providing a point of view for the improvements. In order to attain these purposes, the study examined the subject competency for the mathematics set by regular mathematics curriculum system and 2015 revision curriculum, and extracted the analytical standards, based on which the education plan documents of each gifted school were analyzed. The conclusion that has been made based on the analysis results is as follows. First of all, the curriculum of mathematics in the gifted schools in korea is heavily concentrated on analytics and algebra. Secondly, in mathematics curriculum for gifted children in Korea puts the most emphasis on the problem solving competency. Third, geometry subject in the mathematics curriculum of Korean gifted schools deals with the given content only at the level of regular high school curriculum. Fourth, learning materials in most gifted schools are not the ones especially revised and adapted for the gifted students but usually the ones for the college students. Lastly, gifted schools are running the curriculum featured with curriculum compacting and advance learning focusing on acceleration.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.55-73
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive activity on cognitive activities that students imagine and cope with continuously changing quantitative changes in functional tasks represented by linguistic expressions, table of value, and geometric patterns, We identified covariational reasoning levels and investigated the characteristics of students' reasoning process according to the levels of covariational reasoning in the elementary quantitative problem situations. Participants were seven 4th grade elementary students using the questionnaires. The selected students were given study materials. We observed the students' activity sheets and conducted in-depth interviews. As a result of the study, the students' covariational reasoning level for two quantities that are continuously covaried was found to be five, and different reasoning process was shown in quantitative problem situations according to students' covariational reasoning levels. In particular, students with low covariational level had difficulty in grasping the two variables and solved the problem mainly by using the table of value, while the students with the level of chunky and smooth continuous covariation were different from those who considered the flow of time variables. Based on the results of the study, we suggested that various problems related with continuous covariation should be provided and the meanings of the tasks should be analyzed by the teachers.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.937-957
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to discover the features of symbol sense. This study tries to sum up the meaning and elements of symbol sense and the measures to improve them through documents. Also based on this, it analyzes the learning conditions about symbol sense for 6th grade mathematically able students and suggests the method that activates symbol sense in the math of elementary schools. Considering various studies on symbol sense, symbol sense means the exact knowledge and essential understanding in a comprehensive way. Symbol sense is an intuition about symbols that grasps the meaning of symbols, understands the situation of question, and realizes the usefulness of symbols in resolving a process. Considering all other scholars' opinions, this study sums up 5 elements of the symbol sense. (The recognition of needs to introduce symbol, ability to read the meaning of symbols, choice of suitable symbols according to the context, pattern guess through visualization, recognize the role of symbols in other context) This study draws the following conclusions after applying the symbol questionnaires targeting 6th grade mathematically able students : First, although they are math talents, there are some differences in terms of the symbol sense level. Second, 5 elements of the symbol sense are not completely separated. They are rather closely related in terms of mainly the symbol understanding, thereby several elements are combined.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.299-324
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to identify high school students' mathematics learning style and its characteristics according to their personality disposition types and to propose mathematics learning strategies fit into each personality disposition type. For this purpose, MBTI personality test and survey to find mathematics learning style for 375 high school students were executed. The results were as follows. First, many students highly evaluated the effects of private education and prefer reference book to textbook. Second, there were significant differences on following variable domains of mathematics learning style such as learning attitude, learning habit(concentrativeness to concept understanding), problem solving strategies(effort for problem comprehension, use of various strategies), self management(metacognition) by MBTI personality disposition types(SJ, SP, NT, NF groups). Third, based on the results, the following mathematics learning strategies fit into each personality disposition type were recommended. SJ type students are needed to effort creative approach for open problem and to use mindmap as mathematics learning strategy. SP type students are needed to fulfill stepwise problem solving process and to effort constantly practice long/short term learning objectives. NT type students are needed to expand opportunity to study with friends and to use SRN(self reflection note) or mathematics journal writings as mathematics learning strategy. NF type students are needed to use mathematics learning note writing activity which include logical basis for each step of problem solving and to invest more time on learning algebra which need meticulous calculation.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.211-230
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• 2016

The study aimed to investigate the characteristics of algebraic thinking of the mathematically gifted students and search for how to teach algebraic thinking. Research subjects in this study included 93 students who applied for a science gifted education center affiliated with a university in 2015 and previously experienced gifted education. Students' responses on an algebraic item of a creative thinking test in mathematics, which was given as screening process for admission were collected as data. A framework of algebraic thinking factors were extracted from literature review and utilized for data analysis. It was found that students showed difficulty in quantitative reasoning between two quantities and tendency to find solutions regarding equations as problem solving tools. In this process, students tended to concentrate variables on unknown place holders and to had difficulty understanding various meanings of variables. Some of students generated errors about algebraic concepts. In conclusions, it is recommended that functional thinking including such as generalizing and reasoning the relation among changing quantities is extended, procedural as well as structural aspects of algebraic expressions are emphasized, various situations to learn variables are given, and activities constructing variables on their own are strengthened for improving gifted students' learning and teaching algebra.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.175-192
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in perceived importance of mathematical education (perceived importance) and mathematical interaction of 5-year-olds' mothers according to contents of mathematical education. Second, we intended to examine whether mothers' understanding of purpose of mathematical education predicted on their perceived importance and mathematical interaction. Third, we analyzed relative influence between mothers' perceived effectiveness of concrete materials and worksheets on their perceived importance and mathematical interaction. The subjects consisted of 151 mothers of 5-year-olds lived in D city and K province in Korea. The results were as follows: First, mothers' perceived importance and mathematical interaction were higher in 'number and arithmetic'. Second, mothers' understanding of purpose of mathematical education predicted their perceived importance in all contents and mathematical interaction in 'number and arithmetic', 'geometry', and 'algebra'. Third, mothers' perceived effectiveness of concrete materials predicted better in most contents of mathematical education. Meanwhile, in 'number and operation', mothers' perceived effectiveness of worksheets did a predictive role in their importance awareness. These results were discussed in terms of necessity of a parent education program to provide practical information about contents and methods of mathematical education for their 5-year-old children.

• Spatial Information Research
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.193-209
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to analyze the service area of emergency medical centers using GIS-based spatial analysis methods in Seoul, focusing on the behaviour of patients on the choosing of emergency centers. For this analysis, six emergency centers were selected to collect data for the information on the addresses of patients from September to November hi 2003. Analysis on the service area, which was carried out by measuring the distribution of patients in terms of distance from emergency medical centers, clearly reveals that the majority of patients was located within or adjacent districts at the emergency medical center. However, the size of the primary service area f3r six emergency medical centers was much different, implying that the decision to visit specific emergency medical center by patients was closely related to the size, perception, and preference of the emergency medical center. Based on the results of the spatial characteristics of emergency medical service area, this research tries to construct the surface map of the emergency medical service level supplied by 32 regional emergency medical centers located in Seoul. Considering the levels of infrastructure for emergency medical centers, the coverage for the degree of supply of emergency medical service by each emergency medical center was constructed in terms of a distance decaying in the distribution of patients from emergency medical center imposing different weights on distance bands. Spatial overlay utilizing map algebra function was performed in order to calculate total supply level of emergency service. The results clearly show that spatial inequality exists in the supply levels of the emergency medical service among local areas of Seoul.