• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.163-183
• /
• 2010

It has long been of controversy what the meanings of probability is. And a century has past after the mathematical probability has been at the center of the school curriculum of it. Recently statistical meaning of probability becomes important for various reasons. However the simple modification of its definition is not enough. The computational reasoning of the probability and its practical application needs didactical changes and new instructional transformations along with the modification of it. Most of the current text books introduce probability as a limit of the relative frequencies, a statistical probability. But when the probability computation of the union of two events, or of the simultaneous events is faced on, they use mathematical probability for explanation and practices. Accordingly there is a gap for students in understanding those. Probability is an intuitive concept as far as it belongs to the domain of the experiential frequency. And frequency distribution must be the instructional bases for the (statistical) probability novices. This is what we mean by the probability in accordance with the distribution concepts. First of all, in order to explain the probability of the complementary event we should explain the empirical relative frequency of it first. These are the case for the union of two events and for the simultaneous events. Moreover we need to provide a logic of probabilistic guesses, inferences and decision, which we introduce with the name “the likelihood principle”, the most famous statistical principle. We emphasized this be done through the problems of practical decision making.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.473-491
• /
• 2010

In the TIMSS assessment goal and open TIMSS 2007, Singapore recorded a lower overall achievement level compared with Korea; however, the excellent results shown by Singapore furnished an opportunity for various countries to research into the education in Singapore. This paper conducted a comparative analysis of the "Proportion, Proportional Expression, and Percentile" area out of the three topics involving "Fractions and Decimals", "Proportion, Proportional expression, and Percentile", and "Measurement", in all of which Singapore exhibited a higher percentage of correct answers than Korea. The paper was able to discover the following differences through a comparative analysis of how Korean and Singaporean textbooks deal with the open questions of TIMSS 2007 after looking into them according to four assessment goals. First, the Singaporean textbook introduced the concept of proportion one year ahead of the Korean textbook. Second, the Singaporean textbook repeatedly coped with the topic of "Proportion, Proportional Expression, and Percentile" in depth and by academic year, and its volume was larger than that of the Korean textbook. Third, there was a difference in the introduction and definition of the concept of proportion. Fourth, the way of introducing a proportional expression was also different, and the Singaporean textbook proposed many more questions that utilize this expression in ordinary life. Based on these differences, the paper suggested implications that could be applied to the Korean curriculum and textbook.

• East Asian mathematical journal
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.511-536
• /
• 2018

There is currently a growing need to nurture creative and convergent talent in the face of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Developing such talent requires interdisciplinary convergent education across the science, engineering, humanities, social studies, and arts disciplines. Such interdisciplinary convergence could cultivate humanities and social knowledge and qualities along with scientific expertise. In Korea, there are currently six science schools for the gifted that aim to discover and nurture science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) researchers from an early stage, and two science and art schools for the gifted that aim to cultivate new talent combining students' scientific and artistic qualities. These schools establish and follow curriculums that are suited to achieving the education objectives guaranteed by the Gifted Education Promotion Act and its Enforcement Decrees. This study compares the curriculums and curriculum tables of the science schools for the gifted to those of the science and art schools for the gifted to evaluate their methods of operation and performance. Additionally, it determines which curriculums provide an opportunity for students to nurture convergent thinking, and discusses how suitable curriculums could be implemented to develop convergent thinking.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.17-37
• /
• 2015

In this paper, we compared and analyzed the Korean National Mathematics textbooks of the 2007 amendment curriculum and the Harcourt Math in America focused on fractions and decimals. To summarize the results of the analysis are as follows. First, both textbooks introduce fractions to the meaning of parts-whole concept, but the Harcourt Math is stronger than that of Korean Mathematics textbooks in the concept of unit fractions as a generator of fractions. Second, the fractions can be considered trivial materials - a fraction representing 1 whole, a fraction with it's denominator is 1 - were more clearly represented in our US textbooks than those of our Korean textbooks. Third, in the introduction of the term relating to the fractions, Korea is a strong point of view of the classification of fractions than the point of view of representation in comparison with the case of the United States. Fourth, the equivalent fraction and equivalent decimal concepts were described more detail in the United States of textbooks than those of the case of Korean textbooks. Finally, the approaches of fraction and decimal concepts were introduced more mathematically in the case of the United States than those of the case of Korean textbooks.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.57 no.4
• /
• pp.433-452
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to provide implications for improvement of mathematics textbook based on discursive approach to textbook analysis that complementarily combines a communicational approach to cognition and social semiotics. For this purpose, we reconstructed an analytic framework for discursive approach to written discourses of Korean textbook and CMP, and applied it to our analysis. Results show that several characteristics in meanings were developed by the use of words and visual mediators. First, in the case of ideational meaning, there were qualitative and quantitative differences between vocabularies used and between information addressed by visual mediators. Second, in the case of structural meaning, an offer and application of procedure was emphasized in a Korean textbook, whereas expectation and selection experiences of diverse possibilities for problem solving was underlined in CMP. In the case interpersonal meaning of student-author, imperative instructions were paid attentions in a Korean textbook. In contrast, students' interdependence and active participation were stressed in CMP. Therefore, this study addressed ideas about how to analyze mathematics textbooks based on integrated meanings developed by the use of words and visual mediators. In addition, it distributes implications for improvements of Korean mathematics textbooks through the analytic framework of both mathematical meanings and interpersonal meanings of student-author.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.58 no.2
• /
• pp.225-237
• /
• 2019

The picture of the mathematics curriculum should carry the complex role of relieving the difficulties of mathematics while conveying the core of the mathematics contents well. This study examined the precedence of picture and text harmony and the importance of emotional expression. The discussion of children's picture books became an important reference in this process. The understanding of the child's psychology and cognitive characteristics in the long history of picture books and the insight into the relationship between text and pictures will be important guidelines for elementary school textbooks. Based on these previous studies, this study found some impressive examples of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and American textbooks on the two complementary relationships between paintings and texts and emotional expressions of paintings. If necessary, we compared these textbooks with Korean textbooks. Through this analysis, this study draws some implications for Korean textbook drawing and textbook production process. That is, the process of reading the picture and interpreting its meaning should be treated as part of the study of mathematics. The mathematical concepts to be dealt with or the sentence description of the problem should be concurrent with the design of the picture. The monotonous expressions and dialogues of characters in textbooks should be avoided, and the personality and emotions of characters should be more abundant and freely expressive.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.62 no.3
• /
• pp.417-433
• /
• 2023

In the 2022 revised mathematics curriculum, a new content on 'Movement of a point' was added. Therefore, this study analyzed the contents of the movement of a point presented in Finnish mathematics textbooks as elements of spatial orientation. Analysis was conducted by dividing it into direction, distance, and route. As a result of the study, in Finnish textbooks, directions were expressed in various ways, such as linguistic, visual, and coded expressions. In the case of distance, activities to move as much as the distance or compare the distance were presented using the number of cells, length, steps, coordinate points, ratio, etc. In the case of routes, activities such as moving according to instructions, making routes, finding the route, and modifying the route were presented using unconditional movement and conditional movement. In particular, the movement of a point could be linked not only to various mathematical content areas such as 'number and arithmetic' and 'change and relationship', but also to digital literacy and programming education. Knowing that the movement of a point can be presented in various ways according to the direction, distance, and route, it is expected that it can be used to organize the contents of the 2022 revised mathematics textbook.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.21-47
• /
• 2023

This study examines the activity system of teaching and learning about informal statistical inference using sampling simulation, based on cultural-historical activity theory. The research explores what contradictions arise in the activity system and how the system changes as a result of these contradictions. The participants were 20 elementary school students in the 5th to 6th grades who received classes on informal statistical inference using sampling simulations. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings show that a contradiction emerged between the rule and the object, as well as between the mediating artifact and the object. It was confirmed that visualization of empirical sampling distribution was introduced as a new artifact while resolving these contradictions. In addition, contradictions arose between the subject and the rule and between the rule and the mediating artifact. It was confirmed that an algorithm to calculate the mean of the sample means was introduced as a new rule while resolving these contradictions.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.62 no.2
• /
• pp.289-302
• /
• 2023

In today's digital information society, student knowledge and skills to analyze big data and make informed decisions have become an important goal of school mathematics. Integrating big data statistical projects with digital technologies in high school <Artificial Intelligence> mathematics courses has the potential to provide students with a learning experience of high impact that can develop these essential skills. This paper proposes a set of guidelines for designing effective big data statistical project-based tasks and evaluates the tasks in the artificial intelligence mathematics textbook against these criteria. The proposed guidelines recommend that projects should: (1) align knowledge and skills with the national school mathematics curriculum; (2) use preprocessed massive datasets; (3) employ data scientists' problem-solving methods; (4) encourage decision-making; (5) leverage technological tools; and (6) promote collaborative learning. The findings indicate that few textbooks fully align with these guidelines, with most failing to incorporate elements corresponding to Guideline 2 in their project tasks. In addition, most tasks in the textbooks overlook or omit data preprocessing, either by using smaller datasets or by using big data without any form of preprocessing. This can potentially result in misconceptions among students regarding the nature of big data. Furthermore, this paper discusses the relevant mathematical knowledge and skills necessary for artificial intelligence, as well as the potential benefits and pedagogical considerations associated with integrating technology into big data tasks. This research sheds light on teaching mathematical concepts with machine learning algorithms and the effective use of technology tools in big data education.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.425-444
• /
• 2019

Comparing to the U.S. mathematics textbooks, this study examines the opportunity to learn statistical processes represented in mathematics textbooks reflecting 2015 revised curriculum. Analyzing four different kinds of Korean middle school mathematics textbooks and two kinds of corresponding U.S. textbooks for seventh graders, we found that the tasks dealing with all the phases of statistical processes were found only in the U.S. textbooks while not even one task in such a case was not observed in the Korean textbooks. To make matters worse, the proportion of the tasks dealing with only one phase of statistical processes was 93.3% of all the tasks in Korean textbooks. In terms of types of tasks, the types of tasks were very homogeneous in Korean textbooks, usually Types FPR or PR while more various types of tasks were found in the U.S. textbooks such as Types FRI, PRI, FR, or RI. In views of features of each phase in statistical processes, Korean textbooks heavily focused only on some particular statistical behaviors such as 'formulating a problem', 'collecting data', 'transforming data', and 'analyzing a part of data.' The findings of this study provide meaningful implications for improving statistics education and developing mathematics textbooks to enhance students' statistical thinking and problem-solving ability.