• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.55-73
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of cognitive activity on cognitive activities that students imagine and cope with continuously changing quantitative changes in functional tasks represented by linguistic expressions, table of value, and geometric patterns, We identified covariational reasoning levels and investigated the characteristics of students' reasoning process according to the levels of covariational reasoning in the elementary quantitative problem situations. Participants were seven 4th grade elementary students using the questionnaires. The selected students were given study materials. We observed the students' activity sheets and conducted in-depth interviews. As a result of the study, the students' covariational reasoning level for two quantities that are continuously covaried was found to be five, and different reasoning process was shown in quantitative problem situations according to students' covariational reasoning levels. In particular, students with low covariational level had difficulty in grasping the two variables and solved the problem mainly by using the table of value, while the students with the level of chunky and smooth continuous covariation were different from those who considered the flow of time variables. Based on the results of the study, we suggested that various problems related with continuous covariation should be provided and the meanings of the tasks should be analyzed by the teachers.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.163-177
• /
• 2007

Studies on mathematically gifted students have been conducted following Krutetskii. There still exists a necessity for a more detailed research on how these students' mathematical competence is actually displayed during the problem solving process. In this study, it was attempted to analyse the algebraic thinking process in the problem solving a peg puzzle in which 4 mathematically gifted students, who belong to the upper 0.01% group in their grade of elementary school in Korea. They solved and generalized the straight line peg puzzle. Mathematically gifted elementary school students had the tendency to find a general structure using generic examples rather than find inductive rules. They did not have difficulty in expressing their thoughts in letter expressions and in expressing their answers in written language; and though they could estimate general patterns while performing generalization of two factors, it was revealed that not all of them can solve the general formula of two factors. In addition, in the process of discovering a general pattern, it was confirmed that they prefer using diagrams to manipulating concrete objects or using tables. But as to whether or not they verify their generalization results using generalized concrete cases, individual difference was found. From this fact it was confirmed that repeated experiments, on the relationship between a child's generalization ability and his/her behavioral pattern that verifies his/her generalization result through application to a concrete case, are necessary.

• The Korean Journal of Elementary Counseling
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.123-150
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of self-regulated learning program on the underachiever's academic achievement and academic self-concept. To achieve the purpose of study the research hypotheses were as follows : Hypothesis 1 : There will be significant differences in the improvement of academic achievement between the experimental group and the control group. Hypothesis 2 : There will be significant differences in the improvement of academic self-concept between the experimental group and the control group. To verify these hypotheses, 32 underachievers were selected from sixth grade students of 'D' elementary school located in Seoul. 16 students were allocated to the experimental group and 16 students were allocated to the control group. The experimental group trained with self-regulated learning program for 10 times(The length of each section was 60 minutes). The self-regulated learning program in this study was based on program by Kim. Yong-Soo(1998), The measurement instruments of the study were mathematics achievement test paper and academic self-concept test. To find out the difference, Pretest-posttest control design was used. Mean and standard deviations obtained from these tests were analysed with t-test. The major findings obtained through this study are as follows : First, self-regulated learning program was effective in improvement of academic achievement (p<.05). Second, self-regulated learning Program was not effective in improvement of academic self-concept. However, the experimental group showed significant improvement(p<.01) at academic self-concept and sub academic self-concepts (ability, achievement) in the data of pre-post test. it can be suggested that this program had positive influence on underachievers. Although it has some limitations, self-regulated learning program is effective to academic achievement and academic self-concept of underachievers, even though not significant, it has a positive t.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.353-370
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to select the components of spatial ability that could be associated with the implementation of a polycube task, embody the selected components of spatial ability as learning elements and develop the prototype of polycube teaching-learning materials applicable to gifted education, (2) to make a close analysis of the development process of the teaching-learning materials to ensure the applicability of the prototype, (3) to give some suggestions on the development of teaching-learning materials geared toward mathematically gifted classes. The findings of the study were as follows: As for the first purpose of the study, relevant literature was reviewed to make an accurate definition of spatial ability, on which there wasn't yet any clear-cut explanation, and to find out what made up spatial ability. After 13 components of spatial ability that were linked to a polycube task were selected, the prototype of teaching-learning materials for gifted education in mathematics was developed by including nine components in consideration of children's grade and level. Concerning the second purpose of the study, materials for teachers and students were separately developed based on the prototype, and the materials were modified and finalized in light of when selected students exerted their spatial ability well or didn't in case of utilizing the developed materials in class. And then the materials were finalized after being finetuned two times by regulating the learning type, sequence and degree of learning difficulty. Regarding the third purpose of the study, the polycube task performed in this study might not be generalizable, but there are seven suggestions on the development process of teaching-learning materials.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.459-476
• /
• 2003

Internet was introduced to this study for making mathematics class the surroundings where students can solve the mathematics problems and communicate mathematically in a free way without restriction of time and place. With the intention of investigating mathematical communication and problem solving in mathematics education using internet, the objects of this study were determined as follows: First, how does a student express mathematical idea in problem solving using internet\ulcorner Second, is there any difference in the degree of participation of mathematical communication according to schoolwork accomplishment and characteristics of the student\ulcorner Third, what's the effect of class using internet on problem solving of mathematics class\ulcorner A case study was executed for the solution and the subjects were all students(44 persons) of a class in the fourth grade of elementary school in D city got into web-site of internet and had class with it and 8 students out of them were deeply analyzed. Their results were shown on internet, and eight of them had interview for deep research after survey with questionnaires for all of the students after class. The results and the conclusions of this study were as follows: First, it showed that there was various types(simple statement, fact enumerating, logical thinking, using letters and formula, insufficiency of explanation) of the mathematical idea expression in internet according to students and study using internet seems to be helpful to the improvement of logical his own expression through other students' expression. Second, it showed that there was difference in mathematical communication participation according to the student's characteristics and it helped students of poor schoolwork be interested and confident in mathematics. Third, it showed that pattern study using internet had effect on forming a habit of reason and verification in problem solving in mathematics class. Accordingly, pattern study using internet seems to have a positive effect on increasing mathematical interests and solving problems in mathematics class.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.7 no.2
• /
• pp.139-168
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate children's informal knowledge of the fractional multiplication and to develop a teaching material connecting the informal and the formal knowledge. Six lessons of the pre-teaching material are developed based on literature reviews and administered to the 7 students of the 4th grade in an elementary school. It is shown in these teaching experiments that children's informal knowledge of the fractional multiplication are the direct modeling of using diagram, mathematical thought by informal language, and the representation with operational expression. Further, teaching and learning methods of formalizing children's informal knowledge are obtained as follows. First, the informal knowledge of the repeated sum of the same numbers might be used in (fractional number)$\times$((natural number) and the repeated sum could be expressed simply as in the multiplication of the natural numbers. Second, the semantic meaning of multiplication operator should be understood in (natural number)$\times$((fractional number). Third, the repartitioned units by multiplier have to be recognized as a new units in (unit fractional number)$\times$((unit fractional number). Fourth, the partitioned units should be reconceptualized and the case of disjoint between the denominator in multiplier and the numerator in multiplicand have to be formalized first in (proper fractional number)$\times$(proper fractional number). The above teaching and learning methods are melted in the teaching meterial which is made with corrections and revisions of the pre-teaching meterial.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.131-145
• /
• 2009

This research was designed to investigate the possibility to teach function concept and graph representation of functions in explicit manner toward at elementary level. Eight class-hours instruction was given to four Grade 5(age 11) students, and dynamic geometry software GSP was partially used in the class. Results indicate that the students could conceptualize the function relation, interpret linear function graphs, recognize the meaning of their slopes, and discuss the relationships among linear graphs and real life situation. Results also indicate that GSP helped students to recognize the relation between dots and the linear graph clearly and that GSP-line graph did decisive role for children to understand the meaning of graph representation of function.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.445-459
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to provide a method to help elementary school students learn ratio-related concepts effectively through visual representations. This study was conducted to identify the differences in the composition of ratio-related concepts between Korean and Singaporean textbooks, reconstruct a unit of proportional expressions and distributions by using visual representations and confirm the differences in performance between an experimental and a comparison group of 6th grade students. While the experimental group mathematics lessons is from the reconstructed textbook, the comparison group lessons is from an existing textbook that does not include any reconstructive representations. A t-test of mean was applied to determine the differences between the experimental and comparison group. Analysis revealed significant differences in the mean between the experimental group and the comparison group, and the intermediate level group showed more improvement compared to the higher and lower level groups. An implication of this study is that the application of visual representations can assist students' understanding of ratio-related concepts.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.277-289
• /
• 2007

This research aims to look into the mathematically gifted 6th and 7th graders spatial visualization ability of solid figures. The subjects of the research was six male elementary school students in the 6th grade and one male middle school student in the 1th grade receiving special education for the mathematically gifted students supported by the government. The task used in this research was the problems that compares the side lengths and the angle sizes in 4 pictures of its two dimensional representation of a regular icosahedron. The data collected included the activity sheets of the students and in-depth interviews on the problem solving. Data analysis was made based on McGee's theory about spatial visualization ability with referring to Duval's and Del Grande's. According to the results of analysis of subjects' spatial visualization ability, the spatial visualization abilities mainly found in the students' problem-solving process were the ability to visualize a partial configuration of the whole object, the ability to manipulate an object in imagination, the ability to imagine the rotation of a depicted object and the ability to transform a depicted object into a different form. Though most subjects displayed excellent spatial visualization abilities carrying out the tasks in this research, but some of them had a little difficulty in mentally imagining three dimensional objects from its two dimensional representation of a solid figure.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.395-418
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of mathematical tasks on mathematical communication. Mathematical tasks were classified into four different levels according to cognitive demands, such as memorization, procedure, concept, and exploration. For this study, 24 students were selected from the 5th grade of an elementary school located in Seoul. They were randomly assigned into six groups to control the effects of extraneous variables on the main study. Mathematical tasks for this study were developed on the basis of cognitive demands and then two different tasks were randomly assigned to each group. Before the experiment began, students were trained for effective communication for two months. All the procedures of students' learning were videotaped and transcripted. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied to analyze the data. The findings of this study point out that the levels of mathematical tasks were positively correlated to students' participation in mathematical communication, meaning that tasks with higher cognitive demands tend to promote students' active participation in communication with inquiry-based questions. Secondly, the result of this study indicated that the level of students' mathematical justification was influenced by mathematical tasks. That is, the forms of justification changed toward mathematical logic from authorities such as textbooks or teachers according to the levels of tasks. Thirdly, it found out that tasks with higher cognitive demands promoted various negotiation processes. The results of this study implies that cognitively complex tasks should be offered in the classroom to promote students' active mathematical communication, various mathematical tasks and the diverse teaching models should be developed, and teacher education should be enhanced to improve teachers' awareness of mathematical tasks.