The Seventh Mathematics Curriculum emphasizes that in mathematics classes, mathematical concepts must be understood and mathematical problems must be solved by students' own exploratory activities such as the use of data, manipulatives, and technologi...
The Seventh Mathematics Curriculum emphasizes that in mathematics classes, mathematical concepts must be understood and mathematical problems must be solved by students' own exploratory activities such as the use of data, manipulatives, and technological devices. Following the main idea of the Seventh Mathematics Curriculum, this paper deals with instructional methods applied suitably and effectively in mathematics classes, and focuses on the 'exploratory learning in groups' method in mathematics education.
For this purpose, this paper reviews and summarizes theories related to instructional methods in the aspect of general pedagogy and of mathematics education. Based on the results, it investigates appropriate instructional methods in mathematics education. In particular, this paper focuses on studying the exploratory learning method while investigating its properties and understanding the relationship between the 'exploratory learning in groups' method and the discussion-centered method. Finally, in order to show the usefulness of the exploratory learning method, this paper develops an example of a teaching module using the exploratory learning method in addition to discussion and lecture-centered methods by the use of manipulatives.