• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.60 no.4
• /
• pp.451-466
• /
• 2021

The interaction between student and school levels should be considered to understand and examine equity in education. For this reason, we included the socioeconomic composition of schools to scrutinize the equity related to students' socioeconomic status and mathematical literacy in Korea. We applied the hierarchical linear modeling approach to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 data for binational comparison between Korea (5,548 students from 168 schools) and the U.S. (5,217 students from 161 schools). The findings show that school-level achievement and the socioeconomic composition of schools cannot be ignored to understand Korean students' achievement gap between high and low socioeconomic status. In addition, U.S. students from low socioeconomic status were likely to have similar mathematics literacy scores. These findings indicated that inequity in Korean mathematics education could be intertwined with the characteristics of Korean students like high demands for supplementary private education and school characteristics like curriculum selection. This research also reminds mathematics educators that people should not simply mimic other education systems to resolve education issues in their own system.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.12 no.1
• /
• pp.131-149
• /
• 2009

A study on comprehension level of mathematical basic knowledge(MBK) of gifted students in middle school. The interest in mathematics gifted education is very high. However, in reality, there has been a shortage of the analysis of students' achievement result since mathematics gifted education began through the institute of gifted education in the education office in 2003. On this study, MBK is subdivided into definition, property and procedure and then examination questions arc developed on the basis of national level achievement standard. With these examination tools, total inspection was conducted in on metropolitan city and the result was analyzed. First, in a basic definition, relatively low achievement result was seen except the basic concept related operation. Second, in a basic property, very low achievement result was seen in the questions of basic property without basic definition and as a whole, the result was similar with the basic definition. Third, in basic procedure, the achievement result was very remarkable. This result shows we need tn increase the comprehension ability of MBK. To do this, the systematic alternative development of the questions of selecting gifted students and the contents of gifted education is required. This study proposes the meaningful implication to the selection question development related to the MBK and the improvement of gifted education contents. And it is expected to provide the positive change for mathematics gifted education.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.369-384
• /
• 2007

This study examined and compared the level of mathematical anxiety according to the types of students' characteristics based on the former research study showing that there exists a close relationship between characteristics and mathematical anxiety. The subjects of this study are 159 students enrolled in Chungnam Gongju and Kyunggi-do Ahnyang. They were categorized into groups following various standards such as preference index(E-1, S-N, T-F, J-P), ability & disposition, 16 types of characteristics. Then these were tested for types and the level of mathematical anxiety by the factors of mathematical anxiety. The results show that Type E students show the greatest anxiety in learning motivation, and Type N students in the pedagogy of teaching and loaming for the subfactor of mathematical anxiety. Further, Type NT students respond strongly to the pedagogy of teaching and loaming in psychological ability and disposition, which shows that mathematical anxiety and sub-factors of mathematical anxiety are closely somehow related.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.219-237
• /
• 2010

On inquiry of international comparison assessment, the Korean students achieve high scores in mathematics while they achieve relatively low scores in responses of the affective questionnaire. It can be an important point in mathematics education of Korea, but there are few studies which explore the specific reasons. So in this study, we analysed the results of PISA 2003(in math domain) based on multiple regression analysis and correlation analysis to investigate the reasons and features of those phenomena. We compared the results of Korean students with students of other countries. As a result, there were 7 factors which effect on Korean students' affective domain in mathematics learning and they were statistically significant. According to this study, it needs to improve students' positive attitudes to their school, mathematical interest, and positive self-concept. And it needs to develop an actual instrument to explore the affective domain which effect on mathematics learning.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.41-68
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cognition of per-service teachers, who experienced a teacher education process for developing their discursive competency, about relations between class plan and class practice as well as discursive competency required in class process. For this purpose, 15 pre-service teachers participated in the course of mathematics teaching theory for developing discursive competency and their final projects including the process of analysing their own teaching discourse after actually teaching middle or high school students were collected as data and analyzed. Results show that they realized that there were differences between class plan and class practice after having experienced unexpected teaching and learning situations, recognized the importance of discursive competency learned from the course, and reflected on their discursive competency in conjunction with their classes. These results imply that the course contributed to pre-service teachers' cognitions of the existential possibility of discursive competency. which helps to develop a teaching method combining teachers' knowledge and practice, the importance of discursive competency, and the need for developing it. The course also provided practical ideas about a teacher education program to develop prospective teachers' discursive competency

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.393-419
• /
• 2020

Trigonometry allows us to recognize the usefulness of mathematics through connection with real life and other disciplines, and lays the foundation for the concept of higher mathematics through connection with trigonometric functions. Since international comparisons on the trigonometry area of textbooks can give implications to trigonometry teaching and learning in Korea, this study attempted to compare trigonometry in textbooks in Korea, Australia and Finland. In this study, through the horizontal and vertical analysis presented by Charalambous et al.(2010), the objectives of the curriculum, content system, achievement standards, learning timing of trigonometry content, learning paths, and context of problems were analyzed. The order of learning in which the three countries expanded size of angle was similar, and there was a difference in the introduction of trigonometric functions and the continuity of grades dealing with trigonometry. In the learning path of textbooks on the definition method of trigonometric ratios, the unit circle method was developed from the triangle method to the trigonometric function. However, in Korea, after the explanation using the quadrant in middle school, the general angle and trigonometric functions were studied without expanding the angle. As a result of analyzing the context of the problem, the proportion of problems without context was the highest in all three countries, and the rate of camouflage context problem was twice as high in Korea as in Australia or Finland. Through this, the author suggest to include the unit circle method in the learning path in Korea, to present a problem that can emphasize the real-life context, to utilize technological tools, and to reconsider the ways and areas of the curriculum that deal with trigonometry.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.529-552
• /
• 2014

Recently, mathematical reasoning has been considered as one of the most important mathematical thinking abilities to be established in school mathematics. This study is to investigate the mathematical problems on the content of 'Set and Statement' and 'Sequences' in high school according to the four types of reasoning, namely Making Conjectures, Investigating Conjectures, Developing Arguments, and Evaluating Arguments. Those types of reasoning were reconstructed based on Johnson's six types of reasoning suggested in 2010. The content is dealt with in 'Mathematics II' textbook developed and published according to the mathematics curriculum revised in 2009. The subject of this study is nine types of textbooks and mathematical problems in the textbook are consisted of as two parts of 'general problem' and 'evaluation problem'. Finally, the results of this study can be summarized as follow: First, it is stated that students be establishing a logical justification activity, the highest reasoning activity through dealing with the 'Developing Arguments' type of problems affluently in both 'Set and Statement' and 'Sequence' chapters of Mathematics II textbook. Second, it is mentioned that students have an chance to investigate conjectures and develop logical arguments in 'Set and Statement' chapter of Mathematics II textbook. In particular, whereas they have an chance to investigate conjectures and also develop arguments in 'Statement', the 'Set' chapter is given only an opportunity of developing arguments. Third, students are offered on an opportunity of reasoning that can make conjectures and develop logical arguments in 'Sequences' chapter of Mathematics II textbook. Fourth, Mathematics II textbook are geared to do activities that could evaluate arguments while dealing with the problems relevant to 'mathematical process' included in 'general problem'.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.63 no.1
• /
• pp.19-33
• /
• 2024

This study investigates longitudinal patterns in middle school students' mathematics interest and achievement using panel data from the 4th to 6th year of the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study. Results from the multivariate growth mixture model confirmed the existence of heterogeneous characteristics in the longitudinal trajectory of students' mathematics interest and achievement. Students were classified into four latent classes: a low-level class with weak interest and achievement, a high-level class with strong interest and achievement, a middlelevel-increasing class where interest and achievement rise with grade, and a middle-level-decreasing class where interest and achievement decline with grade. Each class exhibited distinct patterns in the change of interest and achievement. Moreover, an examination of the correlation between intercepts and slopes in the multivariate growth mixture model reveals a positive association between interest and achievement with respect to their initial values and growth rates. We further explore predictive variables influencing latent class assignment. The results indicated that students' educational ambition and time spent on private education positively affect mathematics interest and achievement, and the influence of prior learning varies based on its intensity. The perceived instruction method significantly impacts latent class assignment: teacher-centered instruction increases the likelihood of belonging to higher-level classes, while learner-centered instruction increases the likelihood of belonging to lower-level classes. This study has significant implications as it presents a new method for analyzing the longitudinal patterns of students' characteristics in mathematics education through the application of the multivariate growth mixture model.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.409-434
• /
• 2013

The mathematical ability is an essential element for achieving professional competencies and for enhancing application ability in a vocational world and exploring its experiences. In this aspect, for vocational high school students, it is an important and urgent issue to develop remedial learning programs for developing mathematical basic and application ability. In particular, the program is developed based on the individual achievement level, focused on a mathematical basic ability to be applied efficiently in a vocational world. Because of this reason, in this study, the program is comprised of two phases; one is diagnosis test and the other is remedial teaching and learning materials. Then, diagnosis test includes three test; I) level testing evaluation for selecting the subject of remedial learning, ii) pre-test for deciding on which area and level of the materials when students begin to study, and iii) post-test for confirming the learning status is satisfied and the possibility of next step(level) or the other area of the materials. To accomplish this, this study tried to devise an efficient remedial learning system. Based on the system, this study developed remedial learning programs on the four areas of number and quantity, change and relation, uncertain thing, and figure and shape in the middle school level. In particular, this program is comprised of two types of knowledge. One is K-knowledge which is an essential knowledge to achieve a basic mathematical ability. The other is C-knowledge which is the advanced knowledge required to apply efficiently in a vocational world. This paper deals with the content mentioned above, but examples of the materials is shown focused on the area of change and relation.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.46 no.3
• /
• pp.273-292
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to find out how second, fourth and sixth graders understood the main contents related to spatial sense in the Seventh National Mathematics Curriculum. For this purpose, this study examined students' understanding of the main contents of congruence transformation (slide, flip, turn), mirror symmetry, cubes, congruence and symmetry. An investigation was conducted and the subjects included 483 students. The main results are as follows. First, with regards to congruence transformation, whereas students had high percentages of correct answers on questions concerning slide, they had lower percentages on questions concerning turn. Percentages of correct answers on flip questions had significant differences among the three grades. In addition, most students experienced difficulties in describing the changes of shapes. Second, students understood the fact that the right and the left of an image in a mirror are exchanged, but they had poor overall understanding of mirror symmetry. The more complicated the cubes, the lower percentages of correct answers. Third, students had a good understanding of congruences, but they had difficulties in finding out congruent figures. Lastly, they had a poor understanding of symmetry and, in particular, didn't distinguish a symmetric figure of a line from a symmetric figure of a point.