• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.197-222
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to find out if it is possible to apply the Waldorf School's mathematics education method to Korean alternative schools which are run under the national curriculum. To achieve this, the researcher conducted class on geometry for three weeks with ten 7th graders(four girls and six boys) from Apple Tree Waldorf alternative school in Busan, which has adopted Valdorf education courses. For the first two weeks, the class was about 'fundamental geometrical construction', and then it was evaluated. On the third week, the lesson was on plane figures, followed by a test with 9 plane figure questions that are based on general middle school mathematics curriculum. The result shows that most of the students understood 'fundamental geometrical construction'. When it comes to the test on 'plane figures', seven students got 8 out of 9 right, two students got 6 out of 9 right, and one of them had difficulty solving the questions. According to the results of this research, it is thought that there will be no problem for students to understand mathematical concept even if the Waldorf School's mathematics education method is applied to Korean alternative schools. Also, the Waldorf School's mathematics education method is considered to be a good teaching model for the Korean mathematics curriculum which places emphasis on 'mathematical creativity' in regard to the curriculum and contents.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.9 no.3 s.23
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• pp.203-231
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• 2005

Students in East Asia have consistently out-performed their counterparts in the West in recent international studies of mathematics achievement. But some studies also show that East Asian students are more rigid in thought, and lack originality and creativity. While different theories have been proposed to account for these student performances, relatively few research studies have been done on classroom practices, potentially a major variable for explaining student performances. This paper will report on the results of two classroom studies: the TIMSS 1999 Video Study and the Learners' Perspective Study (LPS). Results the quantitative analysis of the TlMSS 1999 Video Study data show that the East Asian classrooms were dominated by teacher talk, and the mathematics content learned was abstract and unrelated to the real life. On the other hand, the characteristics of the instructional practices in Hong Kong as judged by an expert panel are that student learned relatively advanced mathematics content; the components of the lessons were more coherent, and the presentation of the lessons was more fully developed. Hong Kong students seemed to be more engaged in the mathematics lessons, and the. overall quality of the lessons was judged to be high. Results of the analysis of the LPS data also show that the classrooms in the East Asian city of Seoul were in general teacher dominated, but students were usually actively engaged in the mathematics learning. Emphasis on exploration of mathematics and practicing exercises with variation was common. It is argued that the quality teaching in the East Asian classrooms laid a firm foundation in mathematics for students, and that constitutes a necessary condition for the development of students' creativity. In order to fully develop the creativity of East Asian students, they need to be given the right environment and encouragement.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.257-277
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• 2017

The purpose of this research is divide into two kinds. First, develop the mathematical modeling program for mathematically gifted students focused on Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation, and then gifted teachers can use it in the class. Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation are Spatial partition theory use in engineering and geography field and improve gifted student's mathematical connections, problem solving competency and reasoning ability. Second, after applying the developed program to the class, I analyze gifted student's core competency. Applying the mathematical modeling program, the following findings were given. First, Voronoi diagram and Delaunay triangulation are received attention recently and suitable subject for mathematics gifted education. Second,, in third enrichment course(Student's Centered Mathematical Modeling Activity), gifted students conduct the problem presentation, division of roles, select and collect the information, draw conclusions by discussion. In process of achievement, high level mathematical competency and intellectual capacity are needed so synthetic thinking ability, problem solving, creativity and self-directed learning ability are appeared to gifted students. Third, in third enrichment course(Student's Centered Mathematical Modeling Activity), problem solving, mathematical connections, information processing competency are appeared.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.389-407
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• 2017

Many researches related to STEAM education have been actively conducted for developing elementary and secondary school students' comprehensive and logical thinking ability in relation to creativity education in Korea. Each sub factor of STEAM education requires creative thinking with the ability to be merged together to solve problems as integrated or combined forms in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Also, these STEAM activities and experiences should be carried out at various places outside the classroom in school. Although various educational programs to enhance mathematical creativity have been emphasized for elementary and secondary school students, recent tendency to focus on classroom learning in the school makes it difficult to develop creative thinking ability of students. This research is mainly based on the result of the project "Development and Administration of STEAM Outreach Program in 2016" supported by KOFAC(Korea Foundation for the Achievement of Science & Creativity). The purpose of this research is to develop a STEAM outreach program including students' activity books, teachers' manuals and administration manual that can maximize STEAM-related interest of students, and to provide a chance for elementary and secondary school students to experience creative thinking based on sub factors of STEAM. The STEAM competency total score and the perception of convergence education were significantly increased for all students participating this program, but some sub factors showed different result by school levels. The STEAM outreach program developed by this study is designed to emphasize STEAM education especially 'based on' mathematics in order to provide students with the opportunity to experience more interest in the field of mathematics and will be able to provide an interesting creative STEAM outreach program that utilizes a variety of activities which, we expect, would help students to consider their career in the future.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-30
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• 2011

We study to design educational Logo-based microworld environment equipped with 3D construction capability, 3D manipulation, and web-based communication. Extending the turtle metaphor of 2D Logo, we design simple and intuitive symbolic representation system that can create several turtle objects and operations. We also present various mathematization activities applying the turtle objects and suggest the way to make good use of them in mathematics education. In our microworld environment, the symbolic representations constructing the turtle objects can be used for web-based collaborative learning, communication, and assessments.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.9 no.4 s.24
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• pp.335-340
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• 2005

According to the mathematics educational practice and research about gifted children in some secondary schools in China, the paper presented some relevant problems: 1. Missing or mistaken selecting in gifted children in China. It included the limitations of identifying standard and the fault of understanding and doing in practice, administration disturbance and emotional inclination. 2. Backward traditional mathematics teaching in gifted children in China. It included lower teaching starting point, slower teaching planned speed, simpler teaching contents and so on. The paper analyzed the problems, and made enlightenment for gifted children's mathematical teaching strategies: raising starting point of contents; emphasizing essential principles and skills; using flexible teaching methods; encouraging discover and creativity and developing harmoniously psychological level and mathematical ability. As to these strategies, some detail measures were offered as well.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.31-49
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• 2009

Utilizing the mathematical materials in elementary mathematics education is known to increase the learners' creativity and interests for mathematics. Although the effects of mathematical materials have been frequently researched, a practical plan and a process to utilize the mathematical materials has been rarely researched. The dependence on the mathematical materials is tested by the students' responses to the mathematical problems in the class that allowed to use mathematical materials. The activities in the text book are reorganized to seven chapters for utilizing the mathematical materials. The dependence on the mathematical materials when solving the mathematical problems is investigated by the textbook, students' answers, and handouts. The conclusions of this study are: First of all, the activities using mathematical materials are reorganized within the mathematics education curriculum. The high interests are also investigated in all the learning level of learners. Second, the learners in the high learning level use the mathematical materials for their needs and the correction of their mistakes. The dependence on mathematical materials is lowest compared to the other level learners. Third, the learners in the mid learning level also use the mathematical materials for their needs and their mistakes, but are often confused when utilizing the materials. Fourth, the learners in the low learning level show their interests, and enthusiasm in the mathematical materials themselves. Their interests help to solve mathematical problems. The dependence on the materials is higher than the other level learners, but the dependence is not shown only for the low level learners.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2011

Logo has influenced many researchers and learners for the past decades as a 20 turtle geometry environment in the perspective of constructionism. Logo uses the metaphor of 'playing turtle' that is intrinsic, local and procedural. We, then, design an environment in which the metaphor of 'playing turtle' is applied to construct 3D objects, and we figure out ways to represent 3D objects in terms action symbols and 3D building blocks. For this purpose, design three kinds of representation systems, and asked students make various 3D artifacts using various representation systems. We briefly introduce the results of our investigation into students' cognitive burden when they use those representation systems, and discuss the future application measures and the design principles of Logo-based 3D microworld.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.187-210
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• 2017

The animated discussion about mathematical modeling that had studied consistently in Korea since 1990s has flourished, because mathematical modeling was involved in the teaching-learning method to improve problem solving competency on 2015 reformed mathematics curriculum. In an attempt to re-examine the educational value and necessity of application to school education field, this study was to review the literature of mathematical modeling in mathematical competencies perspective. As a result, mathematical modeling could not only be involved the components of problem solving competency, but also support other competencies; reasoning, creativity-amalgamation, data-processing, communication, and attitude -practice. In this regard, This paper suggested the necessity of the discussion about the position of mathematical modeling in mathematical competencies and the active use of mathematical modeling tasks in mathematics textbook or school classes.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.293-302
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• 2011

The objective of this study is to search the recognition of teacher on the pattern and characteristics of the questioning sentence of the newly appointed teachers for the mathematics class through the case study for the 2ndyear teachers. The study participants' class was recorded in video and individual interview was made for 4 times. The pattern of the questioning sentence in the observed class was analyzed using the classification frame with addition of creativity related items to the classification frame suggested by Mogan & Saxton(2006). The questioning sentence and recognition on the mathematics class for the newly appointed teachers were analyzed based on the individual meeting and class materials. In result, the questioning sentence for confirmation was most frequent (69%) and questioning sentence of understanding (25%) and the questioning sentence for introspection (6%) in its priority. It was known that the questioning sentence for extending the creativity didn't make it at all. It was revealed that the participant teachers in this study used the questioning sentence pattern for fact confirmation of the student most frequently and the use of the questioning sentence for accelerating the creative thinking of the student was lacked. In addition, the teachers recognized that they manage the class oriented to questioning sentence for obtaining the concept. It was known that the education for the questioning sentence which accelerates the creativity and other thinking as well as the fact confirmation pattern is necessary through the training for the new teachers in the future.