• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2006

It is generally accepted that fostering creative thinking is a core in mathematics education and accumulating research products on that topic is really needed. In this study, I hoped to investigate and verify that in mathematics education it was possible to cultivate creative thinking through various and divergent activities, For this purpose, I delat with some illustrations, in which students learned mathematics through the operational activities using teaching tools, problem solving and problem posing activities, and finally they seemed to foster creative mathematical thinking. In conclusion of this paper, I have suggested that in math education those activities should be used to cultivate students' creative thinking in kindergarten or early elementary school. Also I asserted that it is urgently need to store up research products about various materials and methods for those mathematics teaching and learning.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.20 no.1 s.25
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• pp.117-145
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• 2006

Mathematically gifted children have creative curiosity about novel tasks deriving from their natural mathematical talents, aptitudes, intellectual abilities and creativities. More effect in nurturing the creative thinking found in brilliant children, letting them approach problem solving in various ways and make strategic attempts is needed. Given this perspective, it is desirable to select open-ended and atypical problems as a task for educational program for gifted children. In this paper, various types of open-ended problems were framed and based on these, teaming activities were adapted into gifted children's class. Then in the problem solving process, the characteristic of bright children's mathematical thinking ability and examples of problem solving strategies were analyzed so that suggestions about classes for bright children utilizing open-ended tasks at elementary schools could be achieved. For this, an open-ended task made of 24 inquiries was structured, the teaching procedure was made of three steps properly transforming Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model, and 24 periods of classes were progressed according to the teaching plan. One period of class for each subcategories of mathematical thinking ability; ability of intuitional insight, systematizing information, space formation/visualization, mathematical abstraction, mathematical reasoning, and reflective thinking were chosen and analyzed regarding teaching, teaming process and products. Problem solving examples that could be anticipated through teaching and teaming process and products analysis, and creative problem solving examples were suggested, and suggestions about teaching bright children using open-ended tasks were deduced based on the analysis of the characteristic of tasks, role of the teacher, impartiality and probability of approaching through reflecting the classes. Through the case study of a mathematics class for bright children making use of open-ended tasks proved to satisfy the curiosity of the students, and was proved to be effective for providing and forming a habit of various mathematical thinking experiences by establishing atypical mathematical problem solving strategies. This study is meaningful in that it provided mathematically gifted children's problem solving procedures about open-ended problems and it made an attempt at concrete and practical case study about classes fur gifted children while most of studies on education for gifted children in this country focus on the studies on basic theories or quantitative studies.

• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.1020-1030
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to develop the STEAM educational program based on the computer programming. STEAM education has been recently attracted to a lot of people. We had a focus of computer science in STEM fields. We used the programming language f or learning KODU. We selected appropriate topics for STEAM education and learning programming. We developed the educational program of 30 hours about selected topics and had classes for 4th and 5th grade elementary students. In order to verify the effectiveness of the educational program, we analyzed the results of pre- and posttest about GALT(Group Assessment of Logical Thinking), TTCT(Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking), science-related affective domain, and mathematical interests and attitudes tests. In the analysis results, the education program we developed had positive impacts on creativity, logical thinking, and science-related affective domain of elementary school students.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.327-341
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• 2005

Mathematical creativity should be assessed base on the general creativity considering the features of mathematics. In researching of the assessment of mathematical creativity, the direction should be matched with this view. In this paper, we focus on the creative thinking as cognitive aspect and the creative attitude as dispositional aspect in mathematics. And we have reviewed the various researches and have suggested the frame of the assessment of mathematical creativity.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.59-76
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• 2005

We examined the relations between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical (Mathematical Creative Problem Solving Ability Test; MCPSAT: Lee etc. 2003) and non-mathematical situations (Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Figural A; TTCT: adapted for Korea by Kim, 1999). Subjects in this study were 213 eighth grade students(129 males and 84 females). In the analysis of data, frequencies, percentiles, t-test and correlation analysis were used. The results of the study are summarized as follows; First, mathematically gifted students showed statistically significantly higher scores on the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations than regular students. Second, female showed statistically significantly higher scores on the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations than males. Third, there was statistically significant relationship between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations for middle students was r=.41 (p<.05) and regular students was r=.27 (p<.05). A test of statistical significance was conducted to test hypothesis. Fourth, the correlation between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations for mathematically gifted students was r=.11. There was no statistically significant relationship between the score of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations for mathematically gifted students. These results reveal little correlation between the scores of the divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations in both mathematically gifted students. Also but for the group of students of relatively mathematically gifted students it was found that the correlations between divergent thinking in mathematical and non-mathematical situations was near zero. This suggests that divergent thinking ability in mathematical situations may be a specific ability and not just a combination of divergent thinking ability in non-mathematical situations. But the limitations of this study as following: The sample size in this study was too few to generalize that there was a relation between the divergent thinking of mathematically gifted students in mathematical situation and non-mathematical situation.

• School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.503-526
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• 2016

The study aimed at determining the identity of mathematics essay test in the university entrance examination. For this purpose, a document research was conducted for higher order thinking and mathematics essay ability and it analyzed the goal of assessment and the tendency of problem settings and looked into mathematics essay problems of twenty-five universities. As a result, the study found out that evaluation factors of mathematics essay test requires higher order thinking ability including mathematical knowledge and essay ability such as mathematical knowledge, understanding, problem solving, logical and critical thinking, creative ability, power of expression, argument skills. Also, problems from previous mathematics essay tests were set mainly to assess mathematical knowledge, understanding and problem solving. Based on the findings, the past mathematics essay tests in university entrance examination in Korea that require logical and critical thinking, creative ability, power of expression, argument skills were a rather small percentage of questions.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.545-562
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• 2009

This study is trying to analyze characteristics of mathematical thinking processes of the mathematical gifted students in an objective and a systematic way, by using "Protocol Analysis Method"and "Problem Behavior Graph" which is suggested by Newell and Simon as a qualitative analysis. In this study, four middle school students with high achievement in math were selected as subjects-two students for mathematical gifted group and the other two for control group also with high scores in math. The thinking characteristics of the four subjects, shown in the course of solving problems, were elicited, analyzed and compared, through the use of the creative test questionnaires which were supposed to clearly reveal the characteristics of mathematical gifted students' thinking processes. The results showed that there were several differences between the two groups-the mathematical gifted student group and their control group in their mathematical talents. From these case studies, we could say that it is significant to find out the characteristics of mathematical thinking processes of the mathematical gifted students in a more scientific way, in the sense that this result can be very useful to provide them with the chances to get more proper education by making clear the nature of thinking processes of the mathematical gifted students.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2003

We examined the relations between Mathematical Creative Problem Solving Ability Test(MCPSAT: Kim etl. 1997) and Torrance Test of Creative Thinking Figural A (TTCT; adapted for Korea by Kim etl. 1999). The subjects in this study were 31 fifth-grade students. In the analysis of data, frequencies, percentiles, t-test correlation analysis were used. The results of the study are summarized as follows; First, we have the correlations between the originality of general creativity and the three elements--fluency, flexibility, and the total--of mathematical creativity (significant at p<.01). Second, We know the correlations between the total of general creativity and the three elements of mathematical creativity(significant at p<.05).

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.91-106
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• 2015

The purpose of this study were to develop a M-STEAM program for first grades in elementary school and investigate the effects of the program on their learning motivation for the math subject and creative personality. For those purpose, this study set the following research questions. Research Question 1 : How will a M-STEAM program be devised applicable to first grades in elementary school? Research Question 2 : What kind of effect does a M-STEAM program have on the learning motivation and creative personality of students? The findings were as follows: First, lesson contents were reorganized by keeping the Unit 3 in the second semester of first grade in the current math curriculum under the convergence theme of "Build an environment friendly future city" to which the STEAM elements were added. Developed program promoted mathematical thinking ability for problem solving in the process of operating the number of blocks. Through the M-STEAM program, convergence thinking was created from a new perspective by exerting creativity in such process. Second, the STEAM program had effects on the learning motivation and creative personality of first graders in math subject. The t-test results show that the STEAM program developed in this study increased the fun and interest of students, helped with their concentration, and promoted their understanding of mathematical concepts. Therefore the M-STEAM program had positive impacts on the learning motivation and creative personality of first graders in math learning.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.337-349
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to survey and analyze conception on creativity carried out from elementary school teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area. As results, first, most of teachers replied divergent thinking, creative problem solving, and new creation as general creativity and mathematical creativity. Secondly, they showed that thinking process would be related to transfer and cognition in terms of mathematical creativity factors. Lastly, there are significant differences among groups according to gender, teaching career, and age, even though most teachers expressed sympathy for need of creativity education in mathematics education.