The 7th curriculum of our country sets the aim of the math learning on 'Extension of the mathematical ability', respects learners' autonomy & creativity, and makes much of learning activities & mathematical experiences of students. Also, in the instr...
The 7th curriculum of our country sets the aim of the math learning on 'Extension of the mathematical ability', respects learners' autonomy & creativity, and makes much of learning activities & mathematical experiences of students. Also, in the instructive learning, it emphasizes to facilitate understanding of the concepts, principles & rules using concrete operative teaching tools & learning materials. So, in this study, in the section 'Character & Formula', I think an instruction is required, which makes students having poor progress in math learning understand concepts by their own concrete operative activities rather than by memorizing concepts or theories of math, and makes them have interest & confidence in math by recognizing their participation in the instruction. So this study examined the active methods for the concrete operative activities, and composed the worksheet. The research topics on these are like followings.
First, in the section 'Character & Formula', for students in the 1st grade of the middle school having poor progress in math learning, what are difference in math achievement between the group doing the concrete operative activities & the group doing writing-styled instruction?
Second, in the section 'Character & Formula', for students in the 1st grade of the middle school having poor progress in math learning, how is the mathematical attitude between the group doing the concrete operative activities & the group doing writing-styled instruction?
Third, in the section 'Character & Formula', for students in the 1st grade of the middle school having poor progress in math learning, how is the mathematical expression of the group doing the concrete operative activities?
Under the research topics like above, this study analyzed the theories & educational approaches of math learning of activism on the concrete operative activities through the preceding studies, definition & causes of the students having poor progress in math learning, and instructive methods. When divided the level of learning into top, middle, bottom, this study defined students having poor progress in math learning as the ones of bottom level, whose achievements are under those of other students though they have normal learning ability.
As for the first research topic, in order to inspect the effect of the concrete operative activities on the achievement of the students having poor progress in math learning, they were divided into the experimental group & comparative group. To identify that both groups are homogeneous groups, independent sample t-test of SPSS was performed based on the results of the mid-tern exam. For the post test, evaluation sheet which I manufactured by myself was used, and it was verified by the experts in math education. To inspect difference in school achievement between the experimental group & comparative group, it was analyzed through independent sample t-test using SPSS.
As for the second research topic, in order to inspect mathematical attitude between the group doing the concrete operative activities & the group doing writing-styled instruction, pre․post test were preformed on the mathematical attitude through the same The questionnaire. It was analyzed through dependent sample t-test using SPSS. After completing the experiment, questionnaire was distributed for the post opinions on the concrete operative activities for the experimental group.
As for the third research topic, in order to examine the mathematical expression of the group doing the concrete operative activities, operative expression, pictorial expression & symbolic expression among 5 expressions classified by Nakahara were examined through arbitrary interpretation.
The research results are like followings.
First, when examined difference in math achievements between the experimental group doing the concrete operative activities & the comparative group doing writing-styled instruction, there was no statistically significant difference. It shows that it's difficult to take effect in the school achievement through short-term learning.
Second, when compared the change of the mathematical attitude, there was no significant difference in the pre․post results of the mathematical attitude for the comparative group, however, there was significant difference in those above for the experimental group. Though students seemed to feel pressure in the operative activities at first, it shows that there's positive effect in confidence or learning attitude on math during the time which they come to have interest in math through the operative activities and participate in the instruction actively.
Third, in the post opinions on the concrete operative activities done for the experimental group, most of students showed positive response. However, in the case of the question 'Did much mischief during the instruction of the operative activities using the concrete objects', they showed more negative responses compared with other questions. In fact, during class, there were cases that students had many communications and they couldn't concentrate on the activities for a long time. Or they did mischief with friends using the operative teaching aids during the operative activities.
Fourth, in the case of the mathematical expressions of the group doing the concrete operative activities, students familiar with only writing-styled instruction had difficulty in expressing in many ways at first. They seemed to have difficulty in doing operative, pictorial & symbolic expressions by themselves, however, they came to have confidence in expressing gradually, and sometimes they boasted of it. In the case of students having poor progress in math learning, they preferred the operative expression to others and did it most confidently, but had most difficulty in the symbolic expression. Especially, in the process performing the symbolic expression from pictorial one, many students seemed to have much difficulty in the operation.
Based on the research results above, the conclusions are like followings.
First, there was no outstanding effects in the achievement of the concrete operative activities for students having poor progress in math learning, but, it's regarded there's difficulty in obtaining good effects through the short-term instruction. However, if the concrete operative activities are done in the instruction continually, it's thought achievement of students will be improved.
Second, students having poor progress in math learning had much interest in the operative teaching tools & activity sheets and there was effect in motivating their math learning. In the case of students having poor progress in math learning, they had lower confidence & interest in math than others, and difficulty in solving math problems by themselves so gave up. Learning through activities using the operative teaching tools seems to be a chance for changing the recognition that math is a difficult and tough thing with confidence.
Third, algorithm, solving problems or getting answers are emphasized in the math instruction, so students come to be used to memorizing math and solving problems repeatedly. However, while their expressing in many ways, seeing their errors directly and correcting them, I could see them understand the mathematical concepts rather than memorizing them. Communications between students and the teacher were done actively, so mathematical errors of students unrecognized before could be found easily and correction was possible. Furthermore, various mathematical expressions are regarded to have the meaning of 'Extension of the mathematical ability' in the 7th curriculum. So many mathematical expressions have to be reflected on school math.
Fourth, in the instruction of the concrete operative activities, the role of a teacher is very important. Because it's required to prepare operative objects and many materials before the operative activities with careful guidance in order for students not to be inattentive during the operative activities. The concrete operative activities can be a method to increase students' participation in the class, so many efforts are required for vigorous activities through teachers' encouragement, guidance and communication with students. Leak(2000) stated education by competent teachers who had a special training is the important research variable in the instruction using the concrete objects. Especially, for students having poor progress in math learning, operative activities can improve concentration & attitude on math, but if used wrongly, they can create inattentive atmosphere because students are likely to use the concrete operative teaching tools for playing not for studying. So teachers must understand it fully and lead class properly.
This study has limits like followings.
First, this study was done for 31 first grade- students having poor progress in math learning at Y middle school in Seoul through dividing them into two groups. The number of students was very few so it has a limit to generalizing into all students.
Second, this study was done for first-grade middle school students in the section ' Character & Formula', so it can have different research result when applied to other section. Third, this study performed 8 times experiments in the section ' Character & Formula', so the period of the experiment was too short.
With such a conclusion, I intend to propose a few things like followings.
First, this study was limited on the instruction effects of the concrete operative activities in the section ' Character & Formula', but, a method has to be planned for students to explore directly with the various operative teaching aids through learning environs by expanding it into the entire units.
Second, through problem-solving process of students having poor progress in math learning in the concrete operative activities, I could see students came to have much interest & confidence while grasping the mathematical concepts formed wrongly and correcting them. They have sufficient potential in the class. However, their achievements are under the minimum level owing to lack of memory & concentration or helplessness learned. It's required to research various class strategies improving their motive on math learning and cultivating attentiveness with works on many programs to raise their ability of math learning.
Third, various methods of the mathematical expressions have positive effects on correcting students' concept errors and expressing the mathematical ideas. This study was limited on analyzing three things, or operative, pictorial & symbolic expressions among the mathematical expressions. However, it's regarded to be necessary for research on various expressive ways performed into two-way with detail.