• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.267-286
• /
• 2017

This study analyzed the processes of lesson plan, implementation, and reflection by a professional learning community with five teachers who were teaching second grade students in the same elementary school. The results of the study showed that the learning community helped the teachers prepare for a lesson effectively, enhance their teaching practices, and reflect on their teaching methods. However, the teachers had difficulties in re-designing and implementing the collaborative lesson plan in their classrooms and had a tendency to talk about their feelings about lessons rather than meaningful comments for subsequent lessons. The successes and difficulties revealed through this study are expected to provide us with directions of learning communities for improving teachers' professional development.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.433-457
• /
• 2022

An effective teacher community helps the participating teachers improve their instructional quality. This study reports a teacher community consisting of 15 elementary school teachers and one teacher educator. This paper analyzed 15 mathematics lessons in which the teachers implemented the five practices for orchestrating productive mathematics discussions by Smith and Stein (2018) based on the grade-specific discussions as well as the whole community's discussions. The results of this study showed that the overall levels of each practice either increased gradually or maintained at the highest Level 4, as mathematics lessons had been implemented. Specifically, the following practices were quite successful: setting goals for a lesson, selecting an appropriate task, anticipating student responses, and selecting student solutions. However, both sequencing and connecting student solutions were implemented at various levels. Monitoring student work tended to remain at Level 2 which included incorrect implementation of the practice. This paper closes with implications related to the skillful implementation of the five practices through a teacher community.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.409-444
• /
• 2014

There have been many discussions of teaching and learning mathematics through modeling activities in mathematics education research community. Although there has been some agreement regarding modeling activity as an alternative way to support mathematics teaching and learning, there is still no clear consensus on these issues. This paper reports a case study which aims to identify ways to design modeling tasks and instruction to foster meta-level learning, and investigate how modeling activities can facilitate meta-level learning. From the results of teaching experiment, this study examines the potential of modeling activities in mathematics teaching and learning.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.509-525
• /
• 2016

This study is a follow-up study of the previous research for teacher education(Kim Nam Hee, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014). This study was conducted with third grade students of the college of education in 2016. In this study, we guided to allow pre-service teachers to develop their teaching research ability and teaching practical skills using the results obtained from the in-service teachers training courses. Processes mainly performed in this study are as follows; learning the theory on Socrates' method, case study for thought experiment activities, instructional simulation using a Socrates' method, class analysis, textbook analysis, peer evaluation, self-assessment. Observing tutorial examples by in-service teachers, pre-service teachers were expanding their limited knowledge and experience. By analyzing the results obtained from this research processes, we checked the points to put more attention in future pre-service teachers education.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.95-115
• /
• 2023

Even the teachers who agree with the necessity of effective mathematical discussions find it difficult to orchestrate such discussions in the actual lessons. This study focused on analyzing the difficulties 15 elementary school teachers faced in applying "the five practices for orchestrating productive mathematics discussions" to their lessons. Specifically, this study analyzed the process of planning, implementing, and reflecting on the lessons to which three or four teachers as a teacher community applied the five practices. The results of this study showed that the teachers experienced difficulties in selecting and presenting tasks tailored to the student levels and class environment, monitoring all students' solutions, and identifying the core mathematical ideas in student solutions. In addition, this study revealed practical and specific difficulties that had not been described in the previous studies, such as writing a lesson plan for effective use, simultaneously performing multiple teacher roles, and visually sharing student presentations. This study is expected to provide practical tips for elementary school teachers who are eager to promote effective mathematical discussions and to provoke professional discourse for teacher educators through specific examples.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.57-78
• /
• 2023

Students' engagement in lessons not only determines the direction and result of the lessons, but also affects academic achievement and continuity of follow-up learning. In order to provide implications related to teaching strategies for encouraging students' engagement in elementary mathematics lessons, this study implemented lessons for middle-low achieving fifth graders using open-ended tasks and analyzed characteristics of students' engagement in the light of the framework descripors developed based on previous research. As a result of the analysis, the students showed behavioral engagement in voluntarily answering teacher's questions or enduring difficulties and performing tasks until the end, emotional engagement in actively expressing their pleasure by clapping, standing up and the feelings with regard to the topics of lessons and the tasks, cognitive engagement in using real-life examples or their prior knowledge to solve the tasks, and social engagement in helping friends, telling their ideas to others and asking for friends' opinions to create collaborative ideas. This result suggested that lessons using open-ended tasks could encourage elementary students' engagement. In addition, this research presented the potential significance of teacher's support and positive feedback to students' responses, teaching methods of group activities and discussions, strategies of presenting tasks such as the board game while implementing the lessons using open-ended tasks.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.537-554
• /
• 2014

In this study, we investigated a good way for teacher professional development. Based on this way, we designed teacher training program. We carried out teacher training program for 50 secondary school mathematics teachers in July 2014. In this teacher training courses, teachers conducted recording mathematics teaching-learning processes by dialogue between teacher and student according to Socratic method. We also shared the practices of teacher educators, teachers and colleagues. In this teacher training, we tried to cultivate teachers' abilities needed to a good mathematics instruction. And we aimed to equip the attitude that guided reflection on their mathematics class. Through the teacher training, teachers recognized the need to study on the thinking of students and take into account students' expected reaction on the part of learners. Also they developed an attitude as reflective practitioners and recognized the need of teacher learning communities for their professional development.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.621-636
• /
• 2013

In this paper we intended to present the case of mentorship program for the gifted in elementary mathematics education, which is related with Waldorf education. We installed the program to four six-grade students during six months. We focused on cultivating integrated perspective, aesthetic perspective and substantial skills. For the aim we dealt with the item, construction based on the aesthetic experiences. Finally we presented three main ideas, construction of regular polygons and flowers, construction of islamic design, and farmland cleanup with construction. We also contained the students' project in this paper.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.95-128
• /
• 2010

This article presents a one and half-year process of Lesson Study conducted at a K-8 school in an urban district in the eastern U.S. Lesson Study, a Japanese form of professional development that centers on collaborative study of live classroom lessons, has spread rapidly in the U.S. since 1999 and has been argued as a promising alternative model for teacher-led school reform through professional development. The Lesson Study group described here was composed of five teachers, one administrator, and one instructional improvement coordinator belonging to the participant school and two instructional super-intendants from the school district. Data was collected from October 2007 to February 2009 and a qualitative case study method was employed for this study. Drawing a case of Lesson Study, this article intended to show how Lesson Study group members participated in planning, teaching, observing, discussing, and improving lessons collaboratively for student learning by enhancing teacher professional competence so that find directions for future implementation in Korea. This article investigates (1) process of Lesson Study, (2) issues Lesson Study group members mainly dealt with, and (3) changes have taken place in Lesson Study as it is conducted over time. (4) Finally, this article concludes with challenges to adopting Lesson Study successfully in Korea.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.1-26
• /
• 2024

As the limitations of professional development programs and individual attempts to improve teaching expertise have been reported, mathematics teachers have operated various types of teacher learning communities as alternative teacher professional programs. A teacher learning community can be considered a Community of Practice(CoP) in that it satisfies three factors of Cop, which are common purpose, mutual participation, and shared repertoire, so the 'learning' of a teacher community can be interpreted based on the theory of CoP. The purpose of this study is to investigate the process of identity development of five mathematics teachers who have been continuously involved in teacher communities. For this, the researcher collected data on the entire process of community activities through participant observation and conducted individual follow-up interviews to explore mathematics teachers' narratives and personal experiences. Results indicated that mathematics teachers experienced the development of practical knowledge related to mathematics teaching and learning, improvement of teaching practice through continuous reflection and introspection, and recognization the shared value of togethering through community immersion. Based on these experiences, implications for the effective operation of learning communities such as national support of teacher learning communities and horizontal and cooperative teacher norms were discussed, and follow-up research was proposed.