• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.111-130
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• 2018

In this study, I compared and analyzed the contents of Korean, Japanese, Singapore, American, and Finnish textbooks about fraction which is one of the important and difficult concepts in elementary school mathematics. This is aimed to get the implications for meaningful fractional teaching and learning by analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of the methods and time of introducing the concept because fraction has the diversity of the sub-concepts and the introducing methods or process. As a result of the analysis, the fraction was introduced as part-whole(area) in all five countries' textbooks, but the use of number line, conversion between improper fraction and mixed number, whether to deal with part-whole(set) model. Furthermore, there are differences in the methods in obtaining of the equivalent fraction and the order of arrangement in comparison of fraction. Through this analysis, we discussed the reconsideration of the introducing contexts of fractions, the use of number line when introducing fractions, and the problem of segmentation and classification of contents.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.323-345
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• 2019

This study examines the introduction of fractions in the third grade mathematics textbooks focusing on stages of units coordination and suggests alternative activities to help students develop their understanding of fractions. As results, the sessions of introduction units in textbooks was well organized to allow students to construct more extensive fraction schemes (i.e., Part-whole fraction scheme → Partitive unit fraction scheme → Partitive fraction scheme). However, most of the activities in textbooks were related to stages 1 and 2 of units coordination. In particular, the operations and partitioning schemes (i.e., equi-partitioning and splitting schemes), which are key to the development of students' fraction knowledge, were not explicitly revealed. Fraction schemes also did not extend to the Iterative fraction scheme, which is central to the construction of improper fractions. Based on these results, this study is expected to provide implications for the introduction of fractions in textbooks focusing on stages of units coordination to teachers and textbook developers.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.25-43
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• 2009

The fraction concept consists of various meanings and is one of the abstract and difficult in elementary school mathematics. This study intends to find out the implication for introducing the fraction concept by comparing mathematics textbooks of Korea and Singapore. Both countries' students peformed well in recent TIMMSs. Some implications are as follows; The term 'equal' is not defined and the results of various 'equal partitioning' activities can not easily examined in Korea's mathematics textbook. And contexts of introducing fractions as a quotient and a ratio are unnatural in Korea's mathematics textbook in comparison with Singapore's mathematics textbook. So these ideas should be reconsidered in order to seek the direction for improvement of it. And Korea's textbooks need the emphasis on the fraction as a measure and on constructing fraction concept by unit fraction.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.233-249
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• 2005

This study discusses on the historico-genetic instruction on fraction. The textbooks of the current curriculum include the variety of contexts of fraction to be intended to connect with the conception of ratio in the grade 6. However mary elementary students have understanding limited to whole-part relation only. This study propose a method on the basis of the process of measurement by an absolute unit. The idea is related to The genesis of fraction in Egypt.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.547-574
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• 2017

The purpose of analysis of foreign curriculums and textbooks is to aimed to get the implications for the revision of curriculum, publishment of textbooks and teaching mathematics. In this study, Common Core State Standards and its textbooks was analyzed. The U. S. doesn't have the national mathematics curriculum. So, it can be happen some problems: students' lower mathematical achievement, assessment policy, decision of teaching contents, etc. In 2010, Common Core State Standards was developed by states. Furthermore, The California Department of Education reshaped standards: CA-CCSSM. This study analyzed the contents of fraction in CA-CCSSM and its textbooks. Fraction has many concepts and methods and models in teaching process. This study analyzed the equal parts, introducing fraction concept, the types of fraction, equivalent fractions, comparison of fractions. The conclusions are as follows; The equal parts are the important concept of fraction and introduced in geometry area before teaching of fraction. CA-CCSSM aims to understand a fraction as a number on the number line and represent fractions on a number line diagram. There are some similarity and difference in mixed number, fractions as a division and ratio, equivalent fractions and comparison of fractions between Korean curriculum and textbooks and CA-CCSSM.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.367-385
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• 2004

This study intends to compare the way of introducing fractions in elementary mathematics textbooks of south and those of north Korea. After thorough investigations of the seven differences were identified. First, the mathematics textbooks of south Korea use concrete materials like apples when they introduce equal partition context, while those of north Korea do not use that kind of concrete materials. Second, in the textbooks of south Korea, equal partition of discrete quantities are considered after continuous ones are introduced. This is different from the approach of the north Korean text-books in which both quantities are regarded at the same time. Third, the quantitative fraction which refers to the rational number with unit of measure at the end of it, is hardly used in the textbooks of south. However, the textbooks of north Korea use it as the main representations of fractions. Fourth, in the textbooks of south Korea, vanous activities related to fractions are more emphasized, while in the textbooks of north Korea, various meanings of fractions textbooks from south and north Korea focused on the ways of introducing partition approach and equivalence relation as operational schemes of fractions, the following play an important role before defining fraction. Fifth, the textbooks of south Korea introduce equivalent fractions with number one using number bar, and do not consider the reason why that sort of fractions are regarded. On the contrary, the textbooks of north Korea introduce structural equivalence relation by using various contexts including length measure and volume measure situations. Sixth, whereas real-life contexts are provided for introducing equivalent fractions in the textbooks of south Korea, visual explanations and mathematical representations play an important role in the textbooks of north Korea. Seventh, the means of finding equivalent fractions are provided directly in the textbooks of south Korea, whereas the nature of equivalent fractions and the methods of making equivalent fractions are considered in the textbooks of north Korea.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2015

In this paper, we compared and analyzed the Korean National Mathematics textbooks of the 2007 amendment curriculum and the Harcourt Math in America focused on fractions and decimals. To summarize the results of the analysis are as follows. First, both textbooks introduce fractions to the meaning of parts-whole concept, but the Harcourt Math is stronger than that of Korean Mathematics textbooks in the concept of unit fractions as a generator of fractions. Second, the fractions can be considered trivial materials - a fraction representing 1 whole, a fraction with it's denominator is 1 - were more clearly represented in our US textbooks than those of our Korean textbooks. Third, in the introduction of the term relating to the fractions, Korea is a strong point of view of the classification of fractions than the point of view of representation in comparison with the case of the United States. Fourth, the equivalent fraction and equivalent decimal concepts were described more detail in the United States of textbooks than those of the case of Korean textbooks. Finally, the approaches of fraction and decimal concepts were introduced more mathematically in the case of the United States than those of the case of Korean textbooks.

• School Mathematics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.123-138
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• 2006

The fraction concept consists of various meanings and is one of the more abstract and difficult in elementary school mathematics. This study intends to analyze the fraction concept from historical and psychological viewpoints, to examine the current elementary mathematics textbooks by these viewpoints and to seek the direction for improvement of it. Basic ideas about fraction are the partitioning - the dividing of a quantity into subparts of equal size - and about the part-whole relation. So these ideas are heavily emphasized in current textbooks. However, from the learner's point of view, situations related to different meanings of fraction concept draw qualitatively different response from students. So all the other meanings of fraction concept should be systematically represented in elementary mathematics textbooks. Especially based on historico-genetic principle, the current textbooks need the emphasis on the fraction as a measure and on constructing fraction concept by unit fraction as a unit.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.113-127
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to justify the fraction division algorithm in elementary mathematics by applying the definition of natural number division to fraction division. First, we studied the contents which need to be taken into consideration in teaching fraction division in elementary mathematics and suggested the criteria. Based on this research, we examined whether the previous methods which are used to derive the standard algorithm are appropriate for the course of introducing the fraction division. Next, we defined division in fraction and suggested the unit-circle partition model and the square partition model which can visualize the definition. Finally, we confirmed that the standard algorithm of fraction division in both partition and measurement is naturally derived through these models.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.117-134
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• 2020

Based on the current curriculum, students learn the concept of fraction in the 3rd grade for the first time. At that time, fraction is introduced as whole-part relationship. But as the idea of fraction expands to improper fraction and so on, fraction as measurement would be naturally appeared. In that situation where fraction as whole-part relationship and fraction as measurement are dealt together, it is necessary for students to get experiences of understanding and exploring unit and whole adequately in order to fully understand the concept of fractions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze how to deal with unit fractions, how to implement activities to find the standard of reference from the part, and what visual representations were used to help students to understand the concept of fractions in elementary mathematics textbooks from the 7th to the 2015 revised curriculum. And we analyzed 60 3rd graders' understanding of finding and drawing the whole by looking at the part. Several didactical implications for teaching the concept of fractions were derived from the discussion according to the analysis results.