12th International Congress on Mathematical Education
Program Name XX-YY-zz (pp. abcde-fghij)
8 July – 15 July, 2012, COEX, Seoul, Korea (This part is for LOC use only. Please do not change this part.)
CREATIVITY AND CHARACTER EDUCATION IN KOREAN
ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS
Wan Kang
Byonggon Ahn
Jongsoo Bae
Sukyoon Paik
SNUE
GNUE
SNUE
SNUE
wkang@snue.ac.kr
bgahn@gnue.ac.kr
baejs@snue.ac.kr
sypaik@snue.ac.kr
Mangoo Park
Kyounghui Lee
Dongwon Kim
Whanchul Lee
SNUE
SJES
KOFAC
KOFAC
mpark29@snue.ac.k r gysarang@daum.net pourpeda@kofac.re.kr singgri@kofac.re.kr
The purpose of this presentation is to address major policies in mathematics education, and creativity
and character education in the Korean National Elementary Mathematics Textbooks. The authors
investigated Korean educational policies and analyzed the revised mathematics textbooks. They
found that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) of Korea has recently
emphasized creativity and character education in all fields and disciplines. The mathematics
textbook authors seek to enhance the characters and creativity of students whilst learning about
mathematics. In particular, the ‘creativity field’ is designed for students to enhance their creativity
and character while they are solving problems and learning mathematics.
Keywords: Creativity, Character Education, Korean Elementary Mathematics Textbooks
INTRODUCTION
For students who will take a leading role in the future, the ability to create new knowledge and
value through the integration of various studies and technologies is crucial. For this purpose,
the newly amended curriculum emphasizes creativity and character education (Ministry of
Education, Science and Technology [MEST], 2011). The elementary mathematics textbooks
under development are also reflect these objectives.
This study investigated the meaning of creativity and character in Korea’s mathematics
education and relevant major policies and suggested a concrete case of realizing creativity
and character education in Korean elementary mathematics textbooks.
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Kang, Ahn, Bae, Paik, Park, Lee, Kim, & Lee
CREATIVITY AND CHARACTER IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
In studies on creativity related to mathematics, views on creativity are quite different
depending on each scholar. However, according to recent studies, Pehkonen(1997) and
Silver(1997) define mathematical creativity as a problem-solving process where creative or
productive thinking is generated together with convergent and divergent thinking through
three steps; understanding the problem, creating an idea and making a plan and executing it.
Sriraman(2004) defines the concept of mathematical creativity as an ability to produce
creative output in order to expand knowledge significantly. Sheffield(2006) emphasized the
importance of rich mathematical tasks and the teacher’s role in order to increase student’s
development of creativity in mathematics education. In summary, it is noticeable that there is
a clear connection between creativity in mathematics education and the general creativity of
the learner.
CHARACTER IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
The important axes of school education are academic guidance and character education. In
particular, character education with creativity is now emphasized as an educational virtue of
the 21st century.
Csikszentmihalyi (1996) emphasized the importance of developing a creative propensity and
providing environmental (social, cultural) support. Sternberg(2005) emphasized that it is
necessary for a future leader to synthesize WICS, i.e., Wisdom, Intelligence and Creativity
Synthesized, so that creativity may be combined with factors directly related to character.
Gardner(2006) proposed five minds that the next generation should be equipped with;
Disciplined Mind, Synthesizing Mind, Creative Mind, Respectful Mind, and Ethical Mind.
Taking all these trends together, fostering creativity and character is an important educational
goal from the standpoint of mathematics education. In the future, societies must prepare to
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realize this goal to the maximum. Thus, a comprehensive approach to creativity and character
is necessary.
CREATIVITY AND CHARACTER EDUCATION IN KOREAN MATHEMATICS
EDUCATION
Entering into the 21st century of knowledge and information, mathematics is receiving
attention as a source of national competitiveness; yet Korean mathematics education has seen
little change in the last 60 years! Since the establishment of the Korean government, many
scholars have pointed out that a severe lack of investment in public education has increased
the burden of education on both students and parents (MEST, 2012).
The policy for Korean mathematics education has been as follows until the government
declared 2012 the year of mathematics:
Plan for advanced mathematics education (January, 2012)
• Announcement of a ‘Plan for advanced mathematics education’ in order to realize
‘Mathematics that develops thinking ability’, ‘Easy and interesting Mathematics’ and ‘Mathematics
that can be learned collectively’.
Proclamation of ‘The year of mathematics education’ in 2012 (March, 2012)
• Announcement of the declarative statement of ‘the year of mathematics education’ that
contains the vision of future mathematics education based on reflecting on the past, under the catch
phrase “Knowing mathematics opens your mind”.
In summary, the static Korean mathematics education started producing proper studies and
policies only recently after MEST established a plan for reinforcing mathematics and science
competence in January 2008 and declared ‘The year of mathematics education’ in 2012.
In this context, the authors illustrate how such creativity and character education is realized in
Korean elementary mathematics textbooks in light of the recent mathematics policies.
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EXAMPLES OF CREATIVITY AND CHARACTER EDCUATION IN KOREAN
NATIONAL ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS
According to the 2009 amendment, the major direction of mathematics curriculum
development is to pursue creative human education, which is proposed in the introduction.
The 2009 revised mathematics curriculum (Korea Foundation for the Advancement of
Science & Creativity [KOFAC], 2011) states that mathematical creativity in mathematics
refers to cultivating the ability to create unique or various ways of solutions, explore tasks
from a new angle, and finally, create knowledge during the process of solving mathematical
tasks. The examples of realizing creativity and character education in the revised elementary
mathematics textbooks under the main guidelines of the 2009 revised mathematics
curriculum are as follows.
A. The revised mathematics textbooks propose 6 units per semester (except for 5 units for the
first semester of first grade). They reduced the chapters for introduction, summary and
assessment by reducing the units from 8-9 units in the previous 2007 revised mathematics
curriculum to 6 units. Also, they tried to be more faithful to the main content of mathematics
so that students may engage in activities focused on a mathematical process.
B. When comparing the structural characteristics of the composition of the curriculum, it is
not in a structure where a content element in the previous unit appears again in the next unit,
but it is in a ‘block-learning’ type that induces advanced-level learning.
C. As for the statements of learning goals, on the top of the first page of each chapter, ‘I can
do….’ is stated. Such statements of learning goals are learner-oriented statements (for
example, ‘I can count three digit numbers’) that indicate to students what they will learn and
encourages them to participate in the class more actively.
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D. In the composition of each unit and chapter, all the units have the same composition, from
the unit introduction to ‘Let’s see whether you learned well’. As a result of a 20% reduction of
the mathematics textbook content, supplementary chapters are added on main chapters in a
madang (sector) for creativity, and also their placement is variously set according to each unit.
Particularly for the units that have many chapters, a madang for creativity or problem solving
is inserted to make it less boring. Placement is variously set to consider the aspects of
mathematical attitude and mathematical character.
Table 1: Structure of the madang for creativity of the revised mathematics textbooks
Structure
Activities
Examples
This is composed of a history of mathematics or
Story
similar stories suitable to each unit in order to engage
madang
students’ interest and promote positive attitudes
toward mathematics.
This is provided to increase learning efficiency
Madang
for
Play
madang
Creativity
through play as a method of learning, through which
students can be involved in character education for
cooperation and consideration, as well as creative
education for problem solving.
This is provided for the activities that develop an
Experience
madang
eye for seeing the world in a mathematical way.
Through the experience madang, where mathematics
interacts with the society, students can develop
mathematical character and creativity.
Particularly, teachers can use the madang for creativity (story madang, play madang and
experience madang) in guiding students to raise their awareness of the value and necessity of
mathematics by learning it in connection with daily life phenomena, social phenomena and
natural phenomena. Also, teachers can encourage students to have interest, attention and
confidence in mathematics so that students can increase their motivation and will to learn.
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E. The revised textbooks include a storytelling technique for the introduction of mathematical
concepts so that students can eventually think creatively and apply such thinking in other
academic experiences or in daily life. In particular, to save space in the textbooks, the detailed
stories in the ‘opening-mind’ sections of the textbooks are included in the teacher’s guide
book. Therefore, teachers need to carefully consider whether they should teach the
‘opening-mind’ section to students in connection with the storytelling content in the teacher’s
guide book in order to let the students understand from the mathematical context.
F. The author of these textbooks recommends students’ own activity for the learning of
mathematical concepts, principles and arithmetic operations in order to improve students’
mathematical thinking abilities. The books include ‘storytelling’ in every unit for learning
mathematical concepts and principles. Students are encouraged to understand concepts,
principles and arithmetic operations through the process of engaging in their own activities
and answering the given questions. In order to provide opportunities for students to find
methods on their own, the authors encourage teachers to use open questions and open-ended
questions rather than procedural questions or short-answer type questions.
G. For character education in mathematics education, the following were considered.
• Character education through mathematical topics: the authors attempted to search a
character education solution through the power of mathematical value or educational value
implied in mathematical knowledge itself from the viewpoint of mathematical thinking or
attitude.
• Character education through selecting mathematical problem situations: In view of the
uniqueness of mathematics, character education is attempted through the careful selection of
situations as a feasible approach in a very formal content system.
• Viewpoints related to the teaching/learning methods realized in the mathematics
curriculum: considered which content or materials related to mathematics should be offered
and consequently what ways of thinking and attitude should be formed. (For example, the
authors reduced the activities in each chapter in order to allow time for creative thinking and
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emphasized the activities such as a creativity madang in order to encourage creative activity
and ideas.) Especially, the experience madang offers activities to develop an ability to see the
world from the viewpoint of mathematics. Through an experience madang, students will
examine ways in which mathematics and society interact.
CONCLUSION
This study investigated the meaning of creativity and character in mathematics education, and
then the meaning of creativity and character as well as policies in Korean mathematics
education, respectively. The researchers showed some examples that realized creativity and
character education in Korean elementary mathematics textbooks.
In particular, the use of the storytelling technique, one of the biggest characteristics of the
revised textbooks, motivates students to learn mathematics and develop comprehensive and
creative thinking naturally by applying mathematics to other areas of their daily lives. While
doing these activities, students can naturally be involved in character education. In addition,
they emphasized the experiences of learners in the growth of mathematical thinking during
the process of students’ engagement in activities.
Since fostering creativity and character is directly linked to the future survival of the
individual and nation, future education should be a ‘deriving-out’ education rather than a
‘cramming-in’ education. ‘Creativity’ and ‘character’ should be at the core of education
that ‘finds and develops’ a students’ potentials. While students are ‘doing’ such mathematics
in their classrooms and in their daily lives, they can realize the meaning of the sentence,
‘knowing mathematics opens minds.’
References
Csikszentmihalyi, M (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention.
New York: Harper Collins.
Gardner, H. (2006). Multiple intelligences: New horizons in theory and practice. New York:
Perseus Books.
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Kang, Ahn, Bae, Paik, Park, Lee, Kim, & Lee
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [MEST]. (2009). 2009 amended curriculum.
Seoul: Author.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [MEST]. (2012). Experimental version
textbooks, term 1-1, from MEST 2009 amended curriculum. Seoul: Author.
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [MEST]. (2012). Experimental version
textbooks, term 2-1, from MEST 2009 amended curriculum. Seoul: Author.
Pehkonen, E. (1997). The state-of-art in mathematical creativity. Zentralblatt fur Didaktik der
Mathematik, 29(3), 63-67.
Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity [KOFAC]. (2009). Study on
creativity-oriented future mathematics and curriculum model. Report.
Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity [KOFAC]. (2012-4). Study
on creativity-oriented future mathematics, improvement of textbooks and a plan for
curriculum amendment. Report.
Sheffield, L. J. (2006). Developing mathematical promise and creativity. Proceedings of the
11th International Seminar on Education of Gifted Students in Mathematics. 1 -7.
Silver, E. A. (1997). Fostering creativity through instruction rich in mathematical problem
solving and problem posing. Zentralblatt fur Didaktik der Mathematik, 29(3), 75-80.
Sriraman, B. (2004). The characteristics of mathematical creativity. The Mathematics
Educator, 14(1), 19-34.
Sternberg, R. J. (2005). Creativity or creativities? International Journal of Human Computer
Studies, 63, 370–382.
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