• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.258-279
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the change of secondary earth science teachers' knowledge about the currents of the East Sea through drawing of a schematic map of oceanic currents. For this purpose, thirty two earth science teachers participated in the six-hour long training of learning and practice related to ocean current schematic map. The teacher participants performed drawing of the ocean current schematic map of the East Sea in three different phases, i.e.; pre-, post-, and delayed-post phase. In addition, all the maps conducted by participants were converted to digitalized image data. Detailed analysis were performed to investigate participating teachers' knowledge about the currents of the East Sea. Findings are as follows: First, the teacher participants have background knowledge about the ocean current map, but it reveals an incorrect knowledge about some concepts. Second, after teacher training, teachers' knowledge increased about the East Sea's currents, while a decrease was found in the differences between individual teachers' knowledge. This pattern was more evident in the delayed-post phase of drawing than in the post-phase occurred immediately after training. Third, the teacher participants were strongly aware of the need to improve the ocean current schematic map of the East Sea in science textbook in terms of scientific knowledge. In addition, they showed a high level of satisfaction about teacher training because they perceived that it was meaningful in various aspects; recognizing the importance of content knowledge and conjunction with instructional strategies, the needs of secondary science curriculum, and recognition of the nature of scientific knowledge. The results imply that teachers' subject matter knowledge plays a significant role to make science teaching effective.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.223-237
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• 2008

The purpose of this research was to provide the information needed for improving the contents in housing unit of middle school technology and home economic textbook. For this purpose, a survey questionnaire was developed to examine teachers' importance perception of 48 contents in housing unit. A direct survey and an e-mail survey were used to collect data from teachers, and a total number of 233 data were analyzed. Conclusions were summarized as following: 1. Among the 48 contents in housing unit, the average score of teachers' importance perception of the 18 contents on 'interior environment and equipments' was 3.94; the average score of teachers' importance perception of the 15 contents on 'living space plan and use' was 3.78; and the average score of teachers'importance perception of the 15 content on 'housing maintenance and repair' was 3.42. Therefore, the 15 contents on 'housing maintenance and repair' must be revised. 2. Teachers' importance perception of 25 contents, among the 48 contents in housing unit, were significantly differentiated by gender, age, teaching experience, scholastic attainment, subject in charge(technology, home economics, technology and home economics), school type(boys' middle school, girls' middle school, coeducation), and region(city, county). Therefore, the 25 contents, of which importance perception were influenced by teachers' characteristics, must be revised in order to maintain the consistent importance perception. Suggestions were that the team teaching of technology and home economic textbook was more recommendable; that the local situations must be considered in the contents of housing unit and; that the contents of housing unit must be segmented into a minimum unit for the accurate evaluation.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.627-654
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• 2016

Despite the significance of the measurement strand in elementary mathematics education, it is not easy to teach it meaningfully. This study analyzed instructional methods related to capacity and weight in a series of mathematics textbooks of Korea, Japan, Singapore, and the US. The overall analysis was conducted in the following two aspects: (a) what and when to teach main learning content, and (b) how to teach the learning content tailored to the instructional components specific to the topics of measurement (i.e., the necessity of measurement unit, the meanings of measurement terms, appropriate choice of units, appropriate choice of measurement tools, and the necessity of calculation). The results of this study showed overall similarities in using real-life contexts to teach major topics on capacity and weight as well as emphasizing the relations among measurement units. However, noticeable differences were also analyzed in dealing with the meanings of measurement terms, appropriate choice of units, and appropriate choice of measurement tools. Based on these results, this study provides textbook writers with implications on what to further consider in dealing with capacity and weight.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.393-418
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• 2016

Theory and fundamentals of mathematics consist mostly of proposition form. Activities by research of the proposition which leads to determine the true or false, justify the true propositions and refute with counterexample improve logical reasoning skills of students in emphases on mathematics education. Also, utilizing of counterexamples in school mathematics combines mathematical knowledge through the process of finding a counterexample, help the concept study and increase the critical thinking. These effects have been found through previous research. But many studies say that the learners have difficulty in generating counterexamples for false propositions and materials have not been developed a lot for the counterexample utilizing that can be applied in schools. So, this study analyzed the current textbook and examined the use of counterexamples and developed educational materials for counterexamples that can be applied at schools. That materials consisted of making true & false propositions and students was divided into three groups of academic achievement level. And then this study looked at the change of the students' thinking after counterexample classes. As a study result, in all three groups was showed a positive change in the cognitive domain and affective domain. Especially, in top-level group was mainly showed a positive change in the cognitive domain, in upper-middle group was mainly showed in the cognitive and the affective domain, in the sub-group was mainly found a positive change in the affective domain. Also in this study shows that the class that makes true or false propositions in education of utilizing counterexample, made students understand a given proposition, pay attention to easily overlooked condition, carefully observe symbol sign and change thinking of cognitive domain helping concept learning regardless of academic achievement levels of learners. Also, that class gave positive affect to affective domain that increase interest in the proposition and gain confidence about proposition.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.235-246
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• 2014

This study aims to explore how in-service science teachers adopt newly developed 'Science' focusing on the fusion of science based on 'the diffusion of innovation' model. For this study, we have explored five variables (i.e., perception of need, perception of support, innovativeness, perceived usefulness, self-efficacy of teaching, and intention to adopt) based on literature review and developed survey items to measure the level of five variables that in-service science teachers perceive. In addition, the path model of six variables explaining how in-service science teachers adopt an innovation was hypothesized by the literature review. A total of 349 in-service science teachers have participated in this survey study. First of all, results have illustrated that the levels of six variables have not significantly associated with in-service science teachers' teaching experiences, participation in professional development programs on 'Science' curriculum, and majors. In addition, the statistically acceptable model fit indices have illustrated that path model has been statistically valid to explain how in-service science teachers adopt newly developed 'Science' focusing on the fusion of science. The results have also illustrated that 'perception of support', 'perceived usefulness', and 'self-efficacy of teaching' exhibited strong mediating effects between other variables. For the successful establishment of newly developed curricula, textbook, or policies in science education in school, the level of teachers' intention to adopt innovations should be enhanced. This study will be useful for the development of new science teacher professional development programs to promote the level of teachers' intention to adopt innovations.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.281-300
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• 2015

The purpose of this research is to analyze cognitive demands, answer types, and storytelling types on the basis of mathematical tasks in five different mathematics textbooks based on 2009 revised curriculum in order to suggest directions for the development and use of storytelling mathematics textbooks in school. Results show that first, PNC (Procedures without Connections) task was the largest category in cognitive demands of all mathematical tasks, Low-Level task was larger than others in cognitive demands of mathematical content tasks, and High-Level task was larger than others in cognitive demands of mathematical activity tasks. Second, a short-answer type was the largest category in answer types of all mathematical tasks, the majority of mathematical content tasks were a short-answer type, and the majority of mathematical activity tasks were both short-answer and explanation-answer types. Finally, storytelling connected to real-life was the largest category in storytelling types, and the number of mathematical activity tasks was less than that of mathematical content tasks. However, in the tasks reflected on storytelling, the percentage of mathematical activity tasks was higher than that of mathematical content tasks. Based on the results, while developing storytelling mathematics textbooks and using storytelling textbooks in school, it suggests to consider the need for balance and diversity in cognitive demands, answer types, and storytelling types according to mathematical tasks.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.471-488
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• 2019

This paper aims to examine how mathematical history is used in $ textbooks according to the 2015-Revised Curriculum. We analyze the distribution and characteristics of making use of the mathematical history in the nine textbooks, using the framework suggested by Jankvist (2009) on the whys and hows of using historical tasks. First, the tasks related to mathematical history in the textbooks are mostly used as an affective tool, while few tasks are used as a cognitive tool. Second, most of the historical tasks of the type of an affective tool are introducing the anecdotes of mathematicians or in the history of mathematics, and only one case is trying to show human nature of mathematics by illuminating the difficulties mathematicians were faced with. Third, all the mathematical history tasks used as affective tools and goals are illumination materials, while only two out of the ten tasks in the category of a cognitive tool are illumination materials, yet eight others are modular ones. Considering the importance and value of using mathematical history in the math education, this paper recommends that more modular materials on mathematical history tasks in the category of cognitive tools and goals should be developed and their deployment in the textbooks or courses should be promoted. $

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.425-444
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• 2019

Comparing to the U.S. mathematics textbooks, this study examines the opportunity to learn statistical processes represented in mathematics textbooks reflecting 2015 revised curriculum. Analyzing four different kinds of Korean middle school mathematics textbooks and two kinds of corresponding U.S. textbooks for seventh graders, we found that the tasks dealing with all the phases of statistical processes were found only in the U.S. textbooks while not even one task in such a case was not observed in the Korean textbooks. To make matters worse, the proportion of the tasks dealing with only one phase of statistical processes was 93.3% of all the tasks in Korean textbooks. In terms of types of tasks, the types of tasks were very homogeneous in Korean textbooks, usually Types FPR or PR while more various types of tasks were found in the U.S. textbooks such as Types FRI, PRI, FR, or RI. In views of features of each phase in statistical processes, Korean textbooks heavily focused only on some particular statistical behaviors such as 'formulating a problem', 'collecting data', 'transforming data', and 'analyzing a part of data.' The findings of this study provide meaningful implications for improving statistics education and developing mathematics textbooks to enhance students' statistical thinking and problem-solving ability.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2013

This work started with recent students' conception on Linear Algebra. We were trying to help their understanding of Linear Algebra concepts by adding visualization tools. To accomplish this, we have developed most of needed tools for teaching of Linear Algebra class. Visualizing concepts of Linear Algebra is not only an aid for understanding but also arouses students' interest on the subject for a better comprehension, which further helps the students to play with them for self-discovery. Therefore, visualizing data should be prepared thoroughly rather than just merely understanding on static pictures as a special circumstance when we would study visual object. By doing this, we carefully selected GeoGebra which is suitable for dynamic visualizing and Sage for algebraic computations. We discovered that this combination is proper for visualizing to be embodied and gave a variety of visualizing data for undergraduate mathematics classes. We utilized GeoGebra and Sage for dynamic visualizing and tools used for algebraic calculation as creating a new kind of visual object for university math classes. We visualized important concepts of Linear Algebra as much as we can according to the order of the textbook. We offered static visual data for understanding and studied visual object and further prepared a circumstance that could create new knowledge. We found that our experience on visualizations in Linear Algebra using Sage and GeoGebra to our class can be effectively adopted to other university math classes. It is expected that this contribution has a positive effect for school math education as well as the other lectures in university.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.433-456
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to suggest the directions for the development and improvement of mathematics textbooks in Korea by examining these characteristics of German textbooks. As a result, German mathematics textbooks were free for unit order and names of units. German mathematics textbooks defined a function for various real life and natural phenomena, relation after intuitively knowing the correspondence between two variables through a graph. In addition, it exercises interpreting the characteristics and information of the graph, guides the activity of graphing various functional situations, and contents to convert various expression methods such as graphs, tables, relational expressions, mathematical terms and sentences. In the German mathematics textbooks, mathematical expressions of the functional relations of the materials in various contexts of daily life, and the activities of predicting and predicting the future, were made to feel the usefulness of mathematics. It has raised functional thinking and provided problems related to other subjects, thus enhancing connectivity with other disciplines. It also included open issues and issues that required mathematical communication.