A Study on Development of Classes to Appreciate the Beauty of Arithmetic: Focusing on the Connection between Arithmetic and Real-life Situations

Abstract

　　According to the TIMSS, elementary school students in Japan are internationally highly ranked in arithmetic problem solving.  However, it is reported that the percentage of students like learning mathematics and students to appreciate the value of learning mathematics are extremely low.  The major focus of this study is to develop classes to appreciate the beauty of arithmetic and to verify these classes in an elementary school, on the basis of actual circumstances of Japanese children as mentioned above.  

　　The beauty of arithmetic has the following properties in the Course of Study in arithmetic: usefulness, conciseness, generality, accuracy, efficiency, development, and the beauty.  To help pupils find them, the course study shows that “activities to mathematically understand and approach matters of everyday life are important.” Although a number of classes to solve a problem connected with matters of everyday life have been made in actual teaching, the question here is the process of learning, which returns to situations in everyday life at the end of a class, and helps pupils transform mathematical ways of viewing and thinking.  

　　To begin with, on the basis of previous studies, terms and conditions on classes to appreciate the beauty of arithmetic can be classified into four types: clarification of the beauty, the setting of an inevitable problem, the setting of a situation to examine and consider the beauty, and the presentation of the situations in everyday life at the end of a class.  Then, I designed a questionnaire and carried out it to clarify the actual situation of elementary school children regarding the appreciation of the beauty of arithmetic.  Next, I developed a teaching material and a teaching process with due regard to the process of appreciating the beauty of the arithmetic for children.  As a result, based on the above terms and conditions, it has been clarified that the setting of the situations connected to the matters of everyday life at the end of a class is valid in classes appreciating the beauty of arithmetic.