• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.221-242
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• 2006

For teaching division more effectively, it is necessary to know students' informal knowledge before they learned formal knowledge about division. The purpose of this study is to research students' informal knowledge of division and to analyze meaningful suggestions to link formal knowledge of division in elementary school mathematics. According to this purpose, two research questions were set up as follows: (1) What is the students' informal knowledge before they learned formal knowledge about division in elementary school mathematics? (2) What is the difference of thinking strategies between students who have learned formal knowledge and students who have not learned formal knowledge? The conclusions are as follows: First, informal knowledge of division of natural numbers used by grade 1 and 2 varies from using concrete materials to formal operations. Second, students learning formal knowledge do not use so various strategies because of limited problem solving methods by formal knowledge. Third, acquisition of algorithm is not a prior condition for solving problems. Fourth, it is necessary that formal knowledge is connected to informal knowledge when teaching mathematics. Fifth, it is necessary to teach not only algorithms but also various strategies in the area of number and operation.

• School Mathematics
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.607-623
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• 2009

This study aims to investigate a child's informal knowledge of carrying and borrowing in additive calculations. The additive word problems including three types of calculations are posed a child that is the first grader and has no lessons about carrying and borrowing. By analysing his answers, his informal knowledge, that is his methods and strategies for calculating the additive problems are revealed. As a result, conceptual aspects and procedural aspects of his informal knowledge are recognized, and the didactical implications are induced for connecting his informal knowledge and the formal knowledge about carrying and borrowing.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.483-497
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• 2008

This study investigated what kind of informal knowledge is emergent and what role informal knowledge play in process of solving 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication task. The data come from 4 times interviews with a 3th grade student who had not yet received regular school education regarding 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication. And the data involves the student's activity paper, the characteristics of action and the clue of thinking process. Findings from these interviews clarify the child's informal knowledge to modeling strategy, doubling strategy, distributive property, associative property. The child formed informal knowledge to justify and modify her conjecture of the algorithm.

• School Mathematics
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.139-168
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate children's informal knowledge of the fractional multiplication and to develop a teaching material connecting the informal and the formal knowledge. Six lessons of the pre-teaching material are developed based on literature reviews and administered to the 7 students of the 4th grade in an elementary school. It is shown in these teaching experiments that children's informal knowledge of the fractional multiplication are the direct modeling of using diagram, mathematical thought by informal language, and the representation with operational expression. Further, teaching and learning methods of formalizing children's informal knowledge are obtained as follows. First, the informal knowledge of the repeated sum of the same numbers might be used in (fractional number)$\times$((natural number) and the repeated sum could be expressed simply as in the multiplication of the natural numbers. Second, the semantic meaning of multiplication operator should be understood in (natural number)$\times$((fractional number). Third, the repartitioned units by multiplier have to be recognized as a new units in (unit fractional number)$\times$((unit fractional number). Fourth, the partitioned units should be reconceptualized and the case of disjoint between the denominator in multiplier and the numerator in multiplicand have to be formalized first in (proper fractional number)$\times$(proper fractional number). The above teaching and learning methods are melted in the teaching meterial which is made with corrections and revisions of the pre-teaching meterial.

• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.53-74
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• 1999

This paper describes concept mapping techniques for eliciting and representing knowledge. Concept mapping techniques range from very informal to very formal. Informal concept mapping techniques are usually very easy to use and understand for humans, but not for computers. Formal concept mapping techniques are computational, but humans usually find them hard to understand and use. A knowledge acquisition and representation tools which handle both kinds, and the transition from informal to formal, would be very useful. It is proposed that concept maps be regarded as basic components of any knowledge-based system, complementing text and image with formal and informl active diagrams.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.59-78
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to research and analyze students' informal knowledge before they learned formal knowledge about fraction concepts and to see how to apply this informal knowledge to teach fraction concepts. According to this purpose, research questions were follows. 1) What is the students' informal knowledge about dividing into equal parts, the equivalent fraction, and comparing size of fractions among important and primary concepts of fraction? 2) What are the contents to can lead bad concepts among students' informal knowledge? 3) How will students' informal knowledge be used when teachers give lessons in fraction concepts? To perform this study, I asked interview questions that constructed a form of drawing expression, a form of story telling, and a form of activity with figure. The interview questions included questions related to dividing into equal parts, the equivalent fraction, and comparing size of fractions. The conclusions are as follows: First, when students before they learned formal knowledge about fraction concepts solve the problem, they use the informal knowledge. And a form of informal knowledge is vary various. Second, among students' informal knowledge related to important and primary concepts of fraction, there are contents to lead bad concepts. Third, it is necessary to use students' various informal knowledge to instruct fraction concepts so that students can understand clearly about fraction concepts.

• School Mathematics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.555-563
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• 2002

The purpose of this paper is to try formulating a working definition of connection of informal and formal mathematical knowledge. Many researchers have suggested that informal mathematical knowledge should be connected with school mathematics in the process of learning and teaching it. It is because informal mathematical knowledge might play a important role as a cognitive anchor for understanding school mathematics. To implement the connection of them we need to know what the connection means. In this paper, the connection between informal and formal mathematical knowledge refers to the making of relationship between common attributions involved with the two knowledge. To make it clear, it is discussed that informal knowledge consists of two properties of procedures and conceptions as well as formal mathematical knowledge does. Then, it is possible to make a connection of them. Now it is time to make contribution of our efforts to develop appropriate models to connect informal and formal mathematical knowledge.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.14
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• pp.27-41
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• 2001

인지적으로 안내된 교수(CGI)는 학생들의 수학적 사고(특히, 비형식적 지식)의 발달; 그러한 발달에 영향을 미치는 교수; 교수 실제에 영향을 미치는 교사의 지식과 신념들; 교사의 지식, 신념들, 실제들이 학생들의 수학적 사고에 대한 이해에 의해 영향을 받는다는 점에 초점을 둔 통합된 연구 프로그램이다. 본 논문에서는 아동의 비형식적인 지식을 중시하는 최근의 연구들을 고찰하고, CGI를 위한 수업을 어떻게 조직하며, 그러한 교수법이 수업을 어떻게 진행할 것인지에 대한 구체적이고 명확한 지침을 제공하지 않으므로 CGI를 적용하는 교실들의 유사점을 살펴본다. 그리고, 마지막으로 최근의 연구들을 고찰함으로써 CGI의 효과를 알아본다.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.91-106
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• 2008

Interviews with 24 pupils in grade 1-2 were used to investigate awareness of the relation between situation and computation in simple quotitive and partitive division problems as informally experienced. Then it was suggested how to connect children's informal knowledge and formal knowledge of division. Most subjects counted cubes or made drawing, and related these methods to the situation described in the problems. In result, quotitive division was experienced as a dealing situation, where the number of items represented by the divisor was repeatedly taken from the whole number. And estimate-adjust was the most frequently displayed way of experiencing partitive division. Therefore, partitive division with its two measurement variables can be related to a measurement model. And children should be taught column algorithms for division with estimated-adjust which pupils used for partitive division problems.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.83-102
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to investigate addition strategies of the 1st year elementary school students compared to the strategies recommended by the 7th national curriculum. We used interviewed children's worksheets to analyze the children's strategies. The results of the study showed that the formal strategies the textbook recommended and the children's strategies were so different. Teachers need to articulately comment two strategies when they teach mathematics in the classrooms.