• Title/Summary/Keyword: Secondary mathematics

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The Nature of a Method Course for Prospective Secondary Mathematics Teachers

  • Kim, Seong-A;Lee, Sun Hee
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.235-254
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    • 2020
  • Through this study, we aimed to capture the nature of a mathematics method course, called "the Curriculum Development and Teaching Methods in Mathematics Education" which is a pedagogy course for teaching for secondary school mathematics taught at a university located in a south eastern part of South Korea. The research participants include three junior students who took the methods course and a local high school math teacher with two professors. The research has three parts. First, we designed a method course to prepare the junior or senior students for a teaching practicum. The individual students gave a mini lecture about a secondary mathematical topic as a course requirement. Second, the three students watched a classroom video-clip of the high school teacher and analyzed his instruction before the actual classroom visits. Furthermore, by "Let's Learn" program for students, the course was associated with a local community through the students and so that they could visit the teacher's classroom three times to observe his math classroom teaching. The students discussed the difference between their own mini lectures and the actual math classroom teaching to develop an understanding of what it entails to teach an actual math class. Third, the first author supervised the students' activities in the program including their report for it to bring out their findings to the class of the method course. We found out this method course provided the students with the experience of various aspects of actual math lesson as well as learning theories about the pedagogy for teaching for secondary school mathematics. We conclude that this course gives a model for the method course in mathematics education for secondary school mathematics.

Design and Implementation of Mathematics Textbooks in Support of Effective Teaching for Secondary Schools: A Chinese Case

  • PENG, Aihui;SONG, Naiqing
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.19 no.4
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    • pp.247-265
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    • 2015
  • Mathematics textbook plays a significant role in shaping students' learning of mathematics. Logic, rigor and abstraction as typical features of the formalization of mathematics, dominate mathematics textbooks around the world, which is regarded as one of the important origins of students' learning difficulties in mathematics. An innovative series of Chinese mathematic textbooks is presented in this paper. Supported by the supplementary materials excerpts from the textbooks, it gives a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the principles of design and implementation of this series of mathematics textbooks. The effectiveness of this series of textbooks is demonstrated by student achievement and secondary research data. It shows that series of Chinese mathematic textbooks has largely decreased students' learning difficulties in mathematics and enhance classroom teaching efficiency. It suggests that prioritizing the essence of mathematics and reducing abstraction is an important notion for mathematics textbook design and implementation.

A Comparative Study on the Secondary School Mathematics Education of South and North Korea (남북한 중등학교 수학교육의 통합방안 모색)

  • Woo, Jeong-Ho;Park, Moon-Whan
    • Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.49-70
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    • 2002
  • There have recently been increasing exchanges between South and North Korea in many areas of society, involving politics, economics, culture, education. In response to these developments, research activities are more strongly demanded in each of these areas to help prepare for the final unification of the two parts of the nation. In the area of mathematics education, scholars have started to conduct comparative studies of mathematics education in South and North Korea. As a response to the growing demand of the time, in this thesis we compared the secondary mathematics education in South Korea with that in North Korea. To begin with, we examined the background of education, in North Korea, particularly predominant ideological, epistemological and teaching theoretical aspects of education in North Korea. Thereafter, we compared the mathematics curriculum of South Korea with that of North Korea. On the basis of these examinations, we compared the secondary school mathematics textbooks of South and North Korea, and we attempted to suggest a guideline for researches preparing for the unification of the mathematics curriculum of South and North Korea. As a communist society, North Korea awards the socialist ideology the supreme rank and treats all school subjects as instrumental tools that are subordinated to the dominant communist ideology. On the other hand, under the socialist ideology North Korea also emphasizes the achievement of the objective of socialist economic development by expanding the production of material wealth. As such, mathematics in North Korea is seen as a tool subject for training skilled technical hands and fostering science and technology, hence promoting the socialist material production and economic development. Hence, the mathematics education of North Korea adopts a so-called "awakening teaching method," and emphasizes the approaches that combine intuition with logical explanation using materials related with the ideology or actual life. These basic viewpoints of North Korea on mathematics education are different from those of South Korea, which emphasize the problem-solving ability and acquisition of academic mathematical knowledge, and which focus on organizing as well as discovering knowledge of learners' own accord. In comparison of the secondary school mathematics textbooks used in South and North Korea, we looked through external forms, contents, quantity of each area of school mathematics, viewpoints of teaching, and term. We have identified similarities in algebra area and differences in geometry area especially in teaching sequence and approaching method. Many differences are also found in mathematical terms. Especially, it is found that North Korea uses mathematical terms in Hangul more actively than South Korea. We examined the specific topics that are treated in both South and North Korea, "outer-center & inner-center of triangle" and "mathematical induction", and identified such differences more concretely. Through this comparison, it was found that the concrete heterogeneity in the textbooks largely derive from the differences in the basic ideological viewpoints between South and North Korea. On the basis of the above findings, we attempted to make some suggestions for the researches preparing for the unification in the area of secondary mathematics education.

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A Study of the Reform of Mathematics Education for the Upper Secondary School in Japan

  • Lee, Joong-Kwoen
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.5-12
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    • 1998
  • The COM curriculum provides first a core of mathematics for all students, and then offers opportunities for students to enter different streams of mathematics studies. The flexible curriculum (COM) is certainly welcome as it focuses on a transition from concrete to conceptual mathematics and on sequentially learning the power of mathematical language and symbols from simple to complex. This approach emphasizes the use of computers in mathematics education in the upper secondary grades. In Mathematics A, one unit is developed to computer operation, flow charts and programming, and computation using the computer. In mathematics B, a chapter addresses algorithms and the computer where students learn the functions of computers, as well as programs of various algorithms. Mathematics C allots a chapter for numerical computation in which approximating solutions for equations, numerical integration, mensuration by parts, and approximation of integrals. But, unfortunately, they do not have any plan for the cooperation study.

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A Comparison of Chinese Secondary School Mathematics In- and Pre-service teachers' beliefs about Mathematics, Mathematics Teaching and Learning

  • Jin, Meiyue;Guo, Yanmin;Dai, Feng;Jia, Ping
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.11 no.4
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    • pp.221-234
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    • 2007
  • A comparison of mathematics teachers' personal beliefs between in- and pre-service teachers for Chinese secondary schools (grades 7-12) about mathematics theories, teaching and learning has been studied. In-service teachers' beliefs are close to constructivist's aspect and pre-service teachers' beliefs are close to absolutist's views. Based on the results, we give some suggestions to both teacher education and in-service teachers' training.

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Impact of Inquiry-Based Teaching on Student Attitude toward Mathematics

  • Kim, Taik-H.;Pan, Wei
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.14 no.3
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    • pp.249-262
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    • 2010
  • Large Midwest university faculty members proposed the Science and Technology Enhancement Program Project (STEP) to improve students' learning in the secondary mathematics classroom using modules of inquiry-based teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the STEP Project on students' attitude toward mathematics. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) were used to evaluate the impact of the STEP Project. The sample group for the study was 130 ninth grade students enrolled in Integrated Algebra I in a large urban school district. The school was one of eight secondary schools that participated in the STEP Project. The classes in the treatment group were three of five classes ordered in terms of the highest, middle, and lowest mean GPA. The control group consisted of two other middle GPA classes. The classes had an average of 25 students. Teachers who previously had been involved in the STEP Project taught all treatment and control classes. The inquiry-based teaching activities provided by the project were confined to the treatment classes. The survey measuring students' attitudes toward mathematics were obtained for both groups of students. The inquiry-based teaching affected students' attitudes toward mathematics (p < 0.07, ES = 3.07). Especially, students who had preexisting low attitudes toward mathematics were significantly affected by treatment (p < 0.02, ES = 0.02), while the treatment positively affected African American students overall at p < 0.08 (ES = 0.58).

Historical Analysis of Definition and Proof Conceptions in the Transition from Secondary to Tertiary Mathematics (학교수학과 대학수학에서 정의와 증명 개념 변화에 대한 수학사적 분석)

  • Lee, Ji-Hyun;Choi, Young-Gi
    • Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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    • v.21 no.1
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    • pp.57-65
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    • 2011
  • The conceptions of definition and proof radically change in the transition from secondary to tertiary mathematics. Specifically this paper analyses the historical development of the axiomatic method from Greek to modern mathematics. To understand Greek and modern axiomatic method, it is important to know the different characteristics of the primitive terms, constant and variable. Especially this matter of primitive terms explains the change of conceptions of definition, proof and mathematics. This historical analysis is useful for introducing the meaning of formal definition and proof.

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Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Math and Math for Artificial Intelligence (AI) (도구로서 인공지능과 교과로서 인공지능에 대한 중등 수학 교사의 인식 탐색)

  • Sim, Yeonghoon;Kim, Jihyun;Kwon, Minsung
    • Communications of Mathematical Education
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    • v.37 no.2
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    • pp.159-181
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    • 2023
  • The purpose of this study is to explore secondary mathematics teachers' perceptions on Artificial Intelligence (AI). For this purpose, we conducted three focus group interviews with 18 secondary in-service mathematics teachers and analyzed their perceptions on AI for math and math for AI. The secondary in-service mathematics teachers perceive that AI allows to implement different types of mathematics instruction but has limitations in exploring students' mathematical thinking and having emotional interactions with students. They also perceive that AI makes it easy to develop assessment items for teachers but teachers' interventions are needed for grading essay-type assessment items. Lastly, the secondary in-service mathematics teachers agree the rationale of adopting the subject <Artificial Intelligence Mathematics> and its needs for students, but they perceive that they are not well prepared yet to teach the subject and do not have sufficient resources for teaching the subject and assessing students' understanding about the subject. The findings provide implications and insights for developing individualized AI learning tools for students in the secondary level, providing AI assessment tools for teachers, and offering professional development programs for teachers to increase their understanding about the subject.

An Analysis on the Statistical Literacy of Secondary Mathematics Teachers and Adults -Focused on the Level of Understanding in a Poll Results- (중등수학교사와 일반인의 통계적 소양 분석 -여론조사 결과의 이해수준을 중심으로-)

  • So, Jaehong;Badamjav, Gundegmaa;Jeon, Youngju
    • Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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    • v.23 no.3
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    • pp.397-425
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    • 2020
  • Statistical literacy is a key ability expected of citizens in information-laden societies, and is often revealed as an expected outcome of schooling and as a necessary component of adults' numeracy and literacy. Knowing how important statistical literacy is, the purpose of this research was to measure statistical literacy of adults and secondary mathematics teachers. This study explored the statistical literacy based on the level of understanding in poll results and analyzed the data obtained through semi-structured interviews with 20 secondary mathematics teachers and 20 adults. As a result, the following conclusions were obtained: First, few secondary mathematics teachers and adults correctly recognized the meaning of statistical terms and expressions included in the poll results. Second, 70% of research participants did not reach levels 3 or 4 of statistical literacy levels. Third, the statistical literacy level of secondary mathematical teachers was higher than that of adults.

Conceptual errors related to zero by secondary school gifted student and preservice teachers (중학교 영재학생과 예비교사의 영(0)에 관한 인식과 오류)

  • Park, Jee-Hyun
    • The Mathematical Education
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    • v.46 no.4
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    • pp.357-369
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    • 2007
  • Teachers and students' knowledge of zero was investigated through data collected from 16 preservice secondary mathematics teachers and 20 gifted secondary school students. Results showed that these teachers and students had an inadequate knowledge about zero. They exhibited a reluctance to accept zero as an attribute for classification, confusion as to whether or not zero is a number, and stable patterns of computational error. Although leachers and researchers have long recognized the value of analyzing student errors for diagnosis and remediation, students have not been encouraged to take advantage of errors as learning opportunities in mathematics instruction. The article suggests using errors as springboards for inquiry in action, discusses its potential contributions to mathematics instruction by analyzing students and preservice teachers errors related to zero.

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