• 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.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.235-255
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• 2017

This study compared and contrasted the topics related to congruence and symmetry in the elementary mathematics textbooks series of Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, and Singapore in three aspects: (a) when to teach, (b) what to teach, and (c) how to teach. Firstly, the results of when to teach showed differences across the countries with a variation of teaching the topics among grades from 3 to 6. Secondly, the results of what to teach revealed subtle but significant differences. Regarding congruence, Korea and Japan deal with congruence in a systematic manner, while Finland tends to address the brief definition of congruence, and Hong Kong and Singapore focus on teaching tessellation which implies congruence. Regarding symmetry, Korea and Japan deal only with a symmetric figure for a line and that for a point, while Hong Kong includes a rotational symmetry and Finland extends further to cover the figures positioned in a symmetry both for a line and for a point. Lastly, the results of how to teach demonstrated that Korea tends to focus on the procedure of drawing both triangles to be congruent and symmetric figures. This implies that we need to consider alternative methods such as using various instructional materials and making an explicit connection among mathematical concepts in teaching congruence and symmetry.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.371-402
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• 2016

The aim of this study is to compare mathematics curriculum among the United States, Singapore, England, Japan, Australia and Korea and offer suggestions to improve mathematics curriculum of Korea in the future. In order to attain these purposes, the analysis was conducted in many aspects including mathematics education system, mathematics courses, mathematics contents, assessment syllabus for university entrance examination and the construction principles of mathematics curriculum. In the light of the results of this study, our suggestions for improving mathematics curriculum of Korea are as follows: revising the contents of analysis, geometry, probability and statistics strands; organizing curriculum based on spiral construction principle; providing various opportunities to select mathematics courses according to students'career; reflecting the contents of their courses in university entrance examination.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.199-220
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• 2018

This is a traditional education content that has been consistently handled in elementary school mathematics textbooks since the first curriculum in Korea. It has been mainly used to find out the properties of the solid figure or to save the surface area. However, as the importance of spatial ability is increasingly emphasized, the nets of solids can be a very suitable learning material for dealing with the spatial ability. Therefore, in this study, we examined how the nets of solids were taught in elementary school mathematics curriculum and textbooks in Korea, and based on the analysis, we analyzed the contents of the nets of solids covered in textbooks of Japan, Singapore, Finland and Hong Kong. Through this study, we suggested the enhancement of activities to find the right nets, the presentation of solid figure from various angles, and the nets of solids with patterns for improvement of spatial visualization and spatial orientation.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.44 no.4 s.111
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• pp.497-508
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• 2005

The investigation of the curriculum in other countries provides meaningful implications to reflect our own curriculum. Since Korea is now under the curriculum revision, international comparative research was conducted with the curricula of Singapore and India to elicit some implications. These two countries were especially chosen because their curricula have not been actively investigated yet. Singapore mathematics curriculum starts the tracking based on students' mathematical ability from the 4th grade, and provides different curricula for the three tracks. This differentiated curriculum provides rich implications to next Korean curriculum which aims to classify the contents based on students' mathematical achievements. Indians, who have contributed significantly in the history of mathematics, have unique mathematics curriculum, remote from so called 'canonical curriculum'. After the U.S. announced the Curriculum and Evaluation Standard for School Mathematics in 1989 and the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics in 2000, many countries benchmarked these NCTM documents, and Korea was no exception. Since each country has their own school system, educational environment, and national mentality, it is not desirable to just adopt the curriculum of other countries. In this regard, Indians who have preserved their own mathematics curriculum can be a model. In sum, when we revise the curriculum, it is required to keep the balance between the open-mindedness to accept the strengths of other curricula, and the conservative attitude to preserve our own characteristics of the curriculum.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.183-198
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• 2018

In this paper, I theoretically considered joining and separating activities and revisited the textbooks from 7 countries and Korean mathematics textbooks from 5th revised curriculum to 2015 revised curriculum to find implication for the treatment of 0 in the joining and separating activities. The 'joining' has definition and properties similar to addition, but the 'separating'is difficult to define and is not considered to have properties similar to subtraction. In the sense of computation, joining and separating can be seen as' part-part-to-whole' situations, but are just part of the addition and subtraction situations. The analysis of textbooks from 7 counties showed that Singapore and Malaysia textbooks already studied zero and then included it in joining and separating activities, but other countries did not include it as joining and separating activities. The textbooks of South Korea have consistently suggested not to include zero, but teacher's guide has shown that there is a little consistency in the treatment of zero. As a conclusion, I suggested that it was necessary to propose a proper context of the situation in order to introduce joining and separating without including 0 in terms of student level and to propose that a more consistent presentation of zero handling in the teaching in the teacher's guide.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.501-520
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• 2019

This study compared and analyzed Korean, American, Singaporean, and Japanese middle school mathematics curriculum standards and the learning contents in statistics. Through a comparative analysis of the curriculums of these four countries, I found several overall features and differences between the curriculums. First, all four countries emphasized statistical education in a real-life context. Second, all four countries emphasized the use of technological tools. Third, there is a middle school grade in which only Korea does not deal with statistical domains. Fourth, the statistical areas of the United States, Singapore, and Japan focused on identifying trends or variability in data distribution. Fifth, I have found some contents that only Korea does not deal with. Based on this, the following recommendations were developed for the development of the next curriculum and new textbooks in Korea. First, the statistics curriculum should be changed from one that focuses on understanding statistical concepts to one that focuses on statistical activity that utilizes these concepts. Second, in terms of middle school statistical curriculum contents, the addition of interquartile range (IQR) and box plots as learning contents should be considered. IQR and box plots are simple and practical techniques for the comparison of multiple sets of data that can be easily learned and drawn by middle school level students and applied to real-life-related statistical data to expand statistical literacy. Through this study, it is suggested that IQR and box plots need to be included in the statistical curriculum of middle schools in Korea.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.207-231
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to examine the state of problem solving in Korean elementary mathematics. To do this, we considered the meaning of problem and problem solving in mathematics education, and analyzed the mathematics curricula in the longitudinal-latitudinal dimensions respectively. The longitudinal one consists in examining and comparing the all-time Korean elementary mathematics curricula. Meanwhile the latitudinal one consists in examining and comparing the elementary mathematics curricula of Singapore, the United Kingdom, Japan, and France. As a result of analysis, we selected ten sieves for analysing Korean elementary mathematics textbooks according to the 7th mathematics curriculum. By the analysis, we conclude that we teach problem solving quite positively in school mathematics relative to another countries, in particular we have to reconsider some issues including dealing problem solving as a independent content not a process integrated in other contents.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.109-133
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• 2012

In this research, I selected a Singapore elementary mathematics textbook which substantially reflects Singapore curriculum, and compared it with Korean one to understand how they differ in the contents system of the curriculum focused on the contents of the geometry and measurement strand, and analyzed their common points and different points intensively with textbooks for sixth-grade students. Also, I translated a chapter of the textbook, 'Mathematics in Action'. That chapter was about circumference and the area of the circle which is related to the shapes part. Then, I taught it to the experimental group to compare their achievement and the change of reaction to studying the shape-related parts with those of the control group. The results are the followings. First, when we analyze the contents of shape-related part of the textbooks for sixth-grade students of both countries, Singaporean textbook contains more contents that are introduced for the first time, which implies that it is more desirable to teach new concepts of shapes when students are in their higher grades. Second, as for the way they develop the activity of each chapter, Korean textbook sticks to a uniform way, while the Singapore textbook uses various ways for different subjects and grades. In addition, when they organize the contents of the textbook, they emphasize the importance of student's activity and lead students with various methods by suggesting several questions and situations.