• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.20 no.1 s.25
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• pp.117-145
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• 2006

Mathematically gifted children have creative curiosity about novel tasks deriving from their natural mathematical talents, aptitudes, intellectual abilities and creativities. More effect in nurturing the creative thinking found in brilliant children, letting them approach problem solving in various ways and make strategic attempts is needed. Given this perspective, it is desirable to select open-ended and atypical problems as a task for educational program for gifted children. In this paper, various types of open-ended problems were framed and based on these, teaming activities were adapted into gifted children's class. Then in the problem solving process, the characteristic of bright children's mathematical thinking ability and examples of problem solving strategies were analyzed so that suggestions about classes for bright children utilizing open-ended tasks at elementary schools could be achieved. For this, an open-ended task made of 24 inquiries was structured, the teaching procedure was made of three steps properly transforming Renzulli's Enrichment Triad Model, and 24 periods of classes were progressed according to the teaching plan. One period of class for each subcategories of mathematical thinking ability; ability of intuitional insight, systematizing information, space formation/visualization, mathematical abstraction, mathematical reasoning, and reflective thinking were chosen and analyzed regarding teaching, teaming process and products. Problem solving examples that could be anticipated through teaching and teaming process and products analysis, and creative problem solving examples were suggested, and suggestions about teaching bright children using open-ended tasks were deduced based on the analysis of the characteristic of tasks, role of the teacher, impartiality and probability of approaching through reflecting the classes. Through the case study of a mathematics class for bright children making use of open-ended tasks proved to satisfy the curiosity of the students, and was proved to be effective for providing and forming a habit of various mathematical thinking experiences by establishing atypical mathematical problem solving strategies. This study is meaningful in that it provided mathematically gifted children's problem solving procedures about open-ended problems and it made an attempt at concrete and practical case study about classes fur gifted children while most of studies on education for gifted children in this country focus on the studies on basic theories or quantitative studies.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.145-165
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to suggest how to go about teaching and learning secondary school algebra by analyzing problem-solving ability and problem-solving process through algebraic reasoning. In doing this, 393 students' data were thoroughly analyzed after setting up the exam questions and analytic standards. As with the test conducted with technical school students, the students scored low achievement in the algebraic reasoning test and even worse the majority tried to answer the questions by substituting arbitrary numbers. The students with high problem-solving abilities tended to utilize conceptual strategies as well as procedural strategies, whereas those with low problem-solving abilities were more keen on utilizing procedural strategies. All the subject groups mentioned above frequently utilized equations in solving the questions, and when that utilization failed they were left with the unanswered questions. When solving algebraic reasoning questions, students need to be guided to utilize both strategies based on the questions.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.217-231
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• 2004

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a new method for activating the metacognitive abilities that play a key role in the Mathematical Problem Solving Process (MPSP). The proposed research question is as follows: Can the MPSP activate metacognitive abilities of high school students in the pencil-and-paper environment using guidance material for metacognitive activities\ulcorner To solve this question, two case studies have been carried out. Two students for the study were selected via informal interview. They voluntarily took part in 13 experimental lectures. The activating paths of their metacognitive abilities in the MPSP were chronically described and analyzed. All the activating processes of the students focusing on the aspects of metacognitive behaviors were analyzed by means of interview, observation, self-report, and activity data. The two high school students participating in the MPSP voluntarily recognized and reflected their deficiencies in metacognitive abilities, and therefore maximized their own performance. They made quite significant progress in the course of activating their metacognitive abilities through voluntary participation and gained greater confidence in the MPSP. Hence they have become good problem solvers. They expressed not only the factors influencing their behavior but also their self-awareness during the metacognitive activities. In the long run, this experiment will increase possibilities for the internalization of the metacognitive process.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.44 no.4 s.111
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• pp.627-651
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• 2005

This study was conducted to attain an in-depth understanding of students' mathematical representations and to present the educational implications for teaching them. Twelve mathematical tasks were developed according to the six types of problems. A task performance was executed to 151 third graders from four classes in DaeJeon and GyeongGi. We analyzed the types and forms of representations generated by them. Then, qualitative case studies were conducted on two small-groups of five from two classes in GyeongGi. We analyzed how individuals' representations became elaborated into group representation and what patterns emerged during the collaborative small-group learning. From the results, most students used more than one representation in solving a problem, but they were not fluent enough to link them to successful problem solving or to transfer correctly among them. Students refined their representations into more meaningful group representation through peer interaction, self-reflection, etc.. Teachers need to give students opportunities to think through, and choose from, various representations in problem solving. We also need the in-depth understanding and great insights into students' representations for teaching.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.113-130
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• 2009

It can be said that the teaching and learning of mathematical problem solving has been greatly influenced by G. Polya. His heuristics shows down the explicit process of mathematical problem solving in detail. In contrast, Polanyi highlights the implicit dimension of the process. Polanyi's theory can play complementary role with Polya's theory. This study outlined the epistemology of Polanyi and his theory of problem solving. Regarding the knowledge and knowing as a work of the whole mind, Polanyi emphasizes devotion and absorption to the problem at work together with the intelligence and feeling. And the role of teachers are essential in a sense that students can learn implicit knowledge from them. However, our high school students do not seem to take enough time and effort to the problem solving. Nor do they request school teachers' help. According to Polanyi, this attitude can cause a serious problem in teaching and learning of mathematical problem solving.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.46 no.2 s.117
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• pp.207-226
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to design and develop the processes of tasks and assessment rubrics of open-ended tasks, and those for the 5th graders of elementary school mathematics. 7 tasks were finally developed, and 'problem understanding', 'problem solving process', 'communication' were selected as the criteria for assessment rubrics. The result was that the ability of mathematical power covering problem understanding ability, problem solving ability and mathematical communication ability was low. Specifically, problem understanding ability was the highest, problem solving ability was middle, and mathematical communication ability was the lowest.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2012

One of the important aims in mathematics education is to enhance mathematical thinking for students. And students posing questions is a vital process in mathematical thinking as it is part of the reasoning and communication of their learning. This paper investigates how students develop their mathematical thinking through working on tasks in fractions and posing their own questions after successfully solved the problems. The teaching was conducted in primary five classes and the results showed that students' reasoning is related to their analogy with what previously learned. Also, posing their problems after solving the problem not only helps students to understand the structure of the problem, it also helps students to explore on different routes in solving the problem and extend their learning content.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.351-374
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to support the understandings of teachers about the instructional strategies of collaborative problem solving and mathematical modeling as presented in the 2015 revised mathematics curriculum. For this, tasks of the Cubes unit from six grader's and lesson plans were developed. The specific problem solving processes of students and the practices of teachers which appeared in the classes were analyzed. In the course of solving a series of problems, students have formed a mathematical model of their own, modifying and complementing models in the process of sharing solutions. In particular, it was more effective when teachers explicitly taught students how to share and discuss problem-solving. Based on these results this study is expected to suggest implications on how to foster students' problem solving ability as mathematical subject competency in elementary classrooms.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.43-66
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• 2006

This study was proposed to analyze mathematical communication activity and mathematical attitudes while students were solving project problem and to consider how the conclusions effects mathematics education. This study analyzed through qualitative research method. The questions for this study are following. First, how does the process of the mathematical communication activity proceed during solving project problem in a small group? Second, what reactions can be shown on mathematical attitudes during solving project problem in a small group? Four project problems sampled from pilot study in order to examine these questions were applied on two small groups consisting of four 5th grade students It was recorded while each group was finding out the solution of the given problems. Afterward, consequences were analyzed according to each question after all contents were noted. Consequently, conclusions can be derived as follows. First, it was shown that each student used different elements of contents in mathematical communication activity. Second, during mathematical communication activity, most students preferred common languages to mathematical ones. Third, it was found that each student has their own mathematical attitude. Fourth, Students were more interested in the game project problem and the practical using project problem than others.

• School Mathematics
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.361-384
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' problem solving process based on the model of IDEAL if they learn to solve word problems of simultaneous linear equations through structure-representation instruction. The problem solving model of IDEAL is followed by stages; identifying problems(I), defining problems(D), exploring alternative approaches(E), acting on a plan(A). 160 second-grade students of middle schools participated in a study was classified into those of (a) a control group receiving no explicit instruction of structure-representation in word problem solving, and (b) a group receiving structure-representation instruction followed by IDEAL. As a result of this study, a structure-representation instruction improved word-problem solving performance and the students taught by the structure-representation approach discriminate more sharply equivalent problem, isomorphic problem and similar problem than the students of a control group. Also, students of the group instructed by structure-representation approach have less errors in understanding contexts and using data, in transferring mathematical symbol from internal learning relation of word problem and in setting up an equation than the students of a control group. Especially, this study shows that the model of direct transformation and the model of structure-schema in students' problem solving process of I and D stages.