• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.71-104
• /
• 2016

The aim of this study is to look into the didactical background for teaching percent in elementary school mathematics and offer suggestions to improve teaching percent in the future. In order to attain these purposes, this study examined key ideas with respect to the didactical background on teaching percent through a theoretical consideration regarding various studies on percent. Based on such examination, this study compared and analyzed textbooks used in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. In the light of such theoretical consideration and analytical results, this study provided suggestions for improving teaching percent in elementary schools in Korea as follows: giving much weight on percent, emphasizing the concept of percent as a ratio, underlining the various kinds of change problems, emphasizing informal strategies of students before teaching the percent formula, and utilizing various models actively.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.301-322
• /
• 2016

Even though measurement is an important strand of elementary mathematics education, there has been lack of research in this field. This study analyzed topics related to length and time in a series of mathematics textbooks aligned to 2007 or 2009 revised mathematics curriculum. The analysis was focused on three aspects: (a) overall instructional components of measurement, (b) instructional components specific to the topics of measurement, and (c) key competencies in mathematics. The results of this study showed that many topics dealing with length and time were represented with relation to real-life contexts or other subjects. The meanings of measurement terms and the necessity of calculation were well explained but other aspects still had room for improvement when it comes to the necessity of measurement units, appropriate choice of units, and use of students' common misconceptions. Another noticeable result was that problem solving, communication, and reasoning among key competencies in mathematics have been emphasized in the mathematics textbooks. Based on these results, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in dealing with length and time.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.471-489
• /
• 2012

2007 Curriculum Revision adopted new Inquiry Activities in mathematical textbooks. So it is critical to analyze the problems of actual application of Inquiry activities in the classrooms. For this purpose, we analyzed the Inquiry activities of Measurement Area of the textbooks and find the appropriate solutions. Secondly, we develop the reorganization materials to fix and solve the existing problems found in the previous problem analysis, and apply the development materials and examine the effects afterwards. The results of the survey indicated that most of teachers are well aware of the importance of Inquiry Activities. However, many teachers answered that Inquiry activities does contain neither diverse strategic approaches nor solutions accommodating with various learning levels of students. The most difficult points to educate Inquiry Activities are that it is difficult to teach students based on individual learning level and that activities consist of mainly short answers that makes it difficult to do in-depth Inquiry Activities. Analyzing Inquiry Activities in the textbook shows that Inquiry Activities in some chapters were constructed as simple sentence questions or presented with the solving process in the questions themselves. The following application classes were implemented by partially taking advantage of the newly developed reorganization materials. Then, the effects were measured by before and after questionnaires, the survey to teachers, and the results of activities. The reorganization materials were effective at arousing the curiosity from students as well as enabling the natural ability-level driven classes.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.175-191
• /
• 2016

In the elementary school mathematics textbook that has been revised in 2013, the instructional sequence for teaching addition and subtraction, which had remained unchanged for three decades since 1982, was finally changed in 2013. Particularly, the addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers without regrouping, such as 72+25=97 or 85-24=61, are taught earlier than the composing and decomposing of the number 10 using other numbers. This study examines the appropriacy and validity of these changes. However, the reason for these changes in the national curriculum or teacher's guide could not be determined. Further, several references emphasize the addition of two single-digit numbers, such as 7+8=15, and the subtraction of a single-digit number from a number between 11 and 19, such as 16-9=7, as basic facts. In other countries' textbooks, the teaching of addition and subtraction up to the number 20 is prioritized before teaching the addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers without regrouping. The results of this study indicate that these changes in the instructional sequence in the textbook that was revised in 2013 need to be reconsidered.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.569-583
• /
• 2013

In Korea, the school mathematics curricula have been revised in every average 6 years by the government. From the year 2013, the new revised curricula called 2009 version are implied. The subject of elementary mathematics in this new curricula contains four issues to be improved. First, it should be allowed to call the basic figures such as box, cylinder, ball, quadrilateral, triangle and circle in verbal languages. Second, the name of the activities to define mathematical concepts should be changed from 'Yaksok', which means 'promise' in English, to a better and more honest one. Third, the concave polygons should be treated together with the convex ones. Fourth, the calculations of fractions should be weakened as much as possible for the elementary school children.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.229-248
• /
• 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
• /
• v.61 no.3
• /
• pp.457-476
• /
• 2022

Mathematics textbooks as the main resources to support mathematical teaching and learning are used importantly in Korean lessons. Although the scope of mathematics textbook research has been expanded and the research has increased, few studies have analyzed the overall trends of mathematics textbook research in Korea. This study analyzes the overall trends of textbook research on 418 papers pertinent to mathematics textbooks published in domestic mathematics education journals. The results of this study showed that the proportion of textbook analysis research was the highest, followed by textbook use and textbook development research in order. There were more textbook studies at the elementary school level than at the middle or high school levels. Regarding textbook analysis studies, the most frequent topic was to analyze how specific mathematical concepts were presented in textbooks. Regarding textbook use studies, many studies asked both teachers and students to review the appropriateness of textbooks under development or analyzed the perception and use of specific activities of textbooks based on a survey. Regarding textbook development studies, the most popular topics included the directions and examples of new development, such as storytelling-based or electronic textbooks. This paper finally presented implications for textbook research in light of the domestic mathematics education context and the international mathematics textbook research trends.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.179-203
• /
• 2015

In this study, connections between the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and the contents of teacher's manual books according to it and the contents of elementary 1st grade mathematics curriculum and textbooks was analyzed to find the implications that can help to link the two curricula in the development of kindergarten and elementary school mathematics curriculum. The five following implications could be obtained from the analysis. First, it is necessary to connect the contents of the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children which were completed in that curriculum like 'spatial relation'in geometric figure domain and 'data collection'in probability and statistics domain to the contents of the 1st grade curriculum. Second, in the case of the contents not connected between the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and the contents of elementary 1st grade mathematics curriculum but connected between the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and the contents of elementary 2nd ~6th grade mathematics curriculum, it is necessary to re-adjust the hierarchy based on one of the curricula. Third, it is necessary to check whether $\ll$K-teacher's manual book$\gg$ obey the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children or not. Fourth, it is necessary to review the related elements of the NURI curriculum for 5 years old children and elementary 2nd ~6th grade mathematics curriculum in [activity] in $\ll$K-teacher's manual book$\gg$. Fifth, it is necessary to handle the mathematics contents explicitly and systematically in [activity] in $\ll$K-teacher's manual book$\gg$.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.47-58
• /
• 2000

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.663-690
• /
• 2017

The aim of this study is to look into the meaning and sub-factors of spatial orientation, compare and analyze mathematics curriculums and textbooks of several countries with respect to spatial orientation and offer suggestions to improve teaching spatial orientation in elementary school mathematics in Korea. In order to attain these purposes, this study examined the meaning and sub-factors of spatial orientation through the theoretical consideration regarding various studies on spatial sense. Based on such examination, this study compared and analyzed mathematics curriculums and textbooks used in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Finland, United States of America, and Germany with respect to contents of mathematics curriculum and textbooks in grades, sub-factors of spatial orientation, and contexts for spatial orientation. In the light of such theoretical consideration and analytical results, this study provided suggestions for improving teaching spatial orientation in elementary schools in Korea as follows: extending content of spatial orientation in mathematics curriculum, emphasizing spatial orientation across the several grades, especially in the upper grades, providing opportunities to learn the sub-factors of location, direction, coordinates, route, and distance variously, and utilizing various familiar and realistic contexts in the world around students.