Ji Won Son, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Ji-Won Son is an Assistant professor of mathematics education in the department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education. She received her doctorate from Michigan State University in 2008 with an emphasis in mathematics education, and prior to that she spent four years teaching elementary and middle school students in South Korea.

Her scholarly research interests include mathematics textbook analysis, elementary pre-service teachers’ knowledge development for teaching, elementary and secondary pre-service teachers’ reasoning to students’ non-traditional strategies in relation to their beliefs about teaching, in-service teachers’ textbook use, influential factors including teachers’ individual and environmental factors that affect these teachers’ different ways of using curricula, a mixed method, and comparative study.

In particular, her recent work has focused on the use of curriculum materials and its influential factors from a different angle, that of the cognitive demand of student thinking. She is interested in expanding this research work to pre-service teachers. She would like to explore how pre-service teachers use textbooks in their internship in terms of cognitive demands and what are possible constraints and support on their use of textbook in order to find the possible ways to help pre-service teachers increase their understanding of the contents and teaching practice. In addition, she is interested in continuing her investigation on in-service teachers’ textbook use, through professional development programs, for in-depth understanding of mathematics teaching practice and for finding the possible ways helping teachers increase their understanding of the contents and use their textbooks effectively to increase students’ opportunity to learn

Selected Publications

Son, J. & Crespo, S. (In press) Prospective teachers’ reasoning and response to a student’s non-traditional strategies when dividing fractions, Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education.

Son, J. & Sinclaire, N. (In press) How preservice teachers interpret and respond to student geometric errors, School Science and Mathematics.

Son, J. & Choi, J. (2008). Elementary teachers’ use of mathematics textbooks in Korea: Cognitive Demands and Influential factors, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 26(3), 155-189.

Son, J. (2007). Elementary Teachers’ Transformation in terms of Problem Selection. In J.-H. Woo, H.-C. Lew, K.-S. Park & D.-Y. Seo (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol.3, pp. 121-129), Seoul, Korea: The Korea Society of Education Studies in Mathematics.

 

Son, J. (2006,). Investigating Prospective Teachers’ Understanding and Strategies on Emily’s Errors of Reflective Symmetry. In J. Novotna, H. Morova, M. Kratka, and N. Stehlikova (Eds.), Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol.2, pp. 145-152), Prague, Czech Republic: Charles University in Prague.

Son, J. (2005). How Reform Curricula Teach Mathematics in the U.S. and Korea. In H. Chick and K. Stacey (Eds.), Proceedings of the 29th Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 4, pp. 201-209), Melbourne, Australia: PME. ISSN 0771-100X.

Son, J (2004). Prospective Teachers’ Understanding and Representations of Multiplication of Fractions. In M.J. Hoines and A.B. Fuglestad (Eds.), Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, pp. 354), Bergen, Norway: Bergen University College.

Son, J (2003). The Usefulness of Performance Assessment in Students’ Understanding of Fractions in Korea. In N Pateman, B. Dougherty and J. Zillox (Eds.), Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (Vol. 1, pp. 253), Honolulu, Hawaii: The Center for Research and Development Group.

Kim, K., Kim, M., & Son, J. (2001). An Analysis of the Mathematics Textbooks for Elementary School on Reform Curriculum, Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education, v(5), p.55-75.

Dr. Ji Won Son
Assistant Professor
Mathematics Education


A405 Jane and David Bailey Education Complex
1126 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-3442

Phone: 865-974-0448
Fax: 865-974-8718
sonjiwon@utk.edu

Contact the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education

A204 Jane and David Bailey Education Complex
1126 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee
37996-3442

Phone: 865-974-6228
Fax: 865-974-6302
tallmon@utk.edu