• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.207-219
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• 2004

There have been studies reporting the increase in student confidence in mathematics when using technology. However, past studies indicating a positive correlation between technology and confidence in mathematics do not explain why they see this positive outcome. With increased availability and easy access to the Internet in schools and the development of free online virtual manipulatives, this research was interested in how the use of virtual manipulatives in mathematics can affect students confidence in their mathematical abilities. Our hypothesis was that the classes using virtual manipulatives which allows students to connecting dynamic visual image with abstract symbols will help students gain a deeper conceptual understanding of math concept thus increasing their confidence and ability in mathematics. The participants in this study were 46 fifth-grade students in three ability groups: one high, one middle and one low. During a two-week unit on fractions, students in three groups interacted with several virtual manipulative applets in a computer lab. Data sources in the project included a pre and posttest of students mathematics content knowledge, Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale, field notes and student interviews, and classroom videotapes. Our aim was to find evidence for increased level of confidence in mathematics as students strengthened their understanding of fraction concepts. Results from the achievement score indicated an overall main effect showing significant improvement for all ability groups following the treatment and an increase in the confidence level from the preassessment of the Confidence in Learning Mathematics Scale in the middle and high ability groups. An interesting finding was that the confidence level for the low ability group students who had the highest confidence level in the beginning did not change much in the final confidence scale assessment. In the middle and high ability groups, the confidence level did increase according to the improvement of the contest posttest. Through interviews, students expressed how the virtual manipulatives assisted their understanding by verifying their answers as they worked and facilitated their ability to figure out math concept in their mind and visually.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.569-584
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• 2014

The Purpose of this study was an analysis of high school student's understanding level about concepts of special relativity through in-depth interview. The 8 participants were 10th grade students in H high school in Ulsan city, who were interviewed and analyzed in the results of the interview about basic concepts of special relativity using achievement checklist in 6 situations(principle of constancy of light velocity, principle of relativity, relativity of simultaneity, garage paradox, rocket paradox). As results of the checklist, the participants showed high achievement in the content level of simple phenomena and simple concepts related to special relativity. But they showed low achievement in the concept level for fundamental understanding of special relativity. As results of the interview, it was found that the participants decided the order of events depending on their intuition and had a difficulty to apply the coordinate system to real situation, even though they mathematically understood it. In addition, some participants who could not understand the inertial coordinate system explained paradoxes of relativity depending on their intuition and had learner's chaos. Finally, though high school students usually being in formal operational stage, some students had difficulty to draw phenomena of space and time in two dimensional plane.

• 한국노년학
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.927-939
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze motivations, benefits, and satisfactions of the college student volunteers. We carry out the pre-to-post survey with 615 college student volunteers (male 245, female 367) who have participated in the mobile education program for the elderly funded by a Telecom. The instruments consist of VFI (Volunteer Functions Inventory) developed by Clary & Snyder (1999), including 30 items for motivations, 12 items for achievements, and 5 items for satisfactions of volunteering. The items for motivations and achievements are comprised of 6 subcategories: career, value, understanding, protective, enhancement, and social. The results of this study are as follows: (1) Enhancement motivation is the highest, followed by understanding, value, career, protective, and social motivation. (2) Social benefit is the highest, followed enhancement, career, understanding, value, protective benefit. (3) The difference between motivation and benefit in social category is the largest, followed by career, enhancement, value, protective, and understanding category. While benefit is higher than motivation in all other categories, motivation is higher than benefit just in value category. (4) High motivation-high benefit, high motivation-low benefit, low motivation-high benefit, and low motivation-low benefit groups are dichotomized by the median of each motivation and benefit. In all six categories, high motivation-high benefit group shows the highest satisfaction, but low motivation-low benefit group shows the lowest. In short, benefit shows stronger correlation with satisfaction than motivation does. Finally, we suggest several implications for future research and policy of college students' volunteering based on these results.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.906-923
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• 2001

This study investigated university students' (majoring physics education) understanding of some aspects of idealization frequently used in teaching and learning of physics, especially of mechanics. A total of 143 students were given a Questionnaire of six questions requiring written responses. Out of the six questions, the first three were concerned with basic idealized concepts, the next two with the making of the assumptions of ideal conditions for given problem settings, and the last with the identification of the idealization used in the given solution of a problem. Students' written responses were grouped into patterns and the relative frequencies of the patterns were counted. It was found that the students had limited understanding of the idealization and their ideas were diverse and frequently incorrect. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the roles of idealization in physics education.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.93-99
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to develop a new test instrument based on AAAS Benchmarks for Science Literacy, to assess k-12 students' progress in understanding nature of science (NOS). A total of 276 items were developed including 33 items for grade k-2, 36 items for grade 3-5, 78 items for grade 6-8 and 129 items for grade 9-12 and they were reviewed for validity and reliability. Key ideas that were the foundation of test items were extended, sophisticated and enriched according to the grade level. The general score of this test represents a student's cognitive state about an understanding of NOS. The result of this test can be expected to give some useful information for follow-up investigations, improving instructional design, and conducting further studies.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.439-452
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• 1998

In this Study, I concerned the learning-teaching of the use of letters in algebra. Our Study can be summarized as follows; First, I tried to establish the theoretical Foundation necessary for the learning-teaching of the use of letters in literal expressions. Second, I made a course of study that leads to the understanding of the meaning and the use f literals in algebraic expressions. Third, Based on this course of study, I held classes on First-grade students in middle school and I carried on an investigation their understanding of the meaning and the use of literals in algebraic expressions. Finally, I made an analysis of findings in this investigation and identified student's a better understanding of the meaning and the use of literals in algebraic expressions.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.191-205
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore strategies used by pre-service elementary science teachers in planning a science lesson. The participants were six senior students from a national university of education located in the midwestern area of Korea. Data regarding their planning strategies were gathered through both thinking-aloud and observation. Research findings suggest that: three of the teachers had little understanding of the necessity of reviewing unit contents or prior learning for planning a science lesson; five student teachers relied heavily on learning objectives presented in teachers' guidebooks without considering their appropriateness; all teachers exhibited an intention of composing different activities or teaching approaches from teachers' guidebooks; only two teachers thought about learners' prior knowledge or understanding levels; five and three teachers had poor understanding of discovery learning models and importance of teacher's questioning, respectively; and five teachers paid little attention to assessment.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.89-98
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• 1999

The purpose of this review of literature is to investigate what kinds of research have been done on social construction of mathematics understanding among elementary students in small groups. Only empirical studies were reviewed, and then grouping was done in terms of the purpose of the study. This grouping identified three categories: 1) Social and mathematical norms in mathematics classroom, 2) Teaching productive communication behaviors for active learning in small group, and 3) Participation roles and communication behaviors in different group structure. To enhance social construction of mathematics understanding in small group settings two suggestions are made: the importance of the selection of collaborative tasks or problems and teachers' beliefs about mathematics and the teaching an learning of mathematics.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.303-322
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• 2007

This study is to investigate student's processes of problem solving using open-ended Geometric problems to understand student's thinking and behavior. One 8th grader participated in performing her learning in 5 lessons for June in 2006. The result of the study was documented according to Polya's four problem solving stages as follows: First, the student tended to neglect the stage of "understanding" a problem in the beginning. However, the student was observed to make it simplify and relate to what she had teamed previously Second, "devising a plan" was not simply done. She attempted to solve the open-ended problems with more various ways and became to have the metacognitive knowledge, leading her to think back and correct her errors of solving a problem. Third, in process of "carrying out" the plan she controled her solving a problem to become a better solver based on failure of solving a problem. Fourth, she recognized the necessity of "looking back" stage through the open ended problems which led her to apply and generalize mathematical problems to the real life. In conclusion, it was found that the student enjoyed her solving with enthusiasm, building mathematical belief systems with challenging spirit and developing mathematical power.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.807-825
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• 2010

Educational interest has been paid to ADHD students. Because of being easily distracted, lacking concentration, and committing hyperactive acts, they lag much behind other students in academic grades and their teachers have many difficulties in teaching them. This study aims to provide a case of enhancing an ADHD student's fraction-related achievement. To do this, we investigated his mathematical abilities in a preliminary study, devised an individualized teaching for the fractions unit, and applied them to him. And analyzing the results from observations and interviews of the student we can induce the following results: First, the ADHD student showed such types of errors in relation to fraction as lack of the concept of dividing into equal parts, lack of the concept of numerator and denominator, and errors in adding or subtracting fractions anc mixed fractions whose denominators were the same. And secondly, the fraction-related achievements of the ADHD student have improved thanks to the systematic teaching plan based on the accurate understanding of his academic gap relative to other students, his learning attitude, and his time difference. In addition, this study suggests several implications for ADHD students' learning of fractions.