• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.531-546
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• 2017

This study explores the basis for determining priority among the four arithmetical operations in order to provide useful pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the order of operations. The study also discusses the perspective for viewing the order of operations. It presents the following five suggestions based on the results of the discussion. First, teachers should be made to realize that the same result can be obtained on calculation even when subtraction and division are performed first in mixed operations of addition and subtraction and mixed operations of multiplication and division. Second, teachers should understand why the rule of calculating sequentially from the left side of an equation has become customary. Third, teachers should be offered an explanation for the driver of the rule setting that multiplication takes precedence over addition in mixed operations of multiplication and addition. Fourth, the significance of the quantity within parenthesis must be emphasized to teachers. Fifth, teachers must gain an in-depth understanding about the order of operations by getting a description of all the customary and conceptual perspectives on the order of operations when describing the same in the teacher's guide.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.49-64
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• 2019

The purpose of the study was to examine the current status of prospective elementary school teachers' mathematical beliefs. 339 future elementary school teachers majoring in mathematics education from 4 universities participated in the study. The questionnaire used in the TEDS-M(Tatto et al., 2008) was translated into Korean for the purpose of the study. The researchers analyzed the pre-service elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of mathematics and about mathematics learning. Also, the results of the survey was analyzed by various aspects. To determine differences between the groups, one-way analysis of variance was used. To check the relationship between beliefs about the nature of mathematics and about the mathematics learning, correlation analysis was used. The results of the study revealed that the pre-service elementary teachers tends to believe that the nature of mathematics as 'process of inquiry' rather than 'rules and procedures' which is a view that mathematics as ready-made knowledge. In addition, the pre-service elementary teachers tend to consider 'active learning' as desirable aspects in mathematics teaching-learning practice, while 'teacher's direction' was not. We found that there were statistically significant correlation between 'process of inquiry' and 'active learning' and between 'rules and procedures' and 'teacher direction'. On the basis of these results, more extensive and multifaced research on mathematical beliefs should be needed to design curriculum and plan lessons for future teachers.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.107-134
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of two teaching methods of word problems, one based on mathematical modeling learning(ML) and the other on traditional learning(TL). Additionally, the influence of mathematical modeling learning in word problem solving behavior, application ability of real world experiences in word problem solving and the beliefs of word problem solving will be examined. The results of this study were as follows: First, as to word problem solving behavior, there was a significant difference between the two groups. This mean that the ML was effective for word problem solving behavior. Second, all of the students in the ML group and the TL group had a strong tendency to exclude real world knowledge and sense-making when solving word problems during the pre-test. but A significant difference appeared between the two groups during post-test. classroom culture improvement efforts. Third, mathematical modeling learning(ML) was effective for improvement of traditional beliefs about word problems. Fourth, mathematical modeling learning(ML) exerted more influence on mathematically strong and average students and a positive effect to mathematically weak students. High and average-level students tended to benefit from mathematical modeling learning(ML) more than their low-level peers. This difference was caused by less involvement from low-level students in group assignments and whole-class discussions. While using the mathematical modeling learning method, elementary students were able to build various models about problem situations, justify, and elaborate models by discussions and comparisons from each other. This proves that elementary students could participate in mathematical modeling activities via word problems, it results form the use of more authentic tasks, small group activities and whole-class discussions, exclusion of teacher's direct intervention, and classroom culture improvement efforts. The conclusions drawn from the results obtained in this study are as follows: First, mathematical modeling learning(ML) can become an effective method, guiding word problem solving behavior from the direct translation approach(DTA) based on numbers and key words without understanding about problem situations to the meaningful based approach(MBA) building rich models for problem situations. Second, mathematical modeling learning(ML) will contribute attitudes considering real world situations in solving word problems. Mathematical modeling activities for word problems can help elementary students to understand relations between word problems and the real world. It will be also help them to develop the ability to look at the real world mathematically. Third, mathematical modeling learning(ML) will contribute to the development of positive beliefs for mathematics and word problem solving. Word problem teaching focused on just mathematical operations can't develop proper beliefs for mathematics and word problem solving. Mathematical modeling learning(ML) for word problems provide elementary students the opportunity to understand the real world mathematically, and it increases students' modeling abilities. Futhermore, it is a very useful method of reforming the current problems of word problem teaching and learning. Therefore, word problems in school mathematics should be replaced by more authentic ones and modeling activities should be introduced early in elementary school eduction, which would help change the perceptions about word problem teaching.