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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and

Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary
of a Workshop (2015)

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ISBN 978-0-309-37436-1 | DOI 10.17226/21753

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GET THIS BOOK Ana Ferreras, Cathy Kessel, and Myong-Hi Kim, Rapporteurs; U.S. National
Commission on Mathematics Instruction; Board on International Scientific
Organizations; Policy and Global Affairs; National Academies of Sciences,
FIND RELATED TITLES Engineering, and Medicine

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Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the
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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

2
MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA

One of the differences between the United States and Korea is the way in which curriculum
change is initiated and implemented. For example, the Korean national curriculum framework
describes goals to be achieved in each subject curriculum. “Fostering the creative human,” a core
objective of the current framework, has two components: character building and the development
of creativity. Thus, the creators of the mathematics curriculum faced the question of how to
interpret creativity and character building in mathematics instruction. Workshop presenters
described how textbooks and teacher’s guides have been designed to support the achievement of
these and other goals specific to the mathematics curriculum, in particular, learning of fractions.
These presentations were followed by a reflection from Do Han Kim, president of the Korean
Mathematical Society, giving his perspective on the role of mathematical societies and the
problems of Korean education.

After the presentations and over the course of the workshop, U.S. participants commented on
aspects that were notable to them. Among other things, they mentioned achievement gaps and
pilot schools, and the idea of creativity for all students. They asked questions about the meaning
of character building (인성교육), leading to more extensive discussion. An edited version of this
discussion appears at the end of this chapter.

Textbooks as Mediators of the National Curriculum

Oh Nam Kwon of Seoul National University discussed how a new subject curriculum is created,
how it is related to the national curriculum framework, and how it influences what happens in the
classroom.

In Korea, the authority of the textbook seems to be quite different than in the United States. It
can almost be compared to the Bible, said Kwon. Textbooks and teacher’s guides are an
important mediator between the national mathematics curriculum and what happens in the
classroom. Instruction is textbook based rather than curriculum based. Because of this, it is
important to develop high-quality textbooks and curriculum materials that are tightly coupled
with changes in the national curriculum.

The national curriculum framework describes overarching goals and grade-level structure, and
gives instructions for implementation. These are elaborated in the mathematics curriculum,
which gives detailed specifications for:

• Learning goals by school level;

• Grade-level content objectives;
• Benchmarks;

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

10 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

• Instructional methods; and

• Assessment.
Guidelines for writing textbooks, teacher’s manuals, and student workbooks are then written to
be consistent with these specifications.

The 2011 Mathematics Curriculum Revision

Hee-Chan Lew of the Korea National University of Education discussed events that informed
the revision of the mathematics curriculum and key accompanying policies.

The current curriculum focuses on creativity and personality. Society requires that students
become not only more creative and competent but also more rational and sensible, so that they
can comply with the rules and orders of the greater society. The previous curriculum included
competencies that are believed to be fostered by engaging in mathematical processes such as
mathematical reasoning, problem solving, and communication.

But, Lew said, speaking as a writer of the national mathematics curriculum, we have recognized
another important factor in mathematics education: mathematical attitude. Korea has performed
well on the two international assessments: the Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). On the
mathematics PISA, for example, Korea was ranked second in 2003, third in 2006, and fourth in
2009. But Korean students’ attitudes toward mathematics were among the worst in the world,
according to surveys that accompanied the assessments. Moreover, analysis of scores for the
2003 and 2006 PISA showed an achievement gap according to school location: Urban students
scored much higher than rural students. In urban areas, Korea was among the best in the world.
But the more rural the area, the lower the scores; in villages and small towns, achievement was
below the international average for PISA countries. 1

Why so different? Korea is a small country. Teachers, curriculum, textbooks, and school
facilities are almost the same across the country. Lew believes that differences in educational
outcomes may come from differences in mathematical attitudes of students and parents. 2

For Lew, these findings are part of the background for the curriculum revision. In his view, key
points of the revision and key accompanying policies are:

• Contextual learning from which students grasp concepts and make connections to
everyday life;
• Manipulative activities through which students may attain an intuitive idea of what they
are learning and enhance their creativity;
• Reasoning to justify mathematical results based on students’ knowledge and experience;

1
Much of the Korean population is concentrated in metropolitan areas, with about 20 percent in Seoul. Lower-
income Koreans tend to live in rural areas rather than cities.
2
There is a socioeconomic gap between urban and rural regions. Pahlke, Hyde, and Mertz analyzed Korean grade 8
results from TIMSS 2003 and 2007. They found that the father’s education and family possessions, as well as the
economic disadvantage of the school, were all significant predictors of mathematics and science performance.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA 11

•Reform of textbooks and the classroom environment: emphasis on “storytelling” as a

strategy for teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; and
• Emphasis on the professionalism of mathematics teachers, for example, sending 1,000
teachers to the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education.
In the mathematics curriculum, content has been decreased and more emphasis has been placed
on modeling. 3 Lew believes that the reduction will significantly ease students’ study load, and
give more time for creative activities and fostering positive attitudes toward mathematics.

The goal of this reform is that, with only few exceptions, all students should be able to gain the
mathematical confidence and competence required for private and public activities, and the
mathematical skills necessary for their careers. They should also recognize the social and cultural
importance of mathematics.

Mathematics Curriculum Design

JeoungSuk Pang of the Korea National University of Education described important aspects of
recent curriculum frameworks reflected in the design of mathematics curricula. Pang and other
workshop attendees participated personally in the national curriculum revisions. She identified
four key aspects:

• Objectives (why to teach/learn)

• Content (what to teach/learn)
• Progression (when to teach/learn)
• Instruction (how to teach/learn)

The basic objectives that have remained in national mathematics curricula are the following:

• Acquisition of mathematical knowledge and skills

• Enhancement of mathematical thinking ability
• Cultivation of problem-solving ability and attitude
In the 2007 revision of the mathematics curriculum, more objectives were added:

• Mathematical communication
• Positive attitude

Mathematical communication was included because it may deepen mathematical thinking and
because Korean students are perceived as passive and silent. Although positive attitude is
affective and the curriculum places more importance on cognitive abilities than affective aspects,
Pang said, these could not be ignored after the release of the TIMSS and PISA findings about
Korean students’ attitudes toward mathematics.

3
More details about the reduction are in Lew et al., 2012.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

12 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

New objectives of the 2011 revision were as follows:

• Mathematical creativity
• Character building

Mathematical creativity is especially emphasized for national competitiveness. In the Korean

mathematics curriculum, it is construed as having three subabilities: (1) problem solving, (2)
communicating, and (3) reasoning. Because of the characteristics of mathematics as a discipline,
character building was not previously emphasized in mathematics instruction. But school violence
has been a serious social issue recently, and it could no longer be ignored. 4
Pang said with respect to content, since the fourth curriculum (1981), the general tendency in
official curriculum documents has been to reduce it. But in practice, curriculum designers have
only shifted content across grade levels. For example, in the seventh curriculum (1997), the intent
was to reduce the content by 30 percent, but mathematics curriculum designers did not comply
with this policy. Optional topics for advanced students and material intended for underachieving
students were taught to all students because there is a strong belief that all content in the textbook
should be covered in mathematics lessons. The result is a heavy study load for students and a high
teaching load for teachers. Since 2012, this tendency has more serious consequences because the
number of schooldays per week has been reduced from five and a half to five. Without any change
in the curriculum, this would leave no room for mathematical processes.

Pang said that the writers of the 2011 mathematics curriculum tried to delete optional topics and
topics that were mentioned only once or isolated from others. The remaining topics were
reorganized in five grade bands: elementary (1–2, 3–4, 5–6); middle (7–9), and high school (10–
12). For instance, numbers were dealt with more effectively. Four-digit numbers, for example,
were put in the first grade band, rather than being distributed over three grades: numbers up to 100
in grade 1, up to 1,000 in grade 2, and up to 10,000 in grade 3. So, said Pang, they think of
teaching fewer topics in greater depth, instead of teaching more topics in a cursory manner.

With regard to progression—when to teach—greater flexibility as to when specific mathematical

topics are to be taught has been gradually introduced. In 1997, the mathematics curriculum
specified grade levels and even the semester level. Similar topics were separated inefficiently. In
2011, however, schools were given greater flexibility in organizing topics within grade bands.

Concerning when to teach, two other aspects were considered: (1) the difficulty of a given topic
and (2) relationships among related topics. For example, relationships among quadrilaterals were
moved from grade 4 to middle school. Formerly, the different concepts of fractions were spread
over grades 2 to 5. That range will contract to the second grade band (grades 3 and 4).

4
School violence in Korea includes bullying and fistfights, but not guns (which are illegal in Korea). See the
Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology’s 2014 Report on School Violence: Survey and Analysis.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA 13

In mathematics curriculum documents, four instructional objectives have been consistently

emphasized:

1. Meaningful questions
2. Mathematical concepts and principles
3. Problem-solving ability
4. Students’ positive disposition
Comments were added to the 2011 mathematics curriculum about methods to enhance
communication, thinking and reasoning abilities, and students’ creativity and character building.

Pang gave more detailed explanations of the four objectives from the 2011 mathematics
curriculum:

1. Students acknowledge that communication is crucial in learning and using mathematics

by their actions of clarifying and reflecting on their thinking through representing and discussing
mathematics.
2. To enhance mathematical thinking and reasoning ability, students infer mathematical
facts with induction or analogy, and justify or prove them.
3. To nurture mathematical creativity, mathematical tasks are used to produce different
ideas, stimulating students’ divergent thinking. (In the past, creativity has been associated mainly
with gifted students, said Pang, but it is relevant to all students. Also, there is a difference
between mathematical creativity and general creativity.)
4. To nurture character building, students respect different solution methods and opinions
posed by their peers.

So, what are the emergent challenges? Pang listed five:

1. A thorough review of curriculum via systematic research, considering two questions:

What are the essential topics? How can educators assess the efficacy of curricular changes?
2. How can teachers promote mathematical processes in their students?
3. Use of differentiated instruction is another challenge. Since the seventh national
curriculum, Korea has tried to use differentiated instruction, but has met with much resistance
from students and insufficient numbers of teachers for implementation. 5 So, the national
curriculum left decisions about implementation to individual schools.
4. How can teachers change students’ negative dispositions about mathematics, considering
the learner’s perspective and the prevailing pressure of the high-stakes college examination in
Korea? 6
5. Although important, an effective curriculum does not suffice if other elements of the
educational system are not in place. The challenge is to connect an effective mathematics

5
A workshop participant said that the attempt to use differentiated instruction was implemented by splitting one or
two classes of students into smaller groups according to student level, each with one teacher. For example, two
classes were temporarily split into three levels, each with its own classroom.
6
According to the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation’s Education in Korea, “Since entering a good
university is a matter of high importance in Korea, the evaluation content and method of CSAT [College Scholastic
Ability Test] have great influence on the content and method of education in elementary, middle and high schools.”

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

14 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

curriculum to high-quality instructional materials, efficient classroom teaching by well-educated

teachers, and students’ performance.

Creating Elementary Textbooks for the 2011 Curriculum

Man Goo Park of the Seoul National University of Education described how the 2011 revision
of the mathematics curriculum has been reflected in elementary textbooks. His institution
specializes in the education of preservice elementary teachers, and he is an experienced member
of an elementary textbook writing team. He noted that, so far, Korea has had only one
elementary mathematics textbook series, but the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology
(MEST) has changed its textbook adoption policy to allow the existence of more than one
elementary textbook series.

Under the new policy, MEST provides stronger guidelines for textbook writers, including the
number and size of pages. This constrains the approaches that can be used in textbooks.
Mathematics textbook writers have to think about how to cover the content of the curriculum
within those constraints.

There was concern that some textbooks were not being tested in real classrooms. The 12
experimental schools in which textbook material has been piloted before publication generated
many problems with the textbooks for the writers to solve, but it is not easy to revise textbooks
within the time lines.

Another constraint for textbook writers is how to implement the new instructional approaches,
like storytelling, in mathematics textbooks. The spirit of introducing storytelling is wonderful,
said Park. But it is not easy to integrate mathematical concepts into storytelling.

Another concern is how detailed the textbook content should be. Is it better to have less or more?
Similarly, there needs to be a balance between classroom centeredness and student centeredness.

Park showed an example from his first-grade textbook, which is still under development. The
section presented was about the concept of rhombus, used real-world situations, and has been
much revised. The textbook illustrates a carjack lifting a very heavy car and a rack for drying
clothes. Students are asked to think about the rhombuses within the carjack and clothes rack. At
the end, there is an application section asking students to think about designing clothing or
jewelry. (Park showed an illustration of a sweater, ring, and chain-link fence, all with a rhombus
pattern.) It asks students to look around them, find examples of tools that use rhombus shapes,
and talk about the features of those tools and how they are used.

Reflecting Curriculum Goals in Instruction

Rae Young Kim of Ewha Womans University spoke about how curriculum objectives have
changed since the 1980s, how those changes have been reflected in instructional materials and
methods, and issues arising from the process.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA 15

Curriculum trends in the United States and Korea were similar until the 1980s. 7 In 1992, as
Korea became aware of international comparison studies, its sixth curriculum started to deviate
from that of the United States. Kim focused on how changes in the four most recent Korean
curricula (the sixth and seventh curricula, and 2007 and 2009 revisions) were reflected in
textbooks.

Key changes in overarching curriculum goals have been more emphasis on problem solving and
increased movement toward student-centered instruction. Recently, there has been a focus on
strengthening mathematical communication.

Since the sixth curriculum, problem solving has been emphasized, and this emphasis has been
reflected in the improvement of the instructional method and assessment. The seventh
mathematics curriculum added an emphasis on strengthening mathematical reasoning and
mathematics in daily life. It initiated emphasis on student-centered curriculum and suggested
differentiated curriculum tailored to students’ level of ability and lessons that fit students’ ability.
Consistency in instruction, textbooks, and assessment were emphasized.

Content changes included selection and arrangement of content as well as changes in approaches
to the content. One change in approach has been increased emphasis on problem solving. For
example, more tasks that ask students to create their own problems.

Other changes have been pedagogical. Since the seventh curriculum, there has been a movement
toward student-centered learning. There has been a focus on individualized instruction (e.g.,
differentiation based on student level), and concern about motivation and inculcating positive
attitudes toward mathematics. Other changes involve the use of technology in instruction and
changes in assessments.

In the 2007 revision, the emphasis was on mathematical communication and positive attitudes.
Before 2007, curricula described the same objectives for all grades. In 2007, the objectives
differed by school level: elementary, middle, and high school. Attention to students’ aptitude and
their way of thinking was mentioned. At this point, the 2009 curriculum had been published, but
textbooks for it had not yet been developed.

To move toward student-centered learning (a focus of 2007), emphasis on algorithms in

elementary textbooks was shifted to let students choose computation methods, and to promote
more variety in solution approaches and group collaboration (textbook instructions include
“Let’s do it together” and “Do it yourself”). Between the seventh curriculum and the 2007
revision, there was increased emphasis on communication via classroom discussion. To promote
mathematical communication skills, the 2007 textbook does not stop with asking elementary
students to solve problems but also asks for explanations of how they solved the problems, orally
(“Try to explain”) as well as summarizing in writing (“Try to write”). For example, a textbook

7
According to Education in Korea, immediately after Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945, the United States
Army Military Government in Korea stipulated education policy. Later curricula followed U.S. trends. For example,
the main focus of the third mathematics curriculum (1973–1981) was “new math” and the fourth (1982–1988) was
“back to basics” (Pang, 2014; Park, 1997).

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

16 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

problem says: “Here is the work of Young and A-Ram for the same problem. Try to explain their
methods.” It shows (–2/3 × 1/4) ÷ –5/6, followed by two different computations.

Changes in Content

Jee Hyun Park, a teacher at Seoul Finance High School, described issues of selection and
arrangement of content raised by curriculum changes. She gave two examples.

The first example concerned vertical consistency in the case of fractions. As noted earlier, in the
2011 curriculum, concepts of fractions contracted to the second grade band (grades 3–4).
Formerly, these were distributed and introduced between grades 2 and 6:

• Grade 2, division of a single-unit whole.

• Grade 3, parts of a multiunit whole.
• Grade 4, proper, improper, and mixed fractions.
• Grade 5, addition, subtraction, and multiplication of fractions.
• Grade 6, division of fractions.

In later curricula, content was reduced or removed to optimize learning. For example, between
the seventh curriculum and the 2007 revision, the binary system and correlation were removed,
proofs that involved the application of similarity were reduced, and direct and inverse proportion
was shifted to upper grades.

A second example of change was in conceptual focus—how concepts were construed. For
example, in the sixth curriculum, functions were interpreted as correspondences between two
variables, in the seventh they were approached via proportional relations, and in the 2007
revision, as relations among variables.

Changes in Pedagogy

Jung Sook Park, a teacher at Taenung High School, described pedagogical changes made in
response to national curriculum changes.

To illustrate changes for individualized instruction, Park contrasted pages of a textbook for the
seventh curriculum with a student workbook for the 2007 revision. The latter showed a row of
three colored dots above each problem to indicate the difficulty level of each problem and allow
students to choose problems according to their abilities.

To promote positive attitudes toward mathematics, 2007 revision textbooks included cartoons to
stimulate interest, used puzzles to practice terminology, employed approaches using empirical
experiments, and inserted photos of students to give a sense of realism.

The use of technology changed. In the 2007 revision, computers were used as illustrative tools in
instruction as well as in homework assignments. E-books were developed alongside paper
textbooks.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA 17

Assessments changed. The seventh curriculum textbooks only give problems. The 2007 revision
textbooks include performance assessments, asking students to make up their own problems or to
analyze data. For example, after an illustration using a spreadsheet to manipulate data in a
frequency table, a textbook directs, “Collect data from everyday life. Using a computer program,
represent your data as a frequency table and in various graphical forms. Then analyze the data.”

From the sixth curriculum on, the vision has been student centered, with the use of real-life
contexts to try to encourage creative problem solving. The trend is emphasis on mathematical
reasoning and classroom communication.

Textbook Development, Approval, and Implementation

Mi-Kyung Ju of Hanyang University described the process for textbook development, approval,
and implementation. One focus in textbook development is mathematical personality traits,
including creative problem solving and various forms of mathematical communication. A second
focus is character building.

In 2009, the national curriculum framework was released, and in 2011 the mathematics
curriculum was released. In 2012, Korea was developing textbooks for the mathematics
curriculum. There are three types of textbook adoption processes:

• Type A. MEST is the author.

• Type B. A publisher develops the textbook and is its author. The textbook is approved by
MEST.
• Type C. A publisher develops the textbook, and is its author. The district approves the
textbook.

The trend has been that type C has increased, and types A and B have decreased. In the recent
past, all elementary textbook adoptions were of type A. Middle and high school adoptions were
of types B and C.

Table 2-1 describes the time line for textbook development, approval, and adoption. Textbooks
were to be implemented incrementally, by grade band. Textbooks for the first grade bands at
each level, that is, for grades 1–2 and 7–9 were to be developed first. The plan was for textbooks
for these grade bands to be submitted for approval in August 2012, the results were to be
announced in October 2012, and implementation was to occur in spring 2013. Table 2-1 shows
the time lines for later grade bands. Textbooks for the last grade band will be implemented in
classrooms in 2015.

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

18 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

TABLE 2-1 Time Lines for Textbook Development (D), Approval (A), and Implementation (I)

School level Grade band 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

1–2 D D/A I

Elementary 3–4 D D/A I

5–6 D D/A I

Middle school 1–3 D D/A I

High school 1–3 D D/A I

MEST formed a committee for textbook policy that solicited opinions from teachers, policy
makers, and mathematics education experts. Three recommendations were prominent:

• More autonomy and variety needed to be allowed in textbook development.

• Textbooks should reflect academic and social shifts promptly.
• Textbooks should be accessible (i.e., “student-friendly,” readable), interesting, and
familiar to students. Material should be developed to promote students’ interest in
mathematics.

In response to the recommendations, all textbook adoptions for the 2009 curriculum were of type
C. Specific guidelines were removed, such as textbook size, color, paper quality, and length. The
approval criteria were changed to allow more autonomy and variety.

A system that allows selection and reorganization of content to meet current needs was
recommended, so that textbooks reflect academic and social shifts promptly. Also, more teachers
should participate as textbook authors, since they are the ones that can see needs and shifts in the
classroom. Textbooks should be changed and approved on a flexible, rather than a fixed,
schedule.

Ju concluded by listing authors’ responses to the recommendation that textbooks should be easy,
interesting, and familiar to students:

• Use of real-world problems to introduce and develop mathematical concepts and

principles.
• Development of aligned materials for teaching and learning of mathematics.
• Development of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling, to provide students
opportunities to be absorbed in doing mathematics via activities and projects.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA 19

Reflection on Korean Education

Dohan Kim, the president of the Korean Mathematical Society, made some brief remarks about
Korean education.

He noted that when the seventh curriculum was introduced, both the mathematics and
mathematics education communities were very shocked. The seventh curriculum benchmarked
Japan’s Yutori curriculum and reduced the content of school mathematics by one-third. Japan
had lower student achievement with the Yutori curriculum, but soon acknowledged its failure. In
Korea, however, the mathematical community as a whole was not aware of this failure for a long
time.

In response to this event, the Korean Federation of Mathematical Communities formed to

address policy as a united professional organization. The federation’s members include the
Korean Mathematical Society, Korean Society of Mathematical Education, Korean Society for
Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and Korean Women in Mathematical Sciences.

Kim said that in the past, when there was a curriculum reform or other change, government
representatives did not listen to mathematicians, saying “How can you, the representative of one
organization, represent all communities?” But nowadays, the federation brings experts in the
field to meet government representatives and they listen to the federation’s suggestions most of
the time.

Kim described what are, in his view, the problems of Korean education. It is very competitive.
Parents let their children learn ahead of the school curriculum. Some teach their children calculus
before they enter high school. Politicians use education to score political points, but opportunity
for experts to express their opinions has lessened.

He hopes that experts in mathematics education express their opinions via professional
organizations and journals, and that Korea improves education for advanced students as well as
for those who fall behind.

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

20 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

Comments

Workshop participants offered a wide range of comments on a variety of topics, including the
following:

Similarities between the countries

• Both countries are trying to reduce content and cover subjects more deeply.
• Both countries emphasize differentiation and try to meet the needs of individual
students.
• Both countries are moving toward e-books, and are increasing the use of online
textbooks.
Attitudes toward textbooks
• Korean teachers cover all the material in the textbooks, while in the United States,
teachers act as independent contractors and teach whatever they want to teach with
great latitude.
• MEST wants the textbook to be one of many teaching-learning materials, lessening
its status.
Character building (Korea)
• In the national curriculum framework in Korea, the objective of “character building”
had its origins in the school subject of ethics. The meaning of the English term
“character building” includes honesty, keeping one’s word, being considerate of
others, and cooperating with others. Character building does not belong in the
textbook, but in instruction and should be embedded in the curriculum. Ways of
accomplishing this are still in the exploration and research stage.
• One example of embedding character building is the storytelling lesson structure that
was developed, which is intended to stimulate imaginative ability. It is called
“creating story structure.” Students tell stories that fit given mathematical content.
They then collect information from the outside world and make their own stories.
Making a mathematical decision about whether data and information in the
newspaper really speak the truth mathematically is one possible approach.
• In elementary school, there are two instructional methods for character building: One
is indirect, involving why we do math, mathematics as a human activity, and the
pursuit of precision and accuracy. The second method is to use cooperative work
during mathematics instruction to illustrate diverse ways one can think and to ask
students to suggest two or three methods, consider which shows better thinking and
whether it can help them solve other problems.
• From an elementary school perspective, the context is selected to develop character,
such as helping out in nursing homes, where teachers can talk about character
naturally. The other is using properties of mathematics itself, such as the properties of
the identities 1 and 0, such as: x × 1 = x, x × 0 = 0. In relation with others, there are
personality types, such as self-absorbed or absorbed in others.
• Since teachers teach all subjects at elementary schools, a teacher can use
interdisciplinary teaching, combining math and social sciences. But in secondary
school, it is not easy because math teachers teach only math courses. It is impossible

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Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM IN KOREA 21

to realize this goal unless a curriculum combining math and art, math and science,
and so forth, is created and appropriately assessed.
• Giving Korean students some open exploration did not result in any noticeable drops
in academic performance. Classroom teachers notice that students find math more
interesting with this approach.
• Giving Korean students the opportunity to name figures, such as the example of the
isosceles triangles is very nice, but that kind of work is advancing their creativity
more than character building. Character building may be related to what people like
Paul Cobb 8 and his colleagues call “sociomathematical norms”; that is, how do
children behave when they do mathematics in a classroom? How is a student treated
if he or she makes a mistake? That makes a great deal of difference in the student’s
feeling about participating in mathematics in the classroom. When you want to
cultivate a culture of reasoning and proving—of justifying mathematical claims—you
want to treat the classroom as a kind of intellectual community. Listening critically to
the ideas of others. That is a mathematical process but it also very deeply involves
human behavior and interaction. That is where you see character building integrated
with mathematical work.
Student authorship (United States)
• In the United States, the closest thing to character building is “developing students’
authorship or their own voice,” finding out they can do mathematics and that it is a
sensible pursuit. U.S. teachers have sometimes gone overboard in that direction, and
everything and anything that students say is praised and carried forward.
• In the United States, it is challenging to maintain accountability to the discipline
along with student authorship. It is called “the tension between authorship and
accountability.”
Teachers’ reactions to curriculum revisions
• The time line for going from curriculum revision to development of materials and to
implementation is very fast compared to that typical in the United States. Every time
a new curriculum is implemented or changes are made in Korea, there is professional
development among teachers and the district sends material helpful for teaching.
Districts also provide lots of teacher training focused on how to assess via teacher
activity, with references, and examples of assessment.
• In Korea too, there is a constant battle between the teacher-centered, or academic,
approach and the student-friendly approach. Korea is strongly influenced by
mathematicians. Another factor dominating Korea is the college entrance exam.
Korean teachers ask themselves, “How can I help my students achieve higher scores
in college exams in order to go to the best college?”
• The 2009 revision in Korea was called the “Creativity–Character Building
Curriculum” (CCBC). Previously, the finished curriculum and curriculum materials
were delivered to the districts. For the 2009 revision, the Korea Foundation for the
Advancement of Science and Creativity recruited 1,000 groups, each consisting of
four or five teachers, and provided support for these groups for materials

8
Yackel, Erna, and Paul Cobb. 1996. “Sociomathematical Norms, Argumentation, and Autonomy in Mathematics.”
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 27 (4):458–477.

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Mathematics Curriculum, Teacher Professionalism, and Supporting Policies in Korea and the United States: Summary of a Workshop

22 MATH CURRICULUM, TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM, AND SUPPPORTING POLICIES IN KOREA AND THE U.S.

development. This differs from the past practice of implementing an already-

developed curriculum in a top-down fashion. This revision was middle-to-top and
middle-to-bottom. The task force of teacher groups played a bridging role by
providing professional development for other teachers. Principals, assistant
principals, and school inspectors also attended. For elementary-level implementation,
one of the 1,000 CCBC groups visited each school and provided professional
development to all of the teachers in that school, not only in mathematics but also in
other subjects: art, music, and so on. They explained how creativity and character
building in mathematics can be interpreted and how they can be embedded in
teaching. They provided various kinds of materials and explained the theoretical
background. Teachers were interested and engaged in learning.

Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.