• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.499-521
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• 2013

This paper analyzed the relationship between middle school students' belief about understanding with regard to mathematical concepts, procedures, and applications of the procedures. In order to gain our purpose, the academic achievement results of midterm examination of 139 middle school students and the surveys about their beliefs about understanding, mathematical concepts, and mathematical procedures were collected. And the cross analysis and the frequency analysis of SPSS were conducted. The research results showed that students' belief about understanding are irrelevant to their academic achievements. And the percentage of the students who believe that they understand was almost the same with the percentage of the students who understand the procedures. But there were differences between the percentage of the students who believe that they understand and the percentage of the students who understand the concepts. Through these, it is conformed. Students' belief about understanding does not mean they understand mathematical concepts. They just can solve mathematical problems through mechanical procedures.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.537-556
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• 2011

This paper focuses on proportional reasoning being emphasized in today's elementary math, and analyzes the way students use their proportional reasoning abilities and strategies according to their academic achievement levels in solving proportional problems. For this purpose, various types of proportional problems were presented to 173 sixth-grade elementary school students and they were asked to use a maximum of three types of proportional reasoning strategies to solve those problems. The experiment results showed that upper-ranking students had better ability to use, express and perceive more types of proportional reasoning than their lower-ranking counterparts. In addition, the proportional reasoning strategies preferred by students were shown to be independent of academic achievement. But there was a difference in the proportional reasoning strategy according to the types of the problems and the ratio of the numbers given in the problem. As a result of this study, we emphasize that there is necessity of the suitable proportional reasoning instruction which reflected on the difference of ability according to student's academic achievement.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.523-543
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• 2009

We conduct a survey to find out the academic achievement factors for 484 second grade students at two middle schools in Busan city and Kyungsangnam Do, respectively. The survey questionnaire includes home environment and background, students' personal character, relationships with friends, learning attitudes towards improving problem solving, variables related to teaching methods and teachers, the school's computer facilities, mobile class by students levels, private education current situations, etc. Private education current situations are presented according to regions. Based on survey data we perform factor analysis to find major factors affecting mathematics academic achievement. We analyze the characteristics of the major factors. We also propose basic data and implications to mathematics educators and mathematics teachers at middle schools for improving middle school mathematics education quality.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.393-417
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• 2023

The necessity of this study was to improve academic achievement and math attitudes through leveled reciprocal peer learning, and the specific purpose was as follows. First, each unit seeks to select learning methods and contents for each level of class for reciprocal peer learning, second, develop activity sites for each level through curriculum analysis, and third, improve academic achievement and math attitudes through classes that apply reciprocal peer learning activities. The study was conducted on 60 second graders of 00 High School in 00 Metropolitan City. Two classes were selected for the midterm exam results for the first semester of the second grade. Class 1 was divided into the experimental group and the other class 1 was divided into the comparative group, and 13 classes were conducted for about 2 months from May 1 to July 4, 2020. The experimental group (30 students) was a class that applied leveled reciprocal peer learning activities, and the comparative group (30 students) was a class that was taught based on traditional textbooks. As a result of this study, first, in this study, it was possible to improve academic achievement and math attitudes by setting learning contents for each unit and applying reciprocal peer learning activities for each level. Second, the experimental group taught by applying leveled reciprocal peer learning activities was effective in academic achievement and math attitudes compared to the comparative group taught based on traditional textbooks to students in the upper, middle, and lower groups. Third, in the class applying leveled reciprocal peer learning activities, low-level students who were neglected in math classes were also interested in the class and actively participated in it, showing improvement.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.23-41
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• 2010

This research applies the climbing learning method that, a Japanese professor, Saito Noboru established and practiced, to fourth and sixth graders in an elementary school in order to analyze its effect on mathematical creativity, attitude toward mathematical creativity, so called CAS(Creative Attitude Scale) and academic achievement of the subject. The goal is to explore methods that can enhance students' mathematical creativity. To address these tasks, the research developed a teaching-learning scheme and learning structure chart that applies the climbing learning method. Next, the research organized two homogeneous groups among 124 students in fourth and sixth grades in S elementary school, located in the city of Busan. The experiment group went through classes that applied climbing learning method, while the control group received regular teaching. The following describes the research findings. After the experiment, the research conducted t-test for the independent sample based on the test result in terms of mathematical creativity, CAS and academic achievement of the subject. For mathematical creativity, all four constructing factor showed statistically significant differences at significance level of 5%. For CAS, statistically significant difference was revealed at significance level of 0.1%. However, in regard to a test of academic achievement for fourth and sixth graders, statistically significant difference was not detected at significance level of 5% even though the average score of the students in the experiment group was higher by 6 points. The research drew the following conclusion. Firstly, classes that apply climbing learning method can be more effective than regular classes in enhancing mathematical creativity of elementary school students. Secondly, the climbing learning method has positive impact on inclination for mathematical creativity of elementary school students. The research suggests that the climbing learning method can be an effective teaching-learning tool to improve students' mathematical creativity and inclination for mathematical creativity.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2021

Factors influencing mathematics academic achievement are constantly changing and have direct and indirect effects on mathematics achievement, so longitudinal studies that can predict and analyze their growth are needed. This study uses longitudinal data on students from 2011 (5th grade of elementary school) to 2015 (2nd grade of middle school) of the Seoul Education Longitudinal Study, and divides them into groups with similar longitudinal changes in mathematics academic achievement. The direct and indirect effects of learning attitudes and achievement goals were examined. As a result of the study, it was found that learning effort and learning attitude had a direct effect on mathematics achievement in 1 group (2277 students, 67.7%), and learning attitude had a direct effect on mathematics achievement in 3 groups (958 students, 28.5%). And it was found that learning effort h ad an indirect effect. In addition, it was found that both learning attitudes, learning efforts, and achievement goals had no effect on the academic achievement of mathematics in the second group (127 students, 3.8%).

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.261-288
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• 2011

We examined the effects of pair assistant collaborative learning on academic achievement of the 2nd year middle school students in the three subjects such as the Probability, Properties of Figures and Similarities of Figures. In order to carry out this study, we selected 2 classes of 2nd year students in a girls middle school in the Fall semester of 2009 and set up the experiment group and comparison group by the result of academic achievement tests given in the end of the Spring semester of 2009. Pair assistant collaborative learning was adopted for students in problem solving 2 or 3 times per a week in the experiment group and each academic achievement was given at the end of each subject in both groups. Also, we had a final survey to find out students' attitude to this collaborative learning. The achievement and survey were analysed by statistical methods. We conclude that our pair assistant collaborative learning was effective in Probability and Similarities of Figures Units. According to the result of survey, this collaborative learning brought about an opportunity to promote students' community spirit through reflecting each one's role in the group.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.525-541
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• 2010

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the effects of the topics in basic mathematics on academic achievement in order to improve the problem-solving abilities of low achievement students in university general mathematics. This program has been conducted from P University as a part of Education Capacity Enhancing Project. The goals of this program are to make students who have fear to mathematics feel confident for mathematics, and make easier to study general mathematics and major field without any difficulties for the students. The topics in basic mathematics was enforced with solving problem based on comprehension of the basic concept and computer-based learning. The classes were organized as Algebra-Geometry, Calculus, and General mathematics class by students' applications for classes and basic academic ability. As a result, the topics in basic mathematics has been evaluated as positive way to effect satisfaction and learning effect for the students who have low-level in basic academic ability. And also, according to the survey, the result shows that assignment through Webwork system and Mathematica program practice are helpful for learning basic mathematics. But several measures are asked for participation in the class and prevention for quitter of participants.

• School Mathematics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.79-103
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is for developing and using project tasks which can be used to connect schooling and home education for the other days of 5days-schooling; to promote students' mathematical ability and to let students have positive cognitions toward mathematics and self-controled learning attitudes. For this study, two classes of 4th graders(56 students) were sampled from a school in D city. Half of them were assigned to the experiment group(EG) and the other to comparison group(CG). In the experiment group, students completed 16 project tasks and we investigated whether there is an effect on students' academic achievement and mathematical disposition. Two kinds of test instruments, pre-test and post-test were used. The pre-test scores guaranteed that both groups were homogeneous. Post-test scores were used to identify three effects and the post-test scores were analyzed by t-test. The result of this study is as follows: (1) There was significant difference between EG and CG in academic achievement (p=0.010). (2) There was significant difference between EG and CG in mathematical disposition(p=0.007). (3) There was no significant difference between EG's pre-test and post-test in mathematical disposition at the 5% significant level. But the average score of mathematical disposition improved from 3.3333 to 3.5375. Mathematical disposition was composed of 6 factors. One of them was mathematical value and there was significant difference between EG's pre-test and post-test at the 5% significance level(p=0.030). But other factors were not. The average scores of mathematical reflection improved a little. So we can say that the activities with project tasks brought an positive influence on students' mathematical disposition.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.383-398
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• 2009

We conduct a survey on mathematics academic achievement to 4th, 5th, and 6th grade elementary school students at Dong-Gu in Busan in order to provide teachers in elementary schools with basic research data. The survey questionnaire includes home background, private education, the difficulty degree of mathematics textbook, practical usage of computers, group-teaching, teaching methods, preview, review, homework amount, learning attitude, problem solving ability, interest for mathematics, and the relationships of a home room teacher and friends. Based on survey data we perform factor analysis to find major factors affecting mathematics academic achievement. We identify if there are statistically significant differences in responses of survey for gender group and grade group with regard to survey questions belonging to the major factors obtained in factor analysis.