• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.655-676
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of teaching on functional thinking, one of the algebraic thinking in sixth grade students level. For this study, we developed functional thinking based-teaching through analyzing mathematical curriculum and preceding research, which consisted of 12 classes, and we investigated the effects of teaching through quantitative and qualitative analysis. In the results of this study, functional thinking based-teaching was statistically proven to be more effective in improving algebraic reasoning skills and lower elements which is an algebraic reasoning as generalized arithmetic and functional thinking, compared to traditional textbook-centered lessons. In addition, the functional thinking based-teaching gave a positive impact on the functional thinking level. Thus functional thinking based-teaching provides guidance on the implications for teaching and learning methods and study of the functional thinking in the future, because of the significant impact on the mathematics learning in six grade students.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.16
• /
• pp.67-80
• /
• 2003

함수적 사고는 수학적 문제 해결에 있어 기본적인 사고이다. 함수적 사고에서는 변수 사이의 종속성 파악이 그 핵심이 된다. 이는 DGS 동적 기하의 동적(변화), 종속적(구성)이라는 특성에 잘 부합한다. 이에 우리는 동적 기하 환경에서 타당한 종속성 부여를 통해 primitive한 생성자를 알아보고, 이들의 조작과 역 조작, 합성 조작하는 과정을 통해 함수적 사고에 접근하는 방법을 연구해 보려 한다. 나아가 자취 기능을 이용함으로써 시각화를 통해 종속적 관계를 표현해 보고자 한다. 이것은 MicroWorld 환경에서 학습자가 스스로 대상을 구성하는 경험을 통해 함수적 사고를 자연스럽게 형성하도록 하는 것이 바람직하다는 관점에 바탕을 두고 있다.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.651-674
• /
• 2011

Functional thinking is a central topic in school mathematics and the purpose of teaching functional thinking is to develop student's functional thinking ability. Functional thinking which has to be taught in elementary school must be the thinking in terms of phenomenon which has attributes of 'connection'- assignment and dependence. The qualitative methods for evaluation of development of functional thinking can be based on students' activities which are related to functional thinking. With this purpose, teachers have to provide students with paradigm of the functional situation connected to the other subjects which have attributes of 'connection' and guide them by proper questions. Therefore, the aim of this study is to find teaching method for functional thinking by situation posing connected with other subject. We suggest the following ways for functional situation posing though the process of three steps : preparation, adaption and reflection of functional situation posing. At the first stage of preparation for functional situation, teacher should investigate student's environment, mathematical knowledge and level of functional thinking. With this purpose, teachers analyze various curriculum which can be used for teaching functional thinking, extract functional situation among them and investigate the utilization of functional situation as follows : ${\cdot}$ Using meta-plan, ${\cdot}$ Using mathematical journal, ${\cdot}$ Using problem posing ${\cdot}$ Designing teacher's questions which can activate students' functional thinking. For this, teachers should be experts on functional thinking. At the second stage of adaption, teacher may suggest the following steps : free exploration ${\longrightarrow}$ guided exploration ${\longrightarrow}$ expression of formalization ${\longrightarrow}$ application and feedback. Because we demand new teaching model which can apply the contents of other subjects to the mathematic class. At the third stage of reflection, teacher should prepare analysis framework of functional situation during and after students' products as follows : meta-plan, mathematical journal, problem solving. Also teacher should prepare the analysis framework analyzing student's respondence.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.105-119
• /
• 2008

Functional thinking, which focuses on the relationship between two or more varying quantities, is one of the key strands of algebraic thinking. This article is a case study that aimed to investigate how 3rd grade elementary students might make their functional thinking. The results showed that students not only understood the functional situation well but also created a record of the corresponding values of quantities, typically using descriptive writings and pictures. But when they tried to find a pattern and make a generalization, the students showed various difficulties. This paper concludes with implications on how to promote students' functional thinking from early grades in the elementary school.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.343-364
• /
• 2017

Despite the significance of functional thinking at the elementary school level there has been lack of research on teachers who play a major role in making students be engaged in functional thinking. This study surveyed 119 elementary school teachers to investigate their knowledge of functional thinking for teaching. A written assessment for this study was developed with a focus on the knowledge of mathematical tasks and instructional strategies to teach functional thinking. The results of this study showed that many teachers were able to design tasks corresponding to both the additive relationship and the multiplicative relationship, and to justify some strategies to promote functional thinking. However, some teachers had lack of understanding with regard to the core ideas of functional thinking. Based on these results this study is expected to suggest implications on what aspects of knowledge are further needed for elementary school teachers to promote students' functional thinking.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.53-68
• /
• 2017

Although the table, as one of the representations for helping mathematics understanding, steadily has been shown in the mathematics textbooks, there have been little studies that focus on the table and analyze how the table may be used in understanding students' functional thinking. This study investigated the elementary school 5th graders' abilities to design function tables. The results showed that about 75% of the students were able to create tables for themselves, which shaped horizontal and included information only from the problem contexts. And the students had more difficulties in solving geometric growing pattern problems than story problems. Building on these results, this paper is expected to provide implications of instructional directions of how to use the table as 'function table'.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.49-72
• /
• 2017

Despite the importance and necessity of functional thinking in a primary school there has been lack of research in this area, specifically regarding young children. Given this, this study analyzed how students aged from 7 to 9 would figure out and represent the co-variational relationships in context-driven tasks. Semi-clinical interviews were conducted with a total of 12 students. Interview tasks included three types of functions: (a) y=x, (b) y=x+1, and (c) y=x+x. The results of this study showed that most students were able to figure out co-variational relationships in diverse ways. Some factors such as types of function or characteristics of tasks had an impact on how students recognized the relationships. The students also could represent the relationship in diverse ways such as gesture, picture, natural language, and variables. They usually used natural language, but had a trouble using variables when representing the relation between co-varying quantities. Based on these results, this study provides implications on how to foster functional thinking ability at the elementary school.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.769-789
• /
• 2016

Pattern activities are useful to develop functional thinking of young students, but there has been lack of research on how to teach patterns. This study explored teaching methods of geometric patterns for developing functional thinking of elementary school students, and then analyzed the lessons in which such methods were implemented. For this, three classrooms of fourth grades in elementary schools were selected and three teachers taught geometric patterns on the basis of the same lesson plan. The lessons emphasized noticing the commonality of a given pattern, expanding the noti ce for the commonality, and representing the commonality. The results of this study showed that experience of analyzing the structure of a geometric pattern had a significant impact on how the fourth graders reasoned about the generalized rules of the given pattern and represented them in various methods. This paper closes with several implications to teach geometric patterns in a way to foster functional thinking.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.205-225
• /
• 2014

This study analyzed how two sixth graders recognized, generalized, and represented functional relationships in exploring geometric growing patterns. The results showed that at first the students had a tendency to solve the given problem using the picture in it, but later attempted to generalize the functional relationships in exploring subsequent items. The students also represented the patterns with their own methods, which in turn had an impact on the process of generalizing and applying the patterns to a related context. Given these results, this paper includes issues and implications on how to foster functional thinking ability at the elementary school.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.275-296
• /
• 2012

This study investigated elementary school students' understanding of basic functional relationships. It analyzed the written responses from a total of 2087 students of second, fourth, and sixth graders using tests that examined their understanding of five types of functional relationships. The results of this study showed that students tended to be more successful as their grades went up with regard to all the problem types. There were statistically differences among the three grade levels. Even lower graders were quite successful in dealing with additive relation, direct proportion, and inverse proportion. However the items dealing with square relation and linear relation were difficult even to sixth graders. It was common that students were good at completing the table by looking for a pattern from the given numbers but that they had difficulties in anticipating the value of 'y' when the value of 'x' is given either as a big number or as a symbol. Given these results, this paper includes issues and implications on how to foster functional thinking ability at the elementary school.