최단비 Choi Danbi , 장혜원 Chang Hyewon

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.259 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 259-280, 2026

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This study aims to explore the possibility of integrating financial literacy into elementary mathematics education by designing and implementing mathematics lessons that incorporate financial literacy, focusing on ratios and proportional distribution, and by analyzing the patterns of students’ financial literacy manifestation. To achieve this, a series of ten lessons was developed using various financial contexts, including exchange rates, interest, comparison of financial products, and asset allocation. Data were collected from student worksheets, reflective journals, and written responses to project-based open-ended tasks. In the analysis, four categories of financial literacy―money and number concepts, transactions and calculations, budgeting and financial planning, and financial decision-making―were established based on prior research, and subcategories were inductively derived from student responses. The results indicated that students’ responses were structured around these four categories and showed patterns corresponding to financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The findings suggest that mathematics classrooms can provide a meaningful context for integrating knowledge-, attitude-, and behavior-related aspects of financial literacy. Furthermore, the study implies that mathematics instruction incorporating financial literacy can serve as an effective pedagogical approach to support the manifestation of students’ financial literacy.

성지현 Sung Ji Hyun

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.281 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 281-302, 2026

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This study aims to analyze the forms of picture graphs based on their frameworks, the pictures (icons) used to indicate units, and the methods used to present activities involving the selection of pictures and units in elementary school mathematics textbooks developed under the 2022 Revised Curriculum. Nine elementary school mathematics textbooks developed under the 2022 Revised Curriculum were selected for analysis, and picture graphs and related activities presented in the main text were examined. After identifying whether the elements of the analytical framework were included in the textbooks, a qualitative analysis was conducted by focusing on relevant cases. The results revealed several common characteristics across all nine textbooks regarding the forms of picture graphs, the methods used to represent units, and activities requiring students to select pictures and units. However, differences were found among the textbooks in terms of the inclusion of picture graphs presented within vertical table-type or map-type frameworks, the use of partial visual representations of pictures, and activities designed to help students recognize changes in picture graphs resulting from modifications to the number of units represented by pictures. The findings suggest the need for further discussion regarding the presentation of picture graphs in map-type and vertical table-type frameworks within textbooks for Grades 3-4, as well as the use of partial visual representations to indicate units. In addition, picture graphs presented in textbooks should be designed with consideration of theories of graph perception. Activities involving the selection of pictures and units should allow students to make autonomous choices while also providing opportunities to discuss which representations are most appropriate for intuitive reasoning. Furthermore, it is necessary to examine whether the considerations for applying achievement standards specified in the curriculum are adequately reflected in the textbooks.

정평화 Jung Pyounghwa , 장혜원 Chang Hyewon

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.303 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 303-327, 2026

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This study aims to analyze the characteristics of modeling routes demonstrated by sixth-grade elementary students in a two-dimensional spatial modeling task -specifically focusing on ill-structured contexts- to derive their educational implications. In recent mathematics education, modeling is emphasized as a cyclical process bridging real-world situations and mathematics. This highlights the importance of examining how students construct and revise mathematical models under spatial constraints. To this end, sixteen sixth-grade students were divided into four groups and engaged in the task of designing an efficient orchard. Data were collected through activity sheets, video recordings, and interviews. The collected data were analyzed based on meaning units, focusing on transitions and recursive movements between stages from the perspective of the modeling cycle. The results revealed that modeling processes were non-linear and cyclical rather than linear, with consistent returns to mathematical activity following interpretation and validation. In addition, visual information emerging from spatial constraints and arrangement outcomes functioned as a critical driver in promoting model revision. In conclusion, modeling in ill-structured spatial contexts encourages continuous refinement and elaboration of models, suggesting the necessity of process-oriented instructional design and assessment.

이예진 Lee Ye-jin

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.329 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 329-356, 2026

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This study aimed to design and implement lessons connecting the concepts of fraction division and proportion for sixth-grade elementary school students and to analyze students’ problem-solving methods and understanding after the lessons. In the current curriculum and textbooks, fraction division and proportion are treated as separate units under distinct achievement standards, which creates structural limitations that make it difficult for students to experience the connections between the two concepts. In this study, lessons were designed to connect fraction-division situations involving unit-rate finding with proportion. Based on pre- and post-tests and interview data, changes in students’ correct response rates, problem-solving strategies, and error patterns were analyzed. The results showed that students who participated in the connected lessons demonstrated improved relational understanding of fraction division, and that formal errors commonly observed in fraction division were substantially reduced. This study is significant as a practical example showing that instructional approaches that strengthen internal mathematical connections can deepen the quality of students’ understanding.

김정훈 Kim Jung Hoon

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.357 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 357-377, 2026

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This study addresses the need to support learners' cognitive continuity during shifts in place-value partitioning within natural number multiplication. The purpose of this study was to examine place-value partitioning patterns in visual model utilization and algorithm formalization across nine elementary mathematics textbooks developed under the 2022 Revised Mathematics Curriculum. To achieve this, all nine authorized third- and fourth-grade mathematics textbooks were analyzed. The scope was limited to multiplication lessons from the first semester of the third grade to the first semester of the fourth grade, where the topic is intensively taught. A systematic coding process was conducted based on newly established analysis criteria. The results revealed pedagogical discontinuities where visual models and algorithm formalization failed to support cognitive continuity during abrupt shifts in partitioning. Specifically, as the number ranges of the two operands expanded, the number of partial products increased. The textbooks' inquiry activities and lesson progressions did not sufficiently mediate the resulting cognitive load. Based on these findings, this study offers pedagogical recommendations for natural number multiplication. To effectively support learners' cognitive continuity, these recommendations focus on strengthening connectivity, necessity, and efficiency in both visual models and algorithm formalization.

김주현 Kim Juhyeon , 방정숙 Pang Jeongsuk

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.379 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 379-396, 2026

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With the growing emphasis on digital literacy, the 2022 revised mathematics curriculum in Korea highlights the use of technological tools in teaching and learning and explicitly includes their use in graph units. This study aims to identify the characteristics of technological tool use presented in graph units of elementary mathematics textbooks and to provide implications for future textbook development and the design of teaching and learning with technological tools. To this end, this study analyzed the use of technological tools in graph units across nine elementary mathematics textbook series developed under the 2022 revised curriculum. The analysis focused on the types of technological tools, their levels of use, teaching and learning approaches, and instructional purposes. The results showed that statistical software was the most frequently used type of technological tool. In terms of the levels of use based on the SAMR model, only substitution and augmentation were identified. Regarding teaching and learning approaches, the intended inquiry-inducing type was particularly prominent. In relation to the statistical problem-solving process, the purposes of technological tool use tended to be concentrated on the data analysis stage. These findings suggest that, in graph units, technological tools need to be used in ways that go beyond simple substitution and support students’ learning activities more effectively through functional augmentation. They also indicate the need to design technological tool use to promote students’ active inquiry and statistical problem solving.

김지영 Kim Jiyoung

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.397 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 397-414, 2026

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This study examined, through the lens of horizontal mathematizing, how second-grade students construct addition and subtraction number sentences from a pictorial situation presented in a textbook based on the 2022 revised mathematics curriculum. Finding quantitative relationships in a picture and expressing them as number sentences is a form of horizontal mathematizing, in which an everyday situation is translated into mathematical symbols. The process was analyzed in three phases―structuring the situation, constructing the representation, and stating the meaning―drawing on the homogeneity of objects, the additive structures of part-whole and comparison, and the link between a number sentence and its meaning. The data comprised the written work and classroom talk of all 18 students in one class, gathered through participant observation and coded independently by two mathematics education researchers. The analysis showed that students who arrived at the same number sentence had often structured the situation in different ways. Some drew on the part-whole relationship in both operations, whereas many added within a homogeneous category yet remained at comparison in subtraction, and some combined quantities across different categories. Such differences are invisible in the correctness of a sentence and surface only when one examines the structure a student imposes on the situation. These findings suggest that constructing number sentences can serve as a window into students' mathematizing, and further, as a foundation for posing problems from situations.

이정민 Lee Jungmin

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.415 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 415-433, 2026

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This study aims to analyze the spatial reasoning performance patterns of second-grade elementary school students across different sub-factors based on De Moor's framework, and to exploratorily examine how their performance varies according to the type of reasoning within the same spatial ability. To achieve this, an assessment tool based on the spatial reasoning structure proposed by Lee (2024) was administered to 32 second-grade students near the end of the school year. Subsequently, the correct answer rates for each item and sub-factor, as well as the differences between reasoning types, were analyzed. The findings are as follows: First, while the second-grade students demonstrated consistently high performance on items related to mental imagery (perceptual and memory imagery), their performance was relatively lower on higher-order mental transformation items, such as dimensional transformation and perspective-taking. Second, even for items measuring the same spatial ability, significant differences in correct answer rates were observed depending on the required reasoning type (deductive, inductive, or analogical). Specifically, items that required intuitive shape recognition yielded higher correct answer rates than those requiring analytical thinking (e.g., counting). These results suggest that at the second-grade level, the specific characteristics of individual items and intuitive thinking may exert a greater influence on actual performance than the structural sub-factors of spatial reasoning. Although this study is limited by its exploratory nature based on a small sample, it holds significance in providing foundational data to understand the spatial reasoning performance characteristics of lower-grade elementary students and to explore appropriate educational approaches.

노은환 Rho Eun Hwan , 김정훈 Kim Jung Hoon , 정상태 Jeong Sangtae

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.435 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 435-454, 2026

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This study analyzed how nine government-authorized elementary mathematics textbooks under the 2022 revised national curriculum present the activity of comparing two quantities in the stage prior to the introduction of ‘ratio’ in the Ratio and Rate unit of the first semester of grade 6, and draws implications for comparison activities that support the formation of the ratio concept. From the perspective of the appropriate selection of comparison methods, four criteria were established: the structure of the presentation of comparison, the validity of the objects and attributes of comparison, the explicitness of the description of multiplicative comparison, and the selection of comparison methods together with the necessity of multiplicative comparison. Using these criteria, the nine student textbooks were analyzed cross-sectionally. The results showed that all nine textbooks secured the validity of the objects and attributes of comparison and guided the necessity of multiplicative comparison through tables of co-varying quantities. While all nine posed the ‘how many times’ question and thereby treated multiplicative comparison implicitly, the academic term designating it as multiplicative comparison was not stated on the textbook surface, so multiplicative comparison remained at the level of everyday language. Explicit questions requiring students to select a comparison method appeared in only two textbooks, and the nine textbooks were classified into five types according to differences in their selection-and-interpretation questions and modes of justification. Noting the curricular discontinuity whereby students learn ‘how many times’ as multiplication in the second-grade multiplication unit, yet the same relation is named divisional comparison at the sixth-grade comparison stage, this study proposes three directions for pedagogical reconstruction: reinforcing questions that directly guide students’ selection of comparison methods, strengthening the explicitness of multiplicative comparison by connecting the operational and relational levels, and justifying the necessity of multiplicative comparison through contrast with non-proportional cases.

권성룡 Kwon Sung-yong

DOI:10.7468/jksmec.2026.29.3.455 JANT Vol.29(No.3) 455-489, 2026

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This study aimed to explore emerging patterns in research on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in elementary mathematics education and to reinterpret their implications from the perspective of elementary teacher education. An exploratory narrative review based on systematic search procedures was conducted of domestic and international literature published between 2015 and 2026, drawing on the main reporting principles of PRISMA 2020. Of 30 candidate studies, 16 were selected as core studies through full-text review, independent coding by two coders, and consensus discussion. For the final classification of 25 studies subjected to full-text review into categories A, B, C, excluded, or pending, the percentage agreement was 96.0%, and Cohen’s κ was .919. The findings showed that research on AI use in elementary mathematics education was concentrated in AI-based mathematics learning support systems, intelligent tutoring systems, adaptive learning, generative AI-based problem-solving support, lesson planning, and the use of AI by teachers and pre-service teachers. Generative AI was used to generate mathematical problems, solutions, explanations, and lesson plans, or to support statistical analysis, visualization, interpretation, and mathematical problem-solving, although the scope and function of these outputs and forms of support varied across studies. This study used competency outsourcing as an exploratory educational interpretive concept referring to the possibility that AI may partially displace opportunities for learners, teachers, and pre-service teachers to directly perform core thinking, judgment, and design activities required for competency development. The study did not measure competency loss or the occurrence of competency outsourcing itself; its operational coding focused on the potential displacement of core performance opportunities. The term competency outsourcing is used here in an educational sense and is distinct from outsourcing in management and human resource management. No study was classified as showing a high potential for the displacement of core performance opportunities. However, boundary cases were identified in which generative AI provided lesson-plan drafts, supported pre-service teachers in statistical analysis, visualization, and interpretation, or guided learners through mathematical problem-solving. The findings suggest that elementary teacher education should move beyond instruction in the operation of AI tools and provide opportunities to evaluate the mathematical and pedagogical validity of AI-generated outputs, interpret AI-generated diagnostic information about student learning, facilitate students’ mathematical thinking, and make pedagogical judgments that preserve core performance opportunities. However, because the findings are based on an exploratory interpretation of 16 core studies, they should not be generalized as definitive trends across the broader field of AI use in elementary mathematics education.