• School Mathematics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.555-563
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• 2002

The purpose of this paper is to try formulating a working definition of connection of informal and formal mathematical knowledge. Many researchers have suggested that informal mathematical knowledge should be connected with school mathematics in the process of learning and teaching it. It is because informal mathematical knowledge might play a important role as a cognitive anchor for understanding school mathematics. To implement the connection of them we need to know what the connection means. In this paper, the connection between informal and formal mathematical knowledge refers to the making of relationship between common attributions involved with the two knowledge. To make it clear, it is discussed that informal knowledge consists of two properties of procedures and conceptions as well as formal mathematical knowledge does. Then, it is possible to make a connection of them. Now it is time to make contribution of our efforts to develop appropriate models to connect informal and formal mathematical knowledge.

• Korean Journal of Mathematics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.743-765
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• 2019

Conceptual and procedural knowledge of integration is necessary not only in calculus but also in real analysis, complex analysis, and differential geometry. However, students show not only focused understanding of procedural knowledge but also limited understanding on conceptual knowledge of integration. So they are good at computation but don't recognize link between several concepts. In particular, Riemann sum is helpful in solving applied problem, but students are poor at understanding structure of Riemann sum. In this study, we try to investigate understanding on conceptual and procedural knowledge of integration and to analyze errors. Conducting experimental class of Riemann sum, we investigate the understanding of Riemann sum structure and so present the implications about improvement of integration teaching.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.519-543
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• 2008

The study has been conducted with 29 children from 4th to 6th grades to realize how they understand addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, and how their understanding influences solving of one-step word problems. Children's understanding of operations was categorized into "adding" and "combination" for additions, "taking away" and "comparison" for subtractions, "equal groups," "rectangular arrange," "ratio," and "Cartesian product" for multiplications, and "sharing," "measuring," "comparison," "ratio," "multiplicative inverse," and "repeated subtraction" for divisions. Overall, additions were mostly understood additions as "adding"(86.2%), subtractions as "taking away"(86.2%), multiplications as "equal groups"(100%), and divisions as "sharing"(82.8%). This result consisted with the Fischbein's intuitive models except for additions. Most children tended to solve the word problems based on their conceptual structure of the four arithmetic operations. Even though their conceptual structure of arithmetic operations helps to better solve problems, this tendency resulted in wrong solutions when problem situations were not related to their conceptual structure. Children in the same category of understanding for each operations showed some common features while solving the word problems. As children's understanding of operations significantly influences their solutions to word problems, they needs to be exposed to many different problem situations of the four arithmetic operations. Furthermore, the focus of teaching needs to be the meaning of each operations rather than computational algorithm.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.245-261
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• 2007

This paper deals with the possible problems which may arise when students learn the names of elementary geometric figures in the languages of Korean, Chinese, English. The names of some simple geometric figures in these languages are analyzed, and a specially designed test was administered to some grade eight students from the three language groups to explore the possible influence of the characteristics of the languages on students' capability in identifying the figures, the way students define the figures, and students' understanding of the inclusive relationship among figures. It was found that the usage of the terms to describe geometric figures may indeed have affected students' understanding of the figures. The names of geometric figures borrowed from those of everyday life objects may cause students to fix on some attributes of the objects which may not be consistent with the definition of the figures. Even when the names of the geometric figures depict the features of the figures, the words used in the naming of the figures may still affect students' understanding of the inclusive relations. If there is discrepancy between the definition of a geometric figure and the features that the name depicts, it may affect students' understanding of the definition of the figure, and if there is inconsistency in the classification of figures, it may affect students' understanding of the inclusive relationship involving those figures. Some implications of the study are then discussed.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2016

Investigating students' lived mathematical experiences presents dual challenges for the researcher. On the one hand, we must respect that students' experiences are not directly accessible to us and are likely very different from our own experiences. On the other hand, we might not want to rely upon the students' own characterizations of what constitutes mathematics because these characterizations could be limited to the formal products students learn in school. I suggest a characterization of mathematics as objectified action, which would lead the researcher to focus on students' operations-mental actions organized as objects within structures so that they can be acted upon. Teachers' and researchers' models of these operations and structures can be used as a launching point for understanding students' experiences of mathematics. Teaching experiments and clinical interviews provide a means for the teacher-researcher to infer students' available operations and structures on the basis of their physical activity (including verbalizations) and to begin harmonizing with their mathematical experience.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.20 no.3 s.27
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• pp.343-359
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• 2006

The purpose of this research is to study the effect of using teaching materials related to the chapter on the mathematical history of sequence and to propose practical ways for teachers to use the materials in class. This study will show how to employ mathematical history to illustrate the practical use of mathematics, arouse students' interest, and improve the understanding of mathematics of students who are not interested in mathematics.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.10 no.1 s.19
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• pp.29-39
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• 2007

This paper is to give a brief introduction to a new discipline called 'conceptual metaphor' and 'mathematical metaphor(Lakoff & Nunez, 2000) from the viewpoint of mathematics education and to analyze the metaphors at 4th graders' mathematics classroom as a case of conceptual metaphors. First, contemporary conception on metaphors is reviewed. Second, it is discussed on the effects and defaults of metaphors in teaching and learning mathematics. Finally, as a case study of mathematical metaphors, conceptual metaphors on the concepts of triangles at 4th graders' mathematics classrooms are analyzed. Students may reason metaphorically to understand mathematical concepts. Conceptual metaphor makes mathematics enormously rich, but it also brings confusion and paradox. Digging out the metaphors may lighten both our spontaneous everyday conceptions and scientific theorizing(Sfard, 1998). Studies of metaphors give us the power of understanding the culture of mathematics classroom and also generate it.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.171-182
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• 2002

Students approach mathematical problem solving in fundamentally different ways, particularly problems requiring conceptual understanding and complicated strategies such as mathematical word problems. The main objective of this study is to compare students' performance with different cognitive styles (Field-dependent vs. Field-independent) on mathematics problem solving, particularly, in word problems. A sample of 180 school girls (13-years-old) were tested on the Witkin's cognitive style (Group Embedded Figures Test) and two mathematics exams. Results obtained support the hypothesis that students with field-independent cognitive style achieved much better results than Field-dependent ones in word problems. The implications of these results on teaching and setting problems emphasizes that word problems and cognitive predictor variables (Field-dependent/Field- independent) could be challenging and rather distinctive factors on the part of school learners.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.215-233
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• 2008

Deep comprehension of basic mathematical notions and concepts is a basic condition of a successful teaching. Some elements of algebraic thinking belong to the elementary school mathematics. The question "What stays the same and what changes?" link arithmetic problems with algebraic conception of variable. We have studied beliefs and comprehensions of future elementary school mathematics teachers on early algebra. Pre-service teachers from three academic pedagogical colleges deal with mathematical problems from the pre-algebra point of view, with the emphasis on changes and invariants. The idea is that the intensive use of non-formal algebra may help learners to construct a better understanding of fundamental ideas of arithmetic on the strong basis of algebraic thinking. In this article the study concerning arithmetic series is described. Considerable number of pre-service teachers moved from formulas to deep comprehension of the subject. Additionally, there are indications of ability to apply the conception of change and invariance in other mathematical and didactical contexts.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.57-73
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• 2014

This study investigated the connections of mathematical thinking of students at the second, fourth, and sixth grades with regard to multiplication, fraction, and proportion, all of which have multiplicative structures. A paper-and-pencil test and subsequent interviews were conducted. The results showed that mathematical thinking including vertical thinking and relational thinking was commonly involved in multiplication, fraction, and proportion. On one hand, the insufficient understanding of preceding concepts had negative impact on learning subsequent concepts. On the other hand, learning the succeeding concepts helped students solve the problems related to the preceding concepts. By analyzing the connections between the preceding concepts and the succeeding concepts, this study provides instructional implications of teaching multiplication, fraction, and proportion.