• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.355-369
• /
• 2009

Though there is no agreement on the definition of analogical reasoning, there is no doubt that analogical reasoning is the means of mathematical knowledge construction. Mathematicians generally have a tendency or desire to find similarities between new and existing Ideas, and new and existing representations. They construct appropriate links to new ideas or new representations by focusing on common relational structures of mathematical situations rather than on superficial details. This focus is analogical reasoning at work in the construction of mathematical knowledge. Since analogical reasoning is the means by which mathematicians do mathematics and is close]y linked to measures of intelligence, it should be considered important in mathematics education. This study investigates how mathematicians used analogical reasoning, what role did it flay when they construct new concept or problem solving strategy.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.123-133
• /
• 1999

For an appropriate assessment in mathematics, students should play an active role in their learning by becoming aware of what they have learned in mathematics and by being able to assess their attainment of mathematical knowledge. The process of actively examining and monitoring students' own progress in learning and understanding of their mathematical knowledge, process, and attitude is called self-assessment, Researchers in mathematics education have found some important facts about the meta-cognitive process which is related to self-assessment : i. e. meta-cognition progress is composed of being aware of ones' own personal thinking of content knowledge and cognitive process(self-awareness) and engagement in self-evaluation. Tipical method for self-assessment in mathematics developed upon above finding about meta-cognitive progress is describing about students' knowledge and their problem solving strategies. In the beginning of the description in mathematics about themselves, students are required to answer which part they know and which part they don't know. Self-assessment of students' attitudes and dispositions can be just as important as assessment of their specific mathematical abilities. To make the self-assessment method a success, teachers should let students' have confidence and earn their cooperation by let them overcoming fear to be known the their ability to other students. In conclusion, self-assessment encourages students to assume an active role in development of mathematical power. For teachers, student self-assessment activities can provide a prism through which the development of students' mathematical power can be viewed.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.161-171
• /
• 2012

Generally mathematics is regarded as a subtle subject to grasp their true meaning. And teacher's personal conceptions of mathematics influence greatly on the teaching and learning of mathematics. More over often teachers confess their difficulties in explaining the true nature of mathematics. In this paper, applying the theory of epistemology, we tried to search factors that must be counted important when trying to understand the true nature of mathematics. As results, we identified five characteristics of mathematical knowledge such as logical reasoning, abstractive concept, mathematical representation, systematical structure, and axiomatic validation. Next, we tried to investigate math education major students' conception of mathematics using these items. To proceed this research we asked 51 students from three Universities to answer their opinion on 'What do you think is mathematics?'. Analysing their answers in the light of the above five items, we got the following facts. 1. Only 38% of the students regarded mathematics as one of the five items, which can be considered to reveal students' low concern about the basic nature of mathematics. 2. The status of students' responses to the question were greatly different among the three Universities. This shows that mathematics professors need to lead students to have concern about the true nature of mathematics.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.16 no.4
• /
• pp.695-717
• /
• 2013

Teacher knowledge needed for teaching is bound to be revealed in teaching the subject matter in relation to the given instructional context. Given this, recent studies on mathematics teacher knowledge tend to analyze actual Mathematical Knowledge in Teaching [MKiT]. This study focused on the dimension of transformation and its related codes in Knowledge Quartet, which has been recognized as a MKiT framework, and analyzed a Korean teacher's transformation knowledge revealed in her elementary mathematics teaching. The analysis showed that the codes related to the dimension of transformation were useful in analyzing teacher knowledge in the Korean context. However, a few codes need to be revised or added for more suitability. On the basis of these results, this paper closes with implications for analyzing teacher knowledge in mathematics teaching.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.1-16
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether analogy distance and mathematical knowledge affect on transfer problems solving with different analogy distance. To conduct the study, transfer problems were classified into multiple categories: mathematical word problem based on rates, science word problem based on rates, and real-life problem based on rates with different analogy distance. Then analysed there are differences in participants' transfer ability and which mathematical knowledge contributes to the solution on over the three transfer problem. The study demonstrated a statistical significant difference(.05) in participants' three transfer problem solving and a gradual decrease of the participants' success rates of on transfer problems solving. Moreover, conceptual knowledge influenced transfer problem solving more than factual knowledge about rates. The study has an important implications in that it provided new direction for study about transfer of learning, and also show a good mathematics instruction on where teachers will put the focus in mathematical lesson to foster elementary students' transfer ability.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.1-24
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to uncover weaknesses in the constructivism in mathematics education and to search for ways to complement these deficiencies. We contemplate the relationship between the capability of construction and the performance of it, with the view of the 'Twofold-Structure of Mind.' From this, it is claimed that the construction of mathematical knowledge should be to experience and reveal the upper layer of Mind, the Reality. Based on the examination on the conflict and relation between the structuralism and the constructivism, with reference to the 'theory of principle' and the 'theory of material force' in Neo-Confucianist theory, it is asserted that the construction of mathematical knowledge must be the construction of the structure of mathematical knowledge. To comprehend the processes involved in the construction of the structure of mathematical knowledge, the epistemology of Michael Polanyi is studied. And also, the theory of mathematization, the historico-genetic principle, and the theory on the levels of mathematical thinking are reinterpreted. Finally, on the basis of the theory of twofold-structure, the roles and attitudes of teachers and students are discussed.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.371-388
• /
• 2007

This is a case study trying to understand from the view of affordance which certain three middle school students perceive an activation of previous knowledge in the course of problem solving when they solve algebra word problems with a previous knowledge. The results of this study showed that at first, every subjects perceived the text as affordance which explaining superficial similarities, that is, a working(painting)situation rather than problem structure and then activated the related solution knowledge on the ground of the experience of previous problem solving which is similar to current situation. The subject's applying process for solving knowledge could be arranged largely into two types. The first type is a numeral information connected with the described problem situation or a symbolic representation of mathematical meaning which are the transformed solution applied process with a suitable solution formula to the current problem. This process achieved by constructing a virtual mental model that indicating mathematical situation about the problem when the solver read the problem integrating symbolized information from the described text. The second type is a case that those subjects symbolizing a formal mathematical concept which is not connected with the problem situation about the described numeral information from the applied problem or the text of mathematical meaning, which process is the case to perceive superficial phrases or words that described from the problem as affordance and then applied previously used algorithmatical formula as it was. In conclusion, on the ground of the results of this case study, it is guessed that many students put only algorithmatical knowledge in their memories through previous experiences of problem solving, and the memories are connected with the particular phrases described from the problems. And it is also recognizable when the reflection process which is the last step of problem solving carried out in the process of understanding the problem and making a plan showed the most successful in problem solving.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.617-630
• /
• 2015

A perspective of the nature of teacher knowledge has a significant impact on why and how we study teacher knowledge. The purpose of this study was to explore the mathematics knowledge in teaching (MKiT) in terms of meanings, characteristics, and analytic methods. MKiT regards teacher knowledge as practical knowledge that has meanings only when it is employed in teaching mathematics. Various components of teacher knowledge interact one another in teaching mathematics. Given this, teacher knowledge is regarded as an organism specific to teaching contexts and it needs to be analyzed by observing lessons or a teacher's actions related directly to the lessons. This paper is expected to induce research on teacher knowledge from the MKiT perspective and urge researchers to have a profound understanding of the nature and analytic methods of teacher knowledge. Some implications of future research are included.

• Research in Mathematical Education
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.263-279
• /
• 2010

Teachers' personal knowledge (PK) is an element in their pedagogic-practical knowledge. This study exposes the PK of primary school mathematics teachers regarding solid geometry through reflection. Students are exposed to solid geometry on various levels, from kindergarten age and above. Previous studies attested to the fact that students encounter difficulties-strong dislike and fear engendered by geometry. A good number of teachers have strong dislike to solid geometry, as well. Therefore, those engaged in teaching the subject must address the problem and try to overcome these difficulties. In this paper we have introduced the reflective process among teachers in primary school, including application of Van-Hiele's theory to solid geometry.

• Journal of the Korean Operations Research and Management Science Society
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.157-185
• /
• 1998

One of the essential issues in model systems is how to represent and manipulate mathematical modeling knowledge. As the bases of integrated modeling environments, current modeling frameworks have limitations: lack of facility to coordinate different users perpectives and lack of mechanism to reuse modeling knowledge. In this paper, multi-facetted modeling approach is proposed as a basis for the development of integrated modeling environment which provides facilities for (1) independent management of modeling knowledge from individual models； (2) object-oriented conceptual blackboard concept； (3) multi-facetted modeling； and (4) declarative representation of mathematical knowledge. The proposed multi-facetted approach is illustrated using multicommodity transportation models.