• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.141-161
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• 2009

Mathematical Communication ability can be more developed through sharing thoughts with others. Therefore when we instruct students in math, it is very important for teachers to provide them with opportunity to communicate mathematically. So this study provided open-ended problems in small-group collaborative learning. And we analyzed students' mathematical communication focused on the student's level of understanding. Furthermore, to improve students' mathematical communication ability, this study tries to attract the factors that we should consider the exact date for inserting the open-ended problems into a course of math and the student's level of understanding for selecting suitable open-ended problems.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.123-141
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• 2003

This study investigated the understanding level and the using level of mathematical language for middle school students in terms of Freudenthal' language levels. It was proved that the understanding level task developed by current study for geometric concept had reliability and validity, and that there was the hierarchy of levels on which students understanded mathematical language. The level that students used in explaining mathematical concepts was not interrelated to the understanding level, and was different from answering the right answer according to the sorts of tasks. And, the level of mathematical language that was understood easily as students' thought, was the third level of the understanding levels. Mathematics teachers should consider the students' understanding level and using level, and give students the tasks which students could use their mathematical language confidently.

• School Mathematics
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.261-280
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• 2009

This study was motivated by recognizing the weakness of teaching and learning about the concepts of statements in high school mathematics curriculum. To report the reality of students' understanding about statements, this study investigated the 33 first-year undergraduate students' understanding about the concepts of statements by giving them 22 statement problems. The problems were selected based on the conceptual framework including five types of statement concepts which are considered as the key ideas for understanding mathematical reasoning and proof in college level mathematics. The analysis of the participants' responses to the statement problems found that their understanding about the concepts of prepositions are very limited and extremely based on the instrumental understanding applying an appropriate remembered rule to the solution of a preposition problem without knowing why the rule works. The results from this study will give the information for effective teaching and learning of statements in college level mathematics, and give the direction for the future reforming the unite of statements in high school mathematics curriculum as well.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.137-159
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• 2005

As what exactly understands a meaning of mathematics terms, is a starting point of mathematical thinking, it plays a very important role in the mathematics learning. What understood mathematics terms which were defined here, includes not only the terms of comprising its definition, but also all of the understanding in context, situation, intention and purpose, which came to give its definition. Due to this reason, it needs to be examined how much students are correctly understanding about mathematics terms which appear in the texts, and to seek for its cause for the terms which are felt to be difficult. Accordingly, this study investigated into mathematics terms which are used for the field of geometry in the elementary school mathematics textbooks, and tried to analyze students' understanding level about each term.

• School Mathematics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.445-469
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• 2014

This study aims to examine secondary mathematics teachers' understanding of the levels of cognitive demand on mathematical tasks suggested in mathematics textbooks. The study also attempts to investigate whether the teachers are able to characterize the tasks accordingly and to change low level tasks to high level ones. For this purpose, we developed a survey and 50 secondary mathematics teachers participated in the survey. The findings from the data analysis suggest that 59 percent of the teachers selected high level tasks as appropriate for achieving the national curricular goals, but about 1/3 of the teachers identified PNC tasks as high level ones. The results also reveal that more than half of the teachers were not able to transform low level into high level tasks and only 4 teachers out of 50 were able to transform successfully. The teachers seem to find difficulty in transforming low level tasks into high level ones.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.451-465
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• 2019

Textbooks are official materials so that these are the most frequently used teaching materials in school. The teacher constructs the lesson based on the contents of the textbook to achieve the learning goal. Thus, textbooks play an important role because the quality of the contents in textbooks affects the cognitive level of students. This study investigates the cognitive domain based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives(knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation) of 'Values and Expression' in the mathematics textbook of the first grade of middle school reflecting the 2015 revised mathematics curriculum. We also looked at cognitive levels based on Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. As a result, it was found that understanding was dominant in 'Values and Expression'. Also, although the problem of requiring a higher level of cognition is increasing as the unit finishes, there are still a high percentage of low level of problems.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.353-371
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate preservice secondary teachers' understanding and modification capacity of tasks from mathematics textbooks. This study conducted a survey about how preservice teachers understand the features of mathematical tasks and how they would select and modify tasks appropriately from the curriculum and for lesson goals. The findings from the analysis suggest that the preservice teachers seem to recognize Procedures Without Connections tasks as the high-level tasks. Further, 43 percent of the total numbers appropriately selected the tasks from the curriculum and for lesson goals. Most of the preservice teachers appear to find it difficult to modify low-level tasks into high-level tasks.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.207-219
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• 2004

There have been studies reporting the increase in student confidence in mathematics when using technology. However, past studies indicating a positive correlation between technology and confidence in mathematics do not explain why they see this positive outcome. With increased availability and easy access to the Internet in schools and the development of free online virtual manipulatives, this research was interested in how the use of virtual manipulatives in mathematics can affect students confidence in their mathematical abilities. Our hypothesis was that the classes using virtual manipulatives which allows students to connecting dynamic visual image with abstract symbols will help students gain a deeper conceptual understanding of math concept thus increasing their confidence and ability in mathematics. The participants in this study were 46 fifth-grade students in three ability groups: one high, one middle and one low. During a two-week unit on fractions, students in three groups interacted with several virtual manipulative applets in a computer lab. Data sources in the project included a pre and posttest of students mathematics content knowledge, Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale, field notes and student interviews, and classroom videotapes. Our aim was to find evidence for increased level of confidence in mathematics as students strengthened their understanding of fraction concepts. Results from the achievement score indicated an overall main effect showing significant improvement for all ability groups following the treatment and an increase in the confidence level from the preassessment of the Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale in the middle and high ability groups. An interesting finding was that the confidence level for the low ability group students who had the highest confidence level in the beginning did not change much in the final confidence scale assessment. In the middle and high ability groups, the confidence level did increase according to the improvement of the contest posttest. Through interviews, students expressed how the virtual manipulatives assisted their understanding by verifying their answers as they worked and facilitated their ability to figure out math concept in their mind and visually.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.569-594
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• 2010

On the standards or elements of teaching evaluation, the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation(KICE) has carried out several research as follows : 1) establishment of observation elements for selecting examples of good mathematics instruction between 2001 and 2002, 2) development of the standards on teaching evaluation between 2004 and 2006, and 3) investigation on the elements of Pedagogical Content Knowledge including understanding of learners between 2007 and 2008. The purposes of development of mathematics teaching evaluation standards through those studies were to improve not only mathematics teachers' professionalism but also their own teaching methods or strategies. In this study, the standards were revised and modified by analyzing the results of those three studies (namely, evaluation standards) focused on the teacher knowledge of learners' understanding. For this purpose, the meaning of learners' understanding was also investigated in-depth. Finally, the concrete elements on teaching evaluation focused on the teacher knowledge of learners' understanding in math class were new developed, based on the literature reviews on learners' understanding. Then, those evaluation elements were developed according to the five domains of learners' understanding such as evaluation domains such as students' intellectual and achievement level, students' misconception in math, students' motivation on learning, students' attitude on mathematics learning, and students' learning strategies.

• Korean Journal of Mathematics
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.409-424
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• 2010

We observed the symptoms that occur to students who dislike mathematics when they study mathematics and the data that mathematics is related to foreign language. This study investigated the relation between mathematics and foreign language. Continuous immersion aids not only in acquiring language but also in learning mathematics. For continuous immersion, it is essential to organize small class. We organized small class and compared large class with small class about how the relation between mathematics and language appears in achievement, rate of presence, rate of submission of report, and attitude and enthusiasm. Based on the result, we try to find out the way to increase understanding mathematics and level up the achievements.