• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.789-806
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• 2010

As calls for more attention toward social minority group increases in our society recently, in the field of mathematics education more attention toward an issue about mathematics underachievers is being amplified. Thus, the present study is to examine the effects of teaching method considering students' cognitive characteristics on mathematical underachievers' problem solving and mathematical disposition. For this study, 10 fifth graders identified as mathematical underachievers based on the results of the national level diagnosis assessment and school based assessment were voluntarily selected from an elementary school in Seoul. The results of this study found out the fact that students participating in this program improved in terms of an ability both to solve problems in various ways and to explain an process of problem solving using spoken or written language and drawings. In addition, learning environment respecting students' own mathematical ideas seems to positively influence students' attitudes toward mathematics learning and mathematical dispositions. Furthermore, this study pointed out that mathematical underachievers tend to have difficulty in expressing their own mathematical thinking by reason of linguistic limitation. Finally, the findings of this study imply that for effective teaching of mathematics underachievers, these students' own informal experience and knowledge about mathematics as well as their characteristics regarding learning difficulties should be strongly considered.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.107-121
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• 2015

The purpose of the present study is to find out some implications from comparing mathematical education of Israel and Singapore. This study examined what values are represented in schooling of both Israel and Singapore and what factors are influencing mathematics teacher education of both countries. Education in Israel and Singapore plays a significant role for the survival of the nation and economic success, and the education system is focused on elitism, especially in terms that they have selective system of students and restrictive exams from the elementary school level. The educational system in both countries provides students with little opportunities for social mobility, because students from the low SES families are not equally exposed to educational facilities and experiences. The results of this study imply that the critical factor affecting students achievement in Israel and Singapore seems to be the quality of teacher education system and the quality of teachers. In particular, it seems that we need to be very careful of uncritically adopting mathematical ideas from both Israel and Singapore, because they both have very different contexts of educational goals, educational policies, racial and cultural factors from Korea.

• School Mathematics
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.331-353
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate expertise of mathematic teachers in development of designing assessment items, derived from development of assessing tools, which is a part of assessing competence of mathematic teachers. Analysis was made upon the difference between Pre-service and In-service teachers in terms of self-perception on assessment items. The assessing references of self-perception on developing in designing assessment items consist of followings: one's Beliefs and Self-Rating in designing assessment items. This investigation on self-perception was carried out by both pre-service teachers who are currently enrolled students in college and in-service teachers who are currently incumbent in secondary schools. This analysis based on 310 teachers' answers on self-perception of designing assessment items, both in- and preservice.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.45-63
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• 2023

The activity of finding rules is useful for enhancing the algebraic thinking of elementary school students. This study analyzed the pattern activities of a finding rules unit in 10 different government-authorized mathematics curricular materials for fourth graders aligned to the 2015 revised national mathematics curriculum. The analytic elements included three main activities: (a) activities of analyzing the structure of patterns, (b) activities of finding a specific term by finding a rule, and (c) activities of representing the rule. The three activities were mainly presented regarding growing numeric patterns, growing geometric patterns, and computational patterns. The activities of analyzing the structure of patterns were presented when dealing mainly with growing geometric patterns and focused on finding the number of models constituting the pattern. The activities of finding a specific term by finding a rule were evenly presented across the three patterns and the specific term tended to be close to the terms presented in the given task. The activities of representing the rule usually encouraged students to talk about or write down the rule using their own words. Based on the results of these analyses, this study provides specific implications on how to develop subsequent mathematics curricular materials regarding pattern activities to enhance elementary school students' algebraic thinking.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.77-93
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of problem making of 19 mathematically gifted students in junior high school. In this study, we examined the expansion and sophistication of the problems made by gifted students, focusing on the analysis framework proposed in the previous research. Next, the problem making by gifted students were categorized into 'horizontal problem making' and 'vertical problem making.' As a result of this study, it was found that problem making by gifted students was not enough in terms of extension and sophistication. In addition, gifted students made problems in the direction of decreasing complexity than original problems when creating new problems, and considered the conditions presented in the original text separately but not comprehensively.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1182-1196
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• 2014

In problems of global hydroelastic ship response in severe seas including the whipping problem, we need to know the hydrodynamic forces acting on the ship hull during almost arbitrary ship motions. In terms of ship sections, some of them can enter water but others exit from water. Computations of nonlinear free surface flows, pressure distributions and hydrodynamic forces in parallel with the computations of the ship motions including elastic vibrations of the ship hull are time consuming and are suitable only for research purposes but not for practical calculations. In this paper, it is shown that the slamming forces can be decomposed in two components within three semi-analytical models of water entry. Only heave motion is considered. The first component is proportional to the entry speed squared and the second one to the body acceleration. The coefficients in these two components are functions of the penetration depth only and can be precomputed for given shape of the body. During the exit stage the hydrodynamic force is proportional to the acceleration of the body and independent of the body shape for bodies with small deadrise angles.

• School Mathematics
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.401-420
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• 2003

We have many problems in the teaching and learning of proof, especially in the demonstrative geometry of middle school mathematics introducing the proof for the first time. Above all, it is the serious problem that many students do not understand the meaning of proof. In this paper we intend to show that teaching the meaning of proof in terms of historic-genetic approach will be a method to improve the way of teaching proof. We investigate the development of proof which goes through three stages such as experimental, intuitional, and scientific stage as well as the development of geometry up to the completion of Euclid's Elements as Bran-ford set out, and analyze the teaching process for the purpose of looking for the way of improving the way of teaching proof through the historic-genetic approach. We conducted lessons about the angle-sum property of triangle in accordance with these three stages to the students of seventh grade. We show that the students will understand the meaning of proof meaningfully and properly through the historic-genetic approach.

• School Mathematics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.601-615
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• 2002

This paper analyzed <7-나> and <8-나> textbooks and teacher instruction activities in classrooms, focusing on procedures used to solve construction problems. The analysis of the teachers' instruction and organization of the construction unit in <7-나> textbooks showed that the majority of the textbooks focused on the second step, i.e., the constructive step. Of the four steps for solving construction problems, teachers placed the most emphasis on the constructive order. The result of the analysis of <8-나> textbooks showed that a large number of textbooks explained the meaning of theorems that were to be proved, and that teachers demonstrated new terms by using a paper-folding activities, but there were no textbooks that tried to prove theorems through the process of construction. Here are two alternative suggestions for teaching strategies related to the construction step, a crucial means of connecting intuitive geometry with formal geometry. First, it is necessary to teach the four steps for solving construction problems in a practical manner and to divide instruction time evenly among the <7-나> textbooks' construction units. The four steps are analysis, construction, verification, and reflection. Second, it is necessary to understand the nature of geometrical figures involved before proving the problems and introducing the construction part as a tool for conjecture upon theorems used in <8-나> textbooks' demonstrative geometry units.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.287-307
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• 2016

In this study, mathematics exams for university entrance in the USA, the UK, Australia, Singapore, and Japan are investigated. We look into SAT, ACT and AP-course in the USA, GCE A-level test in the UK and Singapore, VCE in Australia, and UECE (University Entrance Center Exam) and individual university's admission tests in Japan. Those exams are analyzed in terms of exam system, mathematical contents, types of items, and testing time. Based on the result five issues on university entrance exam system in Korea are drawn out: types of tests, mathematical contents, item types, sub-items, and opening tests results to the public.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.99-120
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• 2001

The purpose of this thesis is to find the guiding direction of mathematical communication in lower grade students of elementary school and to present a new direction about the effect of using concrete material in communication. It is expected that mathematical communication increases when concrete material is used for the students of the lower grades, who are in concrete operational period. Therefore, this study ai s to investigate what characteristics there are in mathematical communication of second grade students and what effect concrete materials have on mathematical communication and learning. The analysis of the teaching record shows that the second grade students use alternative terms in the process of communication since they are not familiar with mathematical symbols or terms, which is a characteristic of communication in a mathematics class in which concrete material is used. In the process of teaming the students apply their living experiences to their teaming. Since a small number of students lead class, the interaction between students is also led by them. The direction of communication in a small group is not centered around solution of a problem, and most students show a more interest in finding answers than in the process of learning. The effect that concrete material has on communication plays an important role in promoting students' speaking activity; it allows students to identify and correct their errors more easily. It also makes students' activities more predictable, and it increases a small group activities through the medium of concrete material. However, it was also noticed that students' listening activities are not appropriately developed since they do not pay attention to a teacher who uses concrete material. The effects that concrete material has on mathematics class can be summarized as follows. Concrete material promotes students' participation in class by triggering their interest of learning of mathematics and helps them to understand the course of learning. It also helps the teaming and formation of concepts for children of low academic performance. And it makes a phased learning possible according to students' ability to use concrete material and to solve a problem. Based upon the results above mentioned, the use of concrete material is absolutely needed in mathematics classes of lower grade elementary school students since it increases communication and gives much influence on mathematics learning. Therefore, teachers need to develop teaching or learning method which can help increase communication, considering the characteristics of students' communication.