• School Mathematics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.547-561
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• 2010

Even though statistics is considered as one of the areas of mathematical science in the school curriculum, it has been well documented that statistics has distinct features compared to mathematics. However, there is little empirical educational research showing distinct features of statistics, especially research into the understanding of statistical concepts which are different from other areas in school mathematics. In addition, there is little discussion of a relationship between the ability of mathematical thinking and the ability of understanding statistical concepts. This study extracted some important concepts which consist of the fundamental statistical reasoning and investigated how mathematically high achieving students understood these concepts. As a result, there were both kinds of concepts that mathematically high achieving students developed well or not. There is a weak correlation between mathematical ability and the level of understanding statistical concepts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.379-392
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of animation-based instruction on elementary students' level of understanding and interest on a plant's structure and function, using "Magic School Bus(Joanna Cole, Bruce Degen, 1986)". The understanding and interest measurements were administered to 99 fifth grade students at a elementary school located in Seoul. The study examined the changes in understanding and interest through pre-test and post-test of the two groups. Intensive interviews were conducted to find factors that enhance understanding and interest. Three key findings were revealed from the results. First, the animation-based instruction enhanced the level of understanding in the experimental group compared to the control group. Second, animation-based instruction made high-achieving students enhance their interest in topic component and attitude component. And, animation-based instruction did not led low-achieving students to increase their interest in the topic component and attitude component. We suggest that animation-based instruction positively influences students' understanding, but its effects on students' interest are dependent on their conceptual understanding of the topic.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.39-56
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• 2005

This paper provides an analysis of a survey on high achieving students' under-standing of continuity of function. The purposes of the survey in this paper were to identify high achieving students' concept images of continuity of function in the way of Tall & Vinner(1981). The students' individual written answers were collected and task-based, semi-structured individual interviews with 5 students were videotaped. Students were asked to explain their under-standing or reasoning about continuity of function. Five types of the concept images were identified in the analysis. Obvious discrepancy of results between this study and Tall & Vinner(1981)'s were pointed out. It is very likely that the differences in results drawn in both studies are results of the different orientations of the textbooks in terms of their degree of emphasis on the concept definition of continuity of function.

• Korean Medical Education Review
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.59-63
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• 2012

Current medical students are a distinct new generation who can be distinguished from the previous generation. Therefore, a clear understanding of their characteristics is vital in developing an appropriate educational program for them. The purpose of this article is to explore the characteristics of the current generation of high achieving medical students. Notable characteristics that define this generation include the following: they feel they are special, and they are sheltered, confident, highly optimistic, pressured, conventional, and have a strong desire to achieve. They are the digital generation, who can obtain information through various forms of technology. Furthermore, they are high achieving students in highly competitive educational environments. It has been suggested that various teaching methods be used in the medical school classroom. Using digital methods could be crucial in providing high-quality medical education. Educators should pay more attention to students' psychosocial development and help them to effectively cope with their academic stress.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.24
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• pp.62-83
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• 2011

The totality of language learning comprises three integrated components: linguistic, cultural, and attitudinal (Wilkes, 1983).Positively sensitizing students to cultural phenomena is urgent and crucial. A positive attitude toward L2 culture is a factor in language learning that leads to cross cultural understanding. This research examined, through a survey analysis, how three groups of students (one high school group and two university student groups) viewed the role of their foreign culture (i.e., American and British cultures) in achieving cultural understanding. The focus was upon how EFL learners approach the target language culture as well as their own culture.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.235-252
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• 2023

We investigated the classification of learner groups for students' mathematical modeling competency and analyzed the characteristics in each profile group for each country and variable using PISA 2012 data from six countries. With a perspective on measuring sub-competency, we applied the latent profile analysis method to student achievement for mathematical modeling variables - Formulate, Employ, Interpret. The findings showed the presence of 4-6 profile groups, with the variables exhibiting high and low achievement within each profile group varying by country, and a hierarchical structure was observed in the profile group distribution in all countries, interestingly, the Formulate variable showed the largest difference between high-achieving and low-achieving profile groups. These results have significant implications. Comparison by country, variable, and profile group can provide valuable insights into understanding the various characteristics of students' mathematical modeling competency. The Formulate variable could serve as the most suitable predictor of a student's profile group and the score range of other variables. We suggest further studies to gain more detailed insights into mathematical modeling competency with different cultural contexts.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.111-136
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• 2018

This study suggests a framework for analyzing items based on the characteristics, and shows the relationship among the characteristics, difficulty, percentage of correct answers, academic achievement and the actual mathematical problem solving competency. Three mathematics educators' classification of 30 items of Mathematics 'Ga' type, on 2017 College Scholastic Ability Test, and the responses given by 148 high school students on the survey examining mathematical problem solving competency were statistically analyzed. The results show that there are only few items satisfying the characteristics for mathematical problem solving competency, and students feel ill-defined and non-routine items difficult, but in actual percentage of correct answers, routineness alone has an effect. For the items satisfying the characteristics, low-achieving group has difficulty in understanding problem, and low and intermediate-achieving group have difficulty in mathematical modelling. The findings can suggest criteria for mathematics teachers to use when developing mathematics questions evaluating problem solving competency.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.252-258
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• 2022

In this study, we propose a method for analyzing students' understanding of probability and statistics in small lectures at universities. A computer-based test for probability and statistics was performed on 95 science and engineering college students. After dividing the students' responses into 7 clusters using the Robust PCA and the Gaussian mixture model, the achievement of each subject was analyzed for each cluster. High-ranking clusters generally showed high achievement on most topics except for statistical estimation, and low-achieving clusters showed strengths and weaknesses on different topics. Compared to the widely used PCA-based dimension reduction followed by clustering analysis, the proposed method showed each group's characteristics more clearly. The characteristics of each cluster can be used to develop an individualized learning strategy.

• School Mathematics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.297-313
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• 2012

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential and to examine the effect of narrative, as an alternative approach to teach formal proof in more easier and comprehensible way. Identifying the key elements of narrative in proof, we constructed a narrative that derives the equation of function translation. We examined the effect of teaching through the narrative, in comparison with teaching the corresponding proof, on low-achieving students' instrumental understanding and relational understanding of function translation. Since we found no statistically significant differences between the experimental and the comparison group, this study could not conclude that teaching through the narrative was more effective than teaching the corresponding proof. But there were some qualitative differences in the relational understanding responses and the evaluation of the teaching between two groups. These findings suggested some potential of narratives that complement the formal proof.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.95-119
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• 2015

This study discussed the major notion of backward design placing emphasis on performance and evaluation, and clarified the concepts of 'understanding' and 'enduring understanding' based on the literature of Wiggins and McTighe and previous studies. This study also developed a sample curriculum module for a consumer unit for 7 class hours based on the 'Understanding by Design' template. This study concluded that backward design can contribute to achieving student's high performance from evaluation planning prior to actual instruction, to utilizing learning with higher order thinking and skills by analyzing key concepts, and to reconstructing curriculum contents considering a teacher's perspective, students' needs, and each school's situation and context.