• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.107-126
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• 2021

Lexicon is closely related to human thinking. In particular, a classroom lexicon results from objectifying the teaching-learning activity in classrooms, allowing humans to recognize and explore the activities and phenomena in classrooms explicitly. Therefore, using the lexicon and clarifying what the words mean is to enhance the understanding of teaching activities. The International Classroom Lexicon Project investigates and identifies each country's mathematics classroom lexicon, where ten countries participated. The purpose of this current study is to compare the differences in perceptions between teachers and pre-service teachers about the Korean classroom lexicon previously investigated as a part of the international collaborative project. By comparing the responses of 147 teachers and 127 pre-service teachers, the degree of familiarity with pedagogical terms and the frequency of occurrence or usage in classrooms were compared and analyzed to understand the recognition of pre-service teachers' pedagogical terms. Finally, we also discuss reflections on Korean mathematics teaching practices in Korea.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.337-347
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• 2004

Korea and China have maintained close relationships since the ancient times along with Japan, which also shares the common Chinese culture. The three major players in Northeast Asia have been recognizing their increasing importance in politics, economy, society, and culture. Considering those relationships among the three countries, it's necessary to compare and investigate their mathematics terminology. The purpose of this study is to investigate the similarities and differences between the terminology of school mathematics in Korean, Chinese and Japanese. The mathematics terms included in the junior high school of Korea were selected, and the corresponding terms in Chinese and Japanese were identified. Among 133 Korean terms, 72 were shared by three countries, 9 Korean terms were common with China, and the remaining 52 Korean terms were the same as Japanese terms. Korea had more common terms with Japan than China, which can be explained by the influences of the Japanese education during its rule of Korea in the past. The survey with 14 terms which show the discrepancy among 3 countries were conducted for in-service teachers and pre-service teachers. According to the result of the survey, preferred mathematics terms are different from one group to the other, yet the Korean mathematics terms were more preferred in general. However some terms in Chinese and Japanese were favored in certain degree. This result may provide meaningful implications to revise the school mathematics terms in the future.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.135-160
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• 2017

Since mathematics textbooks for 6th graders based on the 2009 revised national curriculum were applied to the site, there has been a note pointing out that the unit of 'ratio and rate' causes some learning difficulties. This implies the necessity of search for desirable methods of organizing the unit of ratio and rate in mathematics textbooks. This study analyzed and compared Korean and foreign mathematics textbooks on ratio and rate longitudinally and horizontally, respectively. For longitudinal analysis, we selected the mathematics textbooks according to the national curriculum since the 5th one. For horizontal analysis, we took the mathematics textbooks of Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Finland. In each textbook, the contents and the order in relation to ratio and rate, the definitions of terminology, and the methods for introducing related concepts are set as the analysis framework. The results of analysis revealed many characteristics and the differences in ways of dealing contents about ratio and rate. Based on these results, we suggested some implications for writing the unit of ratio and rate in elementary mathematics textbooks.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.627-654
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• 2016

Despite the significance of the measurement strand in elementary mathematics education, it is not easy to teach it meaningfully. This study analyzed instructional methods related to capacity and weight in a series of mathematics textbooks of Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the US. The overall analysis was conducted in the following two aspects: (a) what and when to teach main learning content, and (b) how to teach the learning content tailored to the instructional components specific to the topics of measurement (i.e., the necessity of measurement unit, the meanings of measurement terms, appropriate choice of units, appropriate choice of measurement tools, and the necessity of calculation). The results of this study showed overall similarities in using real-life contexts to teach major topics on capacity and weight as well as emphasizing the relations among measurement units. However, noticeable differences were also analyzed in dealing with the meanings of measurement terms, appropriate choice of units, and appropriate choice of measurement tools. Based on these results, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in dealing with capacity and weight.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.229-248
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• 2017

This study investigated the factors that should be considered when teaching proportional expression and proportional distribution through literature review. Based on these results, we analyzed and compared Korean and foreign mathematics textbooks on proportional expression and proportional distribution longitudinally and horizontally to search for desirable methods of organizing the unit of proportional expression and proportional distribution in mathematics textbooks. For longitudinal analysis, we took the mathematics textbooks according to the national curriculum since the 5th one. For horizontal analysis, we selected the mathematics textbooks of Japan, Singapore, and China. In each textbook, the contents and the order in relation to proportional expression and proportional distribution, the definitions of terminology, and the contexts and the visual representations for introducing related concepts are selected as the analysis framework. The results of analysis revealed many characteristics and the differences in ways of dealing contents about proportional expression and proportional distribution. Based on these results, we suggested some implications for writing the unit of proportional expression and proportional distribution in elementary mathematics textbooks.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.565-586
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• 1998

Like many other school subjects, terminology is a starting point of mathematical thinking, and plays a key role in mathematics learning. Among several areas in mathematics, geometry is the area in which students usually have the difficulty of learning, and the new terms are frequently appeared. This is why we started to investigate geometric terms first. The purpose of this study is to investigate geometric terminology in school mathematics. To do this, we traced the historical transition of geometric terminology from the first revised mathematics curriculum to the 7th revised one, and compared the geometric terminology of korean, english, Japanese, and North Korean. Based on this investigation, we could find and structuralize the following four issues. The first issue is that there are two different perspectives regarding the definitions of geometric terminology: inclusion perspective and partition perspective. For example, a trapezoid is usually defined in terms of inclusion perspective in asian countries while the definition of trapezoid in western countries are mostly based on partition perspective. This is also the case of the relation of congruent figures and similar figures. The second issue is that sometimes there are discrepancies between the definitions of geometric figures and what the name of geometric figures itself implies. For instance, a isosceles trapezoid itself means the trapezoid with congruent legs, however the definition of isosceles trapezoid is the trapezoid with two congruent angles. Thus the definition of the geometric figure and what the term of the geometric figure itself implies are not consistent. We also found this kind of discrepancy in triangle. The third issue is that geometric terms which borrow the name of things are not desirable. For example, Ma-Rum-Mo(rhombus) in Korean borrows the name from plants, and Sa-Da-Ri-Gol(trapezoid) in Korean implies the figure which resembles ladder. These terms have the chance of causing students' misconception. The fourth issue is that whether we should Koreanize geometric terminology or use Chinese expression. In fact, many geometric terms are made of Chinese characters. It's very hard for students to perceive the ideas existing in terms which are made of chines characters. In this sense, it is necessary to Koreanize geometric terms. However, Koreanized terms always work. Therefore, we should find the optimal point between Chines expression and Korean expression. In conclusion, when we name geometric figures, we should consider the ideas behind geometric figures. The names of geometric figures which can reveal the key ideas related to those geometric figures are the most desirable terms.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.547-573
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• 2021

Capacity is a concept that has been covered in elementary mathematics textbooks but its meaning has not been accurately defined in the textbooks. Two units, liter (L) and milliliter (mL), are introduced as the units of capacity in the textbooks, but they are the units of volume according to the International System of Unit. These stimulated us to analyze what capacity is, and how the capacity is related to the concept of volume. This study scrutinized how the different elementary mathematics textbooks that were developed from the first national curriculum to the most recently revised curriculum introduced the capacity and explained the relationship between capacity and volume. This study also examined the understanding of capacity by elementary school teachers using a questionnaire. The results of this study showed that the concept of capacity has been mostly introduced in the third grade in common but that there were differences among textbooks in terms of how they presented and used the concept of capacity as well as whether they described its definition or relationship with the concept of volume. Regarding the results of teachers' understanding, most teachers could explain the capacity as either "the size of the inner space of the container" or "the amount that can be contained" but some of them provided only superficial or inappropriate feedback for the students with the common misunderstandings of capacity. Based on these results, this paper presents implications for textbook developers and teachers to better address the concept of capacity.