• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.115-139
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• 2019

In problem solving education, sentence problems are a tool for comprehensive evaluation of mathematical ability. The sentence problems refer to the problem expressed in sentence form rather than simply a numerical representation of mathematical problems. In order to solve sentence problems with a mixture of mathematical terms and general language, problem-solving ability including the ability to understand the meaning of sentences as well as the mathematical computation ability is required. Therefore, it is important to analyze syntactic elements from the linguistic aspects in sentence problems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the complexity of sentence problems in the length of sentences and the grammatical complexity of the sentences in the depth of the sentences by analyzing the 51 sentence problems presented in the $4^{th}$ grade mathematics textbook(2015 revised curriculum). As a result, it was confirmed that it is necessary to examine the length and depth of the sentence more carefully in the teaching and learning of sentence problems. Especially in elementary mathematics, the sentence problems requires a linguistic understanding of the sentence, and therefore it is necessary to consider syntactic elements in the process of developing and teaching sentence problems in mathematics textbook.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.69-86
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• 2017

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of small-group arithmetic word problem activities with concrete materials on 5 year old children's mathematical ability and attitude. Methods: A total of 34 five-year-old children (control group 16 children, experimental group18 children) attending two kindergartens in P city participated in this study. Fifteen small-group arithmetic word problem activities with concrete materials were conducted in the classroom of the experimental group twice a week for eight weeks. Before and after the activities, all the participants individually took a basic arithmetic test, mathematical word problem solving test, and mathematical attitudes test. Results: First, we observed that the children in the experimental group achieved significantly higher scores on the mathematical ability tests, including the basic arithmetic test and mathematical word problems solving test when compared to the children in the control group. Second, we also found that children in the experimental group showed higher improvement in the mathematical attitudes test than their counterparts. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study suggest that small-group arithmetic word problem activities with concrete materials are effective in improving children's mathematical ability and attitudes.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.149-164
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perception of elementary school teachers about situation-contextual problem and to show efforts on order to enable students to improve their problem solving ability and thinking skills. In this research, two hundred elementary school teachers in Seoul were surveyed and three elementary school teachers were interviewed to determine their perception and the status about situation-contextual problem. As a result, most of teachers replied that situation-contextual problem would be useful and applicable to improve students' problem solving and creative thinking skill.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.95-114
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• 2012

This study examines the use of ill-structured problem to help the 4th graders' problem solving and reasoning. It appears that children with good understanding of problem situation tend to accept the situation as itself rather than just as texts and produce various results with extraction of meaningful variables from situation. In addition, children with better understanding of problem situation show AR (algorithmic reasoning) and CR (creative reasoning) while children with poor understanding of problem situation show just AR (algorithmic reasoning) on their reasoning type.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2024

In this paper, the author analyzed characteristics of deep mathematics learning in problem solving and problem-posing classroom teaching. Based on a simple wrong plane geometry problem, the author describes the classroom experience how one expert Chinese mathematics teacher guides students to modify geometry problems from solution to investigation, and guides the students to learn how to pose mathematics problems in inquiry-based deep learning classroom. This also demonstrates how expert mathematics teacher can effectively guide students to teach deep learning in regular classroom.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.2
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• pp.181-191
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to provide the primary sources to improve the problem solving performance by analyzing the errors and the strategies selection of the high school students when solving given algebraic problems. To attain the purpose of this study, the questions for investigation in this study are : 1. What are the differences / similarities in the patterns of errors committed by successful and unsuccessful problem-solvers when solving particular algebraic problems ? 2. What are the error types chosen by unsuccessful problem-solvers when solving particular algebraic problems? 3. Do students utilize checking, either locally or globally, when solving particular algebraic problems? Twenty students were drawn out of 10th grade students in J girls' high school in Yengi -gun, Chung-Nam, for this study. The problem-solving test was used as a test instrument. From the data, the verbal protocols and the written protocols were analyzed by the patterns. The conclusions drawn from the results obtained in the present study are as follows: First, in solving particular algebraic problems, when the problems were solved with one strategy, most students didn't give any consideration to other strategies. So mathematics teachers should teach them to use the various strategies, and should develop the problems to be used the various strategies. Second, in solving particular algebraic problems, errors on notions or transformations of equations were found. Thus, the basic knowledges related to equation should be taught. In addition, most unsuccessful students seleted the strategies inadequately to solve the problems because of misunderstanding the problems. So, to improve the problem solving performance the processes of 'understanding problem' should be emphasized to students. Third, although the unsuccesful students used the 'checking' processes when solving the problems, most of them did not find the errors because of misconceptions related to the problems, carelessness, and unskillfulness of checking. Thus, students must be taught more carefully and encouraged to use the checking.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.523-540
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• 2010

The purpose of the study were to analyze MathThematics textbooks and Korean middle school mathematics and to investigate the difference among the textbooks in the view of mathematical communication. According to the results, the textbook developers made a variety of efforts to develope students' mathematical communication ability. Students were encouraged to communicate with others about their mathematical ideas or problem solving processes in words or writing by means of discussion, oral report, presentation, journal, etc. MathThematics textbooks provided student self-assessment opportunity to improve student performance in problem solving, reasoning, and communication. In communication assessment, students can assess their use of mathematical vocabulary, notation, and symbols, the use of graphs, tables, models, diagrams and equation to solve problem and their presentation skills. The assessment activities would make a positive impact on the development of students' mathematical communication ability. MathThematics textbooks provided a variety of problem situation including history, science, sports, culture, art, and real world as a topic for communication, however, the researcher found that some of Korean textbooks depends heavily on mathematical problem situations.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.471-487
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• 2008

Inventive mathematical thinking, original mathematical problem solving ability, mathematical invention and so on are core concepts, which must be emphasized in all branches of mathematical education. In particular, Polya(1981) insisted that inventive thinking must be emphasized in a suitable level of university mathematical courses. In this paper, the author considered two cases of inventive problem solving ability shown by his many students via real analysis courses. The first case is about the proof of the problem "what is the derived set of the integers Z?" Nearly all books on mathematical analysis sent the question without the proof but some books said that the answer is "empty". Only one book written by Noh, Y. S.(2006) showed the proof by using the definition of accumulation points. But the proof process has some mistakes. But our student Kang, D. S. showed the perfect proof by using The Completeness Axiom, which is very useful in mathematical analysis. The second case is to show the infinite countability of NxN, which is shown by informal proof in many mathematical analysis books with formal proofs. Some students who argued the informal proof as an unreasonable proof were asked to join with us in finding the one-to-one correspondences between NxN and N. Many students worked hard and find two singled-valued mappings and one set-valued mapping covering eight diagrams in the paper. The problems are not easy and the proofs are a little complicated. All the proofs shown in this paper are original and right, so the proofs are deserving of inventive mathematical thoughts, original mathematical problem solving abilities and mathematical inventions. From the inventive proofs of his students, the author confirmed that any students can develope their mathematical abilities by their professors' encouragements.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.793-806
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• 2010

In this paper we study meaning and methods of analyzing problems related with equation of high school mathematics. By analyzing problem we can get two types of informations. Based on these informations we suggest some problem solving methods. Especially we try to extract second type information using analysis through synthesis. This second type information can help us to find new non-routine problem solving method.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.523-541
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• 2021

Education for the future society should emphasize the experience of sharing, coexisting, and solving problems in cooperation with each other in the community. Accordingly, in addition to the problem-solving capability, which is the ultimate goal of mathematics education, it is necessary to strengthen the capability to solve unstructured problems through collaboration. This study attempted to suggest that solving complex problems through collaboration is used in school classes or gifted education by introducing polymath that solves problems using collective intelligence. Accordingly, a target problem was set and an example of polymath in which community members exert each other's intelligence to solve the problem. In addition, by investigating the perceptions of students who have experienced polymath, positive aspects and improvements of polymath were suggested. Through this, this study can contribute to revitalization of mathematics teaching and learning methods using collective intelligence.