• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.221-249
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate students decision-making progress through ill-structured problem solving process. For this study, 25 fifth graders in an elementary school were observed by applying ABCDE model (Analyze - Browse - Create - Decision making - Evaluate), and analyzed their decision-making progress analyzing framework which follows 3 steps - making their own decision, discussing/revising with peers, and lastly decision making/solving problem. Upper two groups with better performance in ill-structured problem solving model among 6 groups showed active discussion in group and decision making process with 3 steps (making their own decision, discussing/revising with peers). Even though their decisions are not good-fit to mathematical reasoning result, development and application of ill-structured problems would bring better ability of high level thinking and problem solving to students.

• School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.723-742
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze children's proportional reasoning process on an ill-structured "architectural drawing" problem solving and to investigate their level and characteristics of proportional reasoning. As results, they showed various perspective and several level of proportional reasoning such as illogical, additive, multiplicative, and functional approach. Furthermore, they showed their expanded proportional reasoning from the early stage of perception of various types of quantities and their proportional relation in the problem to application stage of their expanded and generalized relation. Students should be encouraged to develop proportional reasoning by experiencing various quantity in ration and proportion situations.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.570-585
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• 2012

The Korean national curriculum for secondary school emphasizes scientific problem solving. In line with the national curriculum, many educational studies have been conducted in relation to science education. The objects of these studies were well-defined and well-structured problems. The studies were criticized for overlooking ill-defined and ill-structured problems. Some research has dealt with problem finding in ill-structured problems, which is related to creativity. There is a need for a study of scientific problem finding process in an ill-structured problem situation, because this study will help teachers wanting to teach scientific problem-finding in an ill-structured problem situation. The objective of this study was to conduct an empirical study on the scientific problem finding process in an ill-structured problem situation. One task of scientific problem finding in an ill-structured problem situation was assigned to 92 university students; thereafter, 32 of them participated in the research through interviews. Results indicated that the scientific problem finding process depended on initial clues and tentative solutions. Initial clues were affected by students' experiences, such as major classes, films, and novels. Tentative solutions were influenced by background knowledge of the tasks. Students screened information browsed on the Internet. They applied some standards for selection, particularly emphasized reliability standards, which are supposed to be studied in other contexts. All the students used assumptions to make their problems appear probable, which could be a useful tool to articulate.

• School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.541-569
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• 2016

The purpose of the study is to investigate elementary school students' creativity-integrated thinking ability and problem solving ability of core ability in 2015 revision curriculum of mathematics department. In addition, the relation between students' creativity-integrated thinking ability and problem solving ability was analyzed on problem solving process. As result, students' both abilities showed moderate level. Furthermore, students' creativity-integrated thinking ability and problem solving ability showed positive correlation.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.189-209
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• 2014

This study designed and developed a model of ill-structured problem solving and ill-structured problems for the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. In addition, two sets of ill-structured problems has been explored to 23 4th graders, 33 5th graders, and 23 6th graders in elementary schools in order to investigate their problem solving, creative personality, and mathematical reasoning. The model of ill-structured problem solving was suggested ABCDE (Analyze-Browse-Create-DecisionMaking-Evaluate) model and analyzed participants' problem solving procedure. As results, participants showed improvement between pretest and posttest in problem solving and the high graders showed the greater creative personality.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.131-150
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• 2018

The structure of a mathematics task shapes the aspects of learning of those who solve the task. This study explores the process of understandings on the statistical variability of primary school students. Students were given two problems with different degrees of structuring - a well-structured problem (WSP) and an ill-structured problem (ISP) - and discussed in a group to solve each task. The highest level of development achieved in both cases appeared to be similar. However, when given the ISP, students dynamically proposed ideas and justified the conclusion based on their hypothesis. Furthermore, all students actively participated in solving the ISP until the end whereas some students were marginalized while solving the WSP. This discrepancy results from the difference in the degrees of task structuring.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.837-856
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of ill-structured problem solving program on the social self-efficacy, democratic citizenship, and meta-cognition of the scientifically gifted high school students and provide an opportunity to consider how to improve students' social self-efficacy, democratic citizenship, and meta-cognition when comprehensive character education has been emphasized in science programs for gifted students. The subjects consisted of 17 students(10th graders) and 19 students(11th graders) who were participated in a science gifted program in a Korean high school located in Seoul and pre-examination on their social self-efficacy, democratic citizenship, and meta-cognition was conducted. After applying 12-class-time of ill-structured problem solving program, post-examination on their social self-efficacy, democratic citizenship, and meta-cognition was conducted and student's self-essay about program was also conducted. Paired t-test was used to analyze the data collected and students's self-essays were also analyzed. The results of this study were as follows: First, the findings showed that ill-structured problem solving program developed students' social self-efficacy and especially showed a significant improvement in asking for help. Second, they also showed that ill-structured problem solving program raised students' democratic participation especially in a democratic function. Third, in terms of meta-cognition, ill-structured problem solving program also played a positive role. The result of analyzing students' essays also showed students' positive perception on the program. The findings of the present study suggested that ill-structured problem solving program should be taken into consideration when developing a science program for scientifically gifted high school students.

• The Journal of Korean Association of Computer Education
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.43-50
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• 2005

The purpose of the study was to compare the effects of two instructional methods, which were the instructor-led instruction and the simulation delivery instruction on students' well-structured and ill-structured problem solving performance and motivation. 29 undergraduate students participated in the study and repeated measure design was used. We found significant difference of means in ill-structured problem solving performance and only relevance scale in motivation.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.133-157
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• 2021

Ill-structured problems have drawn attention in that they can enhance problem-solving skills, which are essential in future societies. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate students' spatial reasoning(Intrinsic-Static, Intrinsic-Dynamic, Extrinsic-Static, and Extrinsic-Dynamic reasoning) and problem solving abilities(understanding problems and exploring strategies, executing plans and reflecting, collaborative problem-solving, mathematical modeling) that appear in ill-structured problem-solving. To solve the research questions, two ill-structured problems based on the geometry domain were created and 11 lessons were given. The results are as follows. First, spatial reasoning ability of sixth-graders was mainly distributed at the mid-upper level. Students solved the extrinsic reasoning activities more easily than the intrinsic reasoning activities. Also, more analytical and higher level of spatial reasoning are shown when students applied functions of other mathematical domains, such as computation and measurement. This shows that geometric learning with high connectivity is valuable. Second, the 'problem-solving ability' was mainly distributed at the median level. A number of errors were found in the strategy exploration and the reflection processes. Also, students exchanged there opinion well, but the decision making was not. There were differences in participation and quality of interaction depending on the face-to-face and web-based environment. Furthermore, mathematical modeling element was generally performed successfully.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.95-114
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• 2012

This study examines the use of ill-structured problem to help the 4th graders' problem solving and reasoning. It appears that children with good understanding of problem situation tend to accept the situation as itself rather than just as texts and produce various results with extraction of meaningful variables from situation. In addition, children with better understanding of problem situation show AR (algorithmic reasoning) and CR (creative reasoning) while children with poor understanding of problem situation show just AR (algorithmic reasoning) on their reasoning type.