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

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.93-107
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• 1992

The purpose of this study is to make out teaching-learning method for developing mathematical abilities of the 1st grade children in elementary school by investigating cognitive effects which mathematical pre-experiences given intentionally by teachers have on children's learning mathematics. The research questions for this purpose are as follows: In learning effects through mathematical pre-experiences given intentionally by teachers. 1) is there any differences between children with pre-experiences and children without them in Mathematics Achievement Test\ulcorner 2) is there any differences between children with pre-experiences and children without them in Transfer Test for learning effects\ulcorner For this study, a class with 41 children in H elementary school located in a Myon near Chong-ju was selected as an experimental group and a class with 43 children in G elementary school in the same Myon was selected as a control group. Nonequivalent Control Group Design of Quasi-Experimental Design was applied to this study. To give pre-experiences to the children in experimental group, their classroom was equipped with materials for pre-experiences, so children could always observe the materials and play with them. The materials were a round-clock on the wall, two pairs of scales, fifty dice, some small pebbles, two pairs of weight scales, two rulers on the wall, and various cards for playing games. Pre-experiences were given to the children repeatedly through games and observations during free time in the morning (00:20-09:00) and intervals between periods. There was a pretest for homogeneity of mathematics achievement between the two groups and were Mathematics Achievement Test (30 items) and Transfer Test (25 items) for learning effects as post-tests. The data were collected from the pretest on April 8 (control group), on April 11 (experimental group) and from the Mathematics Achievement Test and Transfer Test on July 15 (experimental group) and on July 16 (control group). T-test was used to analyze if there were any differences in the results of the test. The results of the analysis were as follows: (1) As the result of pretest, there was not a significance difference between the experimental group (M=17.10. SD=7.465) and the control group (M=16.31, SD=6.974) at p<.05 (p=0.632). (2) For the question 1. in the Mathematics Achievement Test, there was a significant difference between the experimental group (M=26.08, SD=4.827) and the control group (M=22.28. SD=5.913) at p<.01 (p=.003). (3) For the question 2. in the Transfer Test for learning effects. there was a significant difference between the experimental group (M=16.41, SD=5.800) and the control group (M=11.84, SD=4.815) at p<001, (p=.000). From the results of the analyses obtained in this study. the following conclusions can be drawn: First, mathematical pre-experiences given by teachers are effective in increasing mathematical achievement and transfer in learning mathematics. Second, games. observations, and experiments given intentionally by teachers can make children's mathematical experiences rich and various, and are effective in adjusting individual differences for the mathematical experiences obtained before they entered elementary schools. Third, it is necessary for teachers to give mathematical pre-experiences with close attention in order to stimulate children's mathematical interests and intellectual curiosity.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.267-286
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• 2017

This study analyzed the processes of lesson plan, implementation, and reflection by a professional learning community with five teachers who were teaching second grade students in the same elementary school. The results of the study showed that the learning community helped the teachers prepare for a lesson effectively, enhance their teaching practices, and reflect on their teaching methods. However, the teachers had difficulties in re-designing and implementing the collaborative lesson plan in their classrooms and had a tendency to talk about their feelings about lessons rather than meaningful comments for subsequent lessons. The successes and difficulties revealed through this study are expected to provide us with directions of learning communities for improving teachers' professional development.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.719-745
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• 2012

This research is a study on student's understanding fundamental conception of mathematical curriculum, especially in geometry domain. The goal of researching is to analyze student's wrong conception about that domain and get the mathematical teaching method. We developed various questions of descriptive assessment. Then we set up the term, procedure of research for the understanding student's knowledge of geometry. And we figured out the student's understanding extent through analysing questions of descriptive assessment in geometry. In this research, we concluded that most of students are having difficulty with defining the fundamental conception of mathematics, especially in geometry. Almost all the students defined the fundamental conceptions of mathematics obscurely and sometimes even missed indispensable properties. Prior to this study, we couldn't identify this problem. Here are some suggestions. First, take time to reflect on your previous mathematics method. And then compile some well-selected questions of descriptive assessment that tell us more about student's understanding in geometry.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2009

This research is to provide a useful reference for the future revision of textbook by comparative analysis with the textbook in the 4th grade of elementary school in Japan. The results from this research is same as follows: First, Korean curriculum is emphasizing the reasonable problem-solving ability developed on the base of the mathematical knowledge and skill. Meantime, Japanese puts much value on the is focusing on discretion and the capability in life so that they emphasize each person's learning and raising the power of self-learning and thinking. The ratio on mathematics in both company are high, but Japanese ensures much more hours than Korean. Second, the chapter of Korean textbook is composed of 8 units and the title of the chapter is shown as key word, then the next objects are describes as 'Shall we do$\sim$' type. Hence, the chapter composition of Japanese textbook is different among the chapter and the title of the chapter is described as 'Let's do$\sim$'. Moreover, Korean textbook is arranged focusing on present study, however Japanese is composed with each independent segments in the present study subject to the study contents. Third, Japanese makes students understand the decimal as the extension of the decimal system with measuring unit($\ell$, km, kg) then, learn the operation by algorithm. In Korea, students learn fraction earlier than decimal, but, in Japan students learn decimal earlier than fraction. For the diagram, in Korea, making angle with vertex and side comes after the concept of angle, vertex and side is explained. Hence, in Japan, they show side and vertex to present angle.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.303-326
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• 2018

Fraction has difficulties in learning because of the diversity of meanings, the ways of presenting contents and teaching methods in elementary school mathematics. Therefore, the various strategies of teaching of fraction concept is proposed as an alternative. The problem of equal sharing problem is that children can experience the concept of fractions naturally in the context of everyday distribution. Even before learning formal fractions, children can solve them in various ways based on their own experiences. The purpose of this study is to investigate the degree of problem solving and problem solving strategies for children in 2nd, 4th, and 6th grades in elementary school. As a result of the research, the percentage of correct answers increased as the grade increased, but the grade levels showed a difference depending on the numbers given to the problems. Also, there were differences in the problem solving strategies according to the grade levels. Also, according to the numbers presented in the problem, the percentage of correct answers was high in items that were easy to divide, and the percentage of correct answers was low in items that were difficult to divide. When children solved the problems, they were affected by the strategies they could use immediately according to the number presented in the problem, and their learning experiences were also affected.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.589-608
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• 2015

The inquiry subject of this paper is the number of convex polygons one can form by attaching the seven pieces of a tangram. This was identified by two mathematical proofs. One is by using Pick's Theorem and the other is 和々草's method, but they are difficult for elementary students because they are part of the middle school curriculum. This paper suggests new methods, by using unit area and the minimum area which can be applied at the elementary level. Development of programs for the mathematically gifted elementary students can be composed of 4 class times to see if they can prove it by using new methods. Five mathematically gifted 5th grade students, who belonged to the gifted class in an elementary school participated in this program. The research results showed that the students can justify the number of convex polygons by attaching edgewise seven pieces of tangrams.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.583-613
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• 2010

Mathematics anxiety is likely to be a drag on mathematics learning if that is left alone, and it is important to grasp the cause of mathematics anxiety and devise how to get rid of it. The purpose of this study was to examine the cause of mathematics anxiety among elementary school children, to develop a math-friendly activity program geared toward easing mathematics anxiety and to check the effect of the developed program on the alleviation of mathematics anxiety. The subjects in this study were 32 students in a fourth-grade class in I elementary school located in Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul. A math-friendly activity program was designed to alleviate the mathematics anxiety of the five subfactors-test anxiety, time constraints, comprehension, learning motivation and parent attitude-on which the students scored higher than their pretest collective averages. The mathematics anxiety pretest data, the objectives and content system of the current 7th national mathematics curriculum and the mathematics textbooks for 4-A and 4-B were analyzed to develop the math-friendly activity program that consisted of psychological remedy (positive thinking training) and non-psychological remedy (mathematics activities). After the program was implemented, we analyze the pretest and posttest mathematics anxiety data to determine the effect of the program. As a result, the collective averages of every student on math anxiety and its subfactors were lower in the posttest than in the pretest.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.145-166
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• 2012

The objective of this study is to analyze the cases related to the lingual and non-lingual metaphors used in the math class at elementary school and consider the values of metaphors as a teaching method for the subject of mathematics. Throughout this study, teachers' gestures are analyzed as lingual and non-lingual metaphors shown between teachers and students in the class for the topic of the inverse proportion in quartic equations for direct and inverse proportions in Chapter 7 for the first semester of the 6th grade at elementary school in terms of the amended curriculum for the year of 2007. According to the results of the analysis, it can be concluded that there are mechanical and hypothetical movement metaphors in the mathematical metaphors observed in this study. Also, in terms of gestures, iconic, metaphoric and deixis gestures are found. Such metaphors seem to be evenly distributed throughout the math class and expressed in various forms. Based on the results of the analysis, the educational meaning given by the utilization of metaphors is considered for the math class.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.457-471
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• 2023

Measurement is an imperative content area of early elementary mathematics, but it is reported that students' understanding of units in measurement situations is insufficient despite its importance. Therefore, this study examined lower-grade elementary students' quantitative reasoning of units in length measurement by identifying the levels of reasoning of units. For this purpose, we collected and analyzed the responses of second-grade elementary school students who engaged in a set of length measurement tasks using an open number line in terms of unitizing, iterating, and partitioning. As a result of the study, we categorized students' quantitative reasoning of unit levels into four levels: Iterating unit one, Iterating a given unit, Relating units, and Transforming units. The most prevalent level was Relating units, which is the level of recognizing relationships between units to measure length. Each level was illustrated with distinct features and examples of unit reasoning. Based on the results of this study, a personalized plan to the level of unit reasoning of students is required, and the need for additional guidance or the use of customized interventions for students with incomplete unit reasoning skills is necessary.