The 21st century called the information age is a society in which many issues in actual life are solved in a mathematical way based on mathematical thinking power, judgment and the ability to solve problems. To achieve this, the nation’s 7th mathema...
The 21st century called the information age is a society in which many issues in actual life are solved in a mathematical way based on mathematical thinking power, judgment and the ability to solve problems. To achieve this, the nation’s 7th mathematics curriculum lays stress upon the ability to solve many problems coming up in actual life, supported by basic mathematical knowledge and function. As a way to cultivate this ability, a mathematical modeling can be figured out. Meantime, the realm of numbers and operations which constitute an important part of the nation’s elementary school’s education is being handled with focus on mechanical and repetitive calculation function without being linked to actual life on the school field. As part of an improvement in this, the researcher thought a mathematical modeling could be applied to the realm of numbers and operations. Accordingly, this study is aimed to identify the effect of the instruction using mathematical modeling had on the elementary school’s 4th graders’ learning of numbers and operations and to analyze the process of learning on applying mathematics appearing at the instruction using mathematical modeling and on situational and practical abstracting.
As for the research problems, this study was intended to find out if the instruction using mathematical modeling appeared to be different from the existing ordinary class in the ability of understanding the concept and theory of numbers and operations, or in the ability of solving the problem linked to actual life with focus on setting up a formula and posing problems, and how the learning on mathematical modeling (the process of learning on applying mathematics and situational and practical abstracting) appeared in the experimental group given an instruction using mathematical modeling.
To solve the research problem, 2 classes of the 4th grade of D Elementary School in Seoul were chosen as the study subject and the experiment was conducted with one of them set as the experimental group and the other as the comparative group. This study was carried out during 18 classes spanning 6 weeks, during which the experimental group was given the instruction using mathematical modeling and the comparative group the ordinary mathematical class according to the 7th mathematics curriculum textbook and teacher’s guidebook. To identify the effect of the instruction using mathematical modeling, the homogeneity of the experimental group and the comparative group was checked after the statistical processing of homogeneity test results and a pre-test on the mathematical ability of the two groups was conducted prior to the experiment. After the class using mathematical modeling and the ordinary one were given to the experiment group and the comparative group for 6 weeks after the pre-test on the mathematical ability, the post-test on mathematical ability of these two groups was conducted. And then by comparing the scores on the two groups’ ability of understanding the concept and theory and solving problems (with focus on setting up a formula and posing problems), two independent sample t test were conducted and thus the analysis was made to see if there was any significant difference in the two groups’ mathematical ability. In addition, while the instruction was being given to the experimental group using mathematical modeling, the analysis was made on the process of learning on applying mathematics and on situational and practical abstraction through learners’ learning activity diaries and teachers’ observation logs.
As a result, the experimental group which was given the instruction using mathematical modeling appeared to be significantly different from the comparative group in mathematical ability and showed a positive effect in learning numbers and operations about the instruction using mathematical modeling. To find out what effect the instruction which used mathematical modeling had on the detailed elements of mathematical ability, two independent sample t tests was conducted according to scores on the ability of understanding the concept and theory, setting up a formula, posing problems. As a result, the instruction using mathematical modeling was shown to be significantly different in the element of posing problems only in the category of the ability of solving problems. In addition, as a result of analyzing learning activity diaries of the experimental group given the instruction using mathematical modeling and teachers’ observation logs, it was able to be found out that the learners in the experimental group were shown to vary according to big figures, multiplication, division, unit of combined calculations, content of classes, mathematical concept and theory which individual learners had and the extent of applying to the context of actual world and abstracting these.
In conclusion, the instruction using mathematical modeling is effective in the elementary school’s 4th graders’ learning of numbers and operations among the activities of posing problems constituting the ability of solving problems and it can be said students were shown to be different according to content of learning, mathematical knowledge learners had and the extent of applying to the context of actual world and abstracting these.
However, the study was conducted on only two classes of the elementary school’s 4th grade and for a short period of time, so the effect, identified herein, has a limit in generalization, necessitating extensive follow-on ones based on grades, regions and realms. In addition, studies on mathematical modeling which was used at middle schools and high schools should be invigorated so that it can settle as en effective teaching-learning methodology at elementary schools. And it is necessary to not only develop evaluation tools that enable an appropriate rating of the ability of solving problems in actual lives of learners, but also foster the condition for developing and sharing diverse teaching-learning methods, programs and data which enable guidance linking the realm of figures and operations to actual life.