• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.57-79
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• 2022

Current mathematics It is necessary to ensure that ratio and proportion concept is not distorted or broken while being treated as if they were easy to teach and learn in school. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the activities presented in the textbook. Based on prior work, this study reinterpreted the proportional reasoning task from the proportional perspective of Beckmann and Izsak(2015) to the multiplicative structure of Vergnaud(1996) in four ways. This compared how they interpreted the multiplicative structure and relationships between two measurement spaces of ratio and rate units and proportional expression and proportional distribution units presented in the revised textbooks of 2007, 2009, and 2015 curriculum. First, the study found that the proportional reasoning task presented in the ratio and rate section varied by increasing both the ratio structure type and the proportional reasoning activity during the 2009 curriculum, but simplified the content by decreasing both the percentage structure type and the proportional reasoning activity. In addition, during the 2015 curriculum, the content was simplified by decreasing both the type of multiplicative structure of ratio and rate and the type of proportional reasoning, but both the type of multiplicative structure of percentage and the content varied. Second, the study found that, the proportional reasoning task presented in the proportional expression and proportional distribute sections was similar to the previous one, as both the type of multiplicative structure and the type of proportional reasoning strategy increased during the 2009 curriculum. In addition, during the 2015 curriculum, both the type of multiplicative structure and the activity of proportional reasoning increased, but the proportional distribution were similar to the previous one as there was no significant change in the type of multiplicative structure and proportional reasoning. Therefore, teachers need to make efforts to analyze the multiplicative structure and proportional reasoning strategies of the activities presented in the textbook and reconstruct them according to the concepts to teach them so that students can experience proportional reasoning in various situations.

• School Mathematics
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.427-445
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• 2007

This study presents the results of a case study that investigated a seventh grader's fractional reasoning related to multiplicative reasoning. In addition, by employing domain analysis and taxonomic analysis for analyzing qualitative data, I show how a qualitative methodology was used for the data collected by teaching experiment methodology. The study identifies three distinct issues that emerged as the student engaged in solving fraction problems: a view of fractions as operations vs. results, the issue of units, and mixed numbers vs. improper fractions. These three issues have instructional implications in that each of them is critical in developing multiplicative reasoning and investigating how they relate to each other suggests a way to improve multiplicative reasoning in fractional contexts.

• School Mathematics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.351-368
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• 2009

This study presents data from a year-long teaching experiment which illustrate how two seventh graders modified their multiplicative thinking and interacted with their representing symbols in the context of combinatorial problem situations. Damon was at the process of construction of recursively multiplicative thinking by modifying his multiplicative reasoning, but Carol appeared to remain at the stage of a binary multiplicative scheme. The two students' struggles with their representing symbols or represented symbols by the teacher show that even well-organized symbolic systems from teachers' perspective do not necessarily help students advance their mathematical capacity.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.21-58
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• 2015

The aim of this study is to look into the didactical background for teaching proportional reasoning in elementary school mathematics and offer suggestions to improve teaching proportional reasoning in the future. In order to attain these purposes, this study extracted and examined key ideas with respect to the didactical background on teaching proportional reasoning through a theoretical consideration regarding various studies on proportional reasoning. Based on such examination, this study compared and analyzed textbooks used in the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. In the light of such theoretical consideration and analytical results, this study provided suggestions for improving teaching proportional reasoning in elementary schools in Korea as follows: giving much weight on proportional reasoning, emphasizing multiplicative comparison and discerning between additive comparison and multiplicative comparison, underlining the ratio concept as an equivalent relation, balancing between comparisons tasks and missing value tasks inclusive of quantitative and qualitative, algebraic and geometrical aspects, emphasizing informal strategies of students before teaching cross-product method, and utilizing informal and pre-formal models actively.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.81-98
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• 2009

This study analyzed the types of quantitative reasoning and the characteristics of representation in order to figure out the characteristics of quantitative reasoning of the sixth graders. Three students who used quantitative reasoning in solving problems were interviewed in depth. Results showed that the three students used two types of quantitative reasoning, that is difference reasoning and multiplicative reasoning. They used qualitatively different quantitative reasoning, which had a great impact on their problem-solving strategy. Students used symbolic, linguistic and visual representations. Particularly, they used visual representations to represent quantities and relations between quantities included in the problem situation, and to deduce a new relation between quantities. This result implies that visual representation plays a prominent role in quantitative reasoning. This paper included several implications on quantitative reasoning and quantitative approach related to early algebra education.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2013

The primary purpose of this study is to survey multiplicative thinking levels and its characteristics of third graders in elementary school and to analyze how to use it when they solve the proportional problems. As results, the transition thinking ranked the highest among the four kinds of thinking levels when the $3^{rd}$ graders solved the multiplication problems. It means that the largest numbers of students still can not distinguish the additive and multiplicative situations completely and remain in the transition thinking, which thinks both additively and multiplicatively. In addition, the performance of solving proportional problems was distinguished from the levels of thinking. Through this study, we can give some implications of the importance of multiplicative thinking and instructional methods related to multiplication.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.237-260
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• 2018

This study investigated the models of four countries' elementary mathematics textbooks in Ratio and Rate and identified how multiplicative perspectives on proportional relationships and the structure of proportion situations are reflected in the textbooks. For this, textbooks of 5th and 6th grade textbooks in Korea Japan, Singapore and U.S. are compared and analyzed. As a result, we can find multiplicative perspectives on proportional relationships and the structure of proportion situations on pictorial models, ratio tables, double number lines and double tape diagrams. Also, the development of Japanese textbooks from multiple batches perspectives to variable parts perspectives and the examples of the use with two models together implied the connection and union of two multiplicative perspectives. Based on these results, careful verification and discussion for the next textbook is needed to develop students' proportional reasoning and teach some effective reasoning strategies. And this study will provide the implication for what kinds of and how visual models are presented in the next textbook.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.105-129
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• 2016

The elements of mathematical processes include mathematical reasoning, mathematical problem-solving, and mathematical communications. Proportion reasoning is a kind of mathematical reasoning which is closely related to the ratio and percent concepts. Proportion reasoning is the essence of primary mathematics, and a basic mathematical concept required for the following more-complicated concepts. Therefore, the study aims to analyze the proportion reasoning ability of sixth graders of primary school who have already learned the ratio and percent concepts. To allow teachers to quickly recognize and help students who have difficulty solving a proportion reasoning problem, this study analyzed the characteristics and patterns of proportion reasoning of sixth graders of primary school. The purpose of this study is to provide implications for learning and teaching of future proportion reasoning of higher levels. In order to solve these study tasks, proportion reasoning problems were developed, and a total of 22 sixth graders of primary school were asked to solve these questions for a total of twice, once before and after they learned the ratio and percent concepts included in the 2009 revised mathematical curricula. Students' strategies and levels of proportional reasoning were analyzed by setting up the four different sections and classifying and analyzing the patterns of correct and wrong answers to the questions of each section. The results are followings; First, the 6th graders of primary school were able to utilize various proportion reasoning strategies depending on the conditions and patterns of mathematical assignments given to them. Second, most of the sixth graders of primary school remained at three levels of multiplicative reasoning. The most frequently adopted strategies by these sixth graders were the fraction strategy, the between-comparison strategy, and the within-comparison strategy. Third, the sixth graders of primary school often showed difficulty doing relative comparison. Fourth, the sixth graders of primary school placed the greatest concentration on the numbers given in the mathematical questions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.335-347
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• 2014

Size/scale is a central idea in the science curriculum, providing explanations for various phenomena. However, few studies have been conducted to explore student understanding of this concept and to suggest instructional approaches in scientific contexts. In contrast, there have been more studies in mathematics, regarding the use of number lines to relate the nature of numbers to operation and representation of magnitude. In order to better understand variations in student conceptions of size/scale in scientific contexts and explain learning difficulties including alternative conceptions, this study suggests an approach that links mathematics with the analysis of student conceptions of size/scale, i.e. the analysis of mathematical structure and reasoning for a number line. In addition, data ranging from high school to college students facilitate the interpretation of conceptual complexity in terms of mathematical development of a number line. In this sense, findings from this study better explain the following by mathematical reasoning: (1) varied student conceptions, (2) key aspects of each conception, and (3) potential cognitive dimensions interpreting the size/scale concepts. Results of this study help us to understand the troublesomeness of learning size/scale and provide a direction for developing curriculum and instruction for better understanding.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.64-72
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• 2005

The ever increasing demand for enhanced competitiveness of engineered products requires "designing-in-quality" strategies that can effectively and efficiently incorporate concepts of uncertainty and quality into design. Multi-attribute utility function is commonly used to represent the decision-maker's preference on multiple design attributes under conditions of uncertainty and risk. One of the major issues in implementing this approach concerns the generation of appropriate utility function, especially in a complex engineering design environment. Typically, the decision maker's preference is revealed through lottery questions rather than being structured on the deductive reasoning to reflect the nonlinear tradeoffs among the attributes. The use of such intuitive procedures can lead to inexact preference information that may result in inaccuracy and rank reversal problems. This paper presents an alternative procedure based on the pair-wise comparisons between design alternatives towards a consistent preference presentation in assessing multiplicative utility function. The effectiveness of the overall procedures is tested with the aid of an injection-molding process design for a capacitor can and the results are discussed.