• The Mathematical Education
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.133-157
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• 2021

Ill-structured problems have drawn attention in that they can enhance problem-solving skills, which are essential in future societies. The purpose of this study is to analyze and evaluate students' spatial reasoning(Intrinsic-Static, Intrinsic-Dynamic, Extrinsic-Static, and Extrinsic-Dynamic reasoning) and problem solving abilities(understanding problems and exploring strategies, executing plans and reflecting, collaborative problem-solving, mathematical modeling) that appear in ill-structured problem-solving. To solve the research questions, two ill-structured problems based on the geometry domain were created and 11 lessons were given. The results are as follows. First, spatial reasoning ability of sixth-graders was mainly distributed at the mid-upper level. Students solved the extrinsic reasoning activities more easily than the intrinsic reasoning activities. Also, more analytical and higher level of spatial reasoning are shown when students applied functions of other mathematical domains, such as computation and measurement. This shows that geometric learning with high connectivity is valuable. Second, the 'problem-solving ability' was mainly distributed at the median level. A number of errors were found in the strategy exploration and the reflection processes. Also, students exchanged there opinion well, but the decision making was not. There were differences in participation and quality of interaction depending on the face-to-face and web-based environment. Furthermore, mathematical modeling element was generally performed successfully.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.161-185
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• 2019

This study aims to examine pre- and in-service mathematics teachers' reasoning and how they justify their reasoning. For this purpose, we developed a set of mathematical tasks that are based on mathematical contents for middle grade students and conducted the survey to pre- and in-service teachers in Korea. Twenty-five pre-service teachers and 8 in-service teachers participated in the survey. The findings from the data analysis suggested as follows: a) the pre- and in-service mathematics teachers seemed to be very dependent of the manipulation of algebraic expressions so that they attempt to justify only by means of procedures such as known algorithms, rules, facts, etc., rather than trying to find out a mathematical structure in the first instance, b) the proof that teachers produced did not satisfy the generality when they attempted to justify using by other ways than the algebraic manipulation, c) the teachers appeared to rely on using formulas for finding patters and justifying their reasoning, d) a considerable number of the teachers seemed to stay at level 2 in terms of the proof production level, and e) more than 3/4 of the participating teachers appeared to have difficulty in mathematical reasoning and proof production particularly when faced completely new mathematical tasks.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.473-490
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• 2023

Previous studies from domestic and abroad are accumulating information on how to reason students' continuous changes through teaching experiments. These studies deal with scenes in which students who make 'smooth reasoning' and 'chunky reasoning' construct mathematical results together in teaching experiments. However, in order to analyze their results in more detail, it is necessary to check what kind of results a student reasoning in a specific way constructs for the tasks of previous studies. According to the need for these studies, the researcher conducted a total of 14 teaching experiments on one first-year high school student who was found to make 'chunky reasoning'. In this study, it was possible to observe a scene in which a student who makes 'chunky reasoning' constructs an output similar to 'a mathematical result constructed by students with various reasoning methods(smooth reasnoning or chunky reasoning) in previous studies.' In particular, the student who participated in this study observed a consistent construction method of constructing the function of 'time-speed' from the function of 'time-distance'. The researcher expected that information on this student's distinctive construction methods would be helpful for subsequent studies.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.529-552
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• 2014

Recently, mathematical reasoning has been considered as one of the most important mathematical thinking abilities to be established in school mathematics. This study is to investigate the mathematical problems on the content of 'Set and Statement' and 'Sequences' in high school according to the four types of reasoning, namely Making Conjectures, Investigating Conjectures, Developing Arguments, and Evaluating Arguments. Those types of reasoning were reconstructed based on Johnson's six types of reasoning suggested in 2010. The content is dealt with in 'Mathematics II' textbook developed and published according to the mathematics curriculum revised in 2009. The subject of this study is nine types of textbooks and mathematical problems in the textbook are consisted of as two parts of 'general problem' and 'evaluation problem'. Finally, the results of this study can be summarized as follow: First, it is stated that students be establishing a logical justification activity, the highest reasoning activity through dealing with the 'Developing Arguments' type of problems affluently in both 'Set and Statement' and 'Sequence' chapters of Mathematics II textbook. Second, it is mentioned that students have an chance to investigate conjectures and develop logical arguments in 'Set and Statement' chapter of Mathematics II textbook. In particular, whereas they have an chance to investigate conjectures and also develop arguments in 'Statement', the 'Set' chapter is given only an opportunity of developing arguments. Third, students are offered on an opportunity of reasoning that can make conjectures and develop logical arguments in 'Sequences' chapter of Mathematics II textbook. Fourth, Mathematics II textbook are geared to do activities that could evaluate arguments while dealing with the problems relevant to 'mathematical process' included in 'general problem'.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.251-279
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• 2016

There are many studies on 'how' students solve mathematical problems, but few of them sufficiently explained 'why' they have to solve the problems in their own different ways. As quantitative reasoning is the basis for algebraic reasoning, to scrutinize a student's way of dealing with quantities in a problem situation is critical for understanding why the student has to solve it in such a way. From our teaching experiments with two ninth-grade students, we found that emergences of a certain level of covariational reasoning were highly consistent across different types of problems within each participating student. They conceived the given problem situations at different levels of covariation and constructed their own quantity-structures. It led them to solve the problems with the resources accessible to their structures only, and never reconciled with the other's solving strategies even after having reflection and discussion on their solutions. It indicates that their own structure of quantities constrained the whole process of problem solving and they could not discard the structures. Based on the results, we argue that teachers, in order to provide practical supports for students' problem solving, need to focus on the students' way of covariational reasoning of problem situations.

• 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.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.9 no.1 s.17
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• pp.43-58
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• 2005

The objective of the present study was designed to examine that metacognition education had any promoting effects on the development of students' reasoning ability. Two classes in the 5th grade were asked to participated for the present study. Prior to the metacognition teaching, both the experimental and control group classes were given to the preliminary test in which students' basic ability for mathematical reasoning was graded. Then, the students in the experimental group were given 8hour teaching for the topics on the symmetric properties of geometric figures. The present findings indicate that educational application which motivates metacognition can improve mathematical reasoning ability in elementary students. It is widely accepted that metacognition is an active and conscious mental activity, helps the students perceive voluntarily the study items, and further plays an important role in constructing independent and active thinking processes. Accordingly, the present results implicate that the practical performance of metacognition education into the class indeed contributes to build up or strengthen students' voluntary ways of reasoning.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.229-245
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• 2015

In this study, I investigated how pre-service teachers (PSTs) proved three geometric problems by using Geometer's SketchPad (GSP) software. Based on observations in class and results from a test of geometric reasoning, eight PSTs were sorted into four of the five van Hiele levels of geometric reasoning, which were then used to predict the PSTs' levels of reasoning on three tasks involving proofs using GSP. Findings suggested that the ways the PSTs justified their geometric reasoning across the three questions demonstrated their different uses of GSP depending on their van Hiele levels. These findings also led to the insight that the notion of "proof" had somewhat different meanings for students at different van Hiele levels of thought. Implications for the effective integration of technology into pre-service teacher education programs are discussed.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.135-158
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• 2022

This study aimed to building models to understand the relationships between reasoning resources and content knowledge. We applied Support Vector Machine and linear models to the data including fifth graders' scores in the Cornel Critical Thinking Test and the Iowa Assessments, demographic information, and learning science approach (a student-centered approach to learning called the Science Writing Heuristic [SWH] or traditional). The SWH model showing the relationships between critical thinking domains and academic achievement at grade 5 was developed, and its validity was tested across different learning environments. We also evaluated the stability of the model by applying the SWH models to the data of the grade levels. The findings can help mathematics educators understand how critical thinking and achievement relate to each other. Furthermore, the findings suggested that reasoning in mathematics classrooms can promote performance on standardized tests.

• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.527-545
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• 2008

One of the education purpose of the section "Figures" in the eighth grade is to develop students' deductive reasoning ability, which is basic and essential for living in a democratic society. However, most or middle school students feel much more difficulty or even frustration in the study of formal arguments for geometric situations than any other mathematical fields. It is owing to the big gap between inductive reasoning in elementary school education and deductive reasoning, which is not intuitive, in middle school education. Also, it is very burden for students to describe geometric statements exactly by using various appropriate symbols. Moreover, Usage of the same symbols for angle and angle measurement or segments and segments measurement makes students more confused. Since geometric relations is mainly determined by the measurements of geometric objects, students should be able to interpret the geometric properties to the algebraic properties, and vice verse. In this paper, we first compare and contrast inductive and deductive reasoning approaches to justify geometric facts and relations in school curricula. Convincing arguments are based on experiment and experience, then are developed from inductive reasoning to deductive proofs. We introduce teaching methods to help students's understanding for deductive reasoning in the textbook by using stepwise visualization materials. It is desirable that an effective proof instruction should be able to provide teaching methods and visual materials suitable for students' intellectual level and their own intuition.