• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.247-282
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• 2011

In the elementary school mathematics textbooks of the 7th national curriculum, just simple construction education is provided by having students draw a circle and triangle with compasses and drawing vertical and parallel lines with a set square. The purpose of this study was to examine the mathematical thinking of sixth-grade elementary school students in the construction process in a bid to give some suggestions on elementary construction guidance. As a result of teaching the sixth graders in gifted and nongifted classes about the equal division of line segments and evaluating their mathematical thinking, the following conclusion was reached, and there are some suggestions about that education: First, the sixth graders in the gifted classes were excellent enough to do mathematical thinking such as analogical thinking, deductive thinking, developmental thinking, generalizing thinking and symbolizing thinking when they learned to divide line segments equally and were given proper advice from their teacher. Second, the students who solved the problems without any advice or hint from the teacher didn't necessarily do lots of mathematical thinking. Third, tough construction such as the equal division of line segments was elusive for the students in the nongifted class, but it's possible for them to learn how to draw a perpendicular at midpoint, quadrangle or rhombus and extend a line by using compasses, which are more enriched construction that what's required by the current curriculum. Fourth, the students in the gifted and nongifted classes schematized the problems and symbolized the components and problem-solving process of the problems when they received process of the proble. Since they the urally got to use signs to explain their construction process, construction education could provide a good opportunity for sixth-grade students to make use of signs.