Pupils' competencies in proof and argumentation: differences between Korea and Germany at the lower secondary level

The purpose of this thesis aims at finding and investigating more reasons for the difference in pupil performance on mathematics in international study. In more detail, my thesis aims at examining and comparing Korean and German pupils' competencies in proof and argumentation about geometry, especially at the lower secondary level. In addition, pupils' belief about mathematics will be discussed. To help explain my data, I compared the Korean educational system and mathematics curriculum, in particular the geometry component, with those of Germany. The data of 659 German 7th grade pupils (8th grade: 528) and 189 Korean 7th grade pupils (8th grade: 182) were collected. In addition, 22 German teachers and 58 Korean teachers answered the same questionnaire on beliefs about mathematics. As a result, German pupils perform significantly better on items asking for basic competence than Korean pupils. On the other hand, Korean pupils perform significantly better on argumentation and proofs items. However, my results show that pupils in both countries have difficulties in proving and justifying. From a factoranalysis relevant to beliefs about mathematics, the three categories application, formalism, and process were taken to represent these beliefs. It shows that there is no meaningful relationship between beliefs factors and each mathematical competence. The results show that the Korean and the German pupils struggle with the deductive formal proof. Moreover, the pupils' answers in the achievement test showed that they had a limited range of strategies for proofs and a poor understanding of concepts. In addition, pupils' proof-writing skills do not seem to be sufficiently well-developed, and they do not always seem to be able to apply the correct properties appropriately.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Universität Oldenburg

Year

2005

Author dc:creator

• Kwak, Jee-Yi

• [Keine Schlagwörter von Autor/in vergeben.]

Repository record source_url

http://oops.uni-oldenburg.de/132

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oops.uni-oldenburg.de:132