About gecKo mathematics and How It Evolved
With colleagues in Pusan, Dae-Dong Hahn and Chul-An Joo, Janice Grow-Maienza conducted the first classroom observation study in Korean primary mathematics classrooms, and published the results in the Journal of Educational Psychology in June, 2001.
Grow-Maienza writes, "I was amazed at what we found in Korean elementary classrooms—the concise, coherent system by which constructs and operations were conceptualized for children, and the focused way in which higher level questions led children to 'discover' procedures. Our graduate research assistants informed me that teachers we observed were staying very close to the textbooks—the national textbook used in the national curriculum, of course—and subsequent translations of one of the lessons we had observed inspired me with its coherence and clear conceptualization of the constructs. This is something we want to bring to students and teachers in the United States and other English-speaking countries. We have not seen such clear conceptualization of the content of mathematics in one easily accessible place in western curricula."
Hahn, professor in the department of education in Pusan National University, Pusan Korea received his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees from Seoul National University and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
Joo, professor in the department of education at Pusan National University chaired the department of education from 1993 to 1996. He received his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees from Seoul National University and his Ed.D from Harvard University.
Who's Who In the Development of gecKo mathematics
Janice Grow-Maienza, Ph.D., University of Chicago, is Professor of Education at Truman State University where, for the past 18 years she has been instrumental in the development of the curriculum of the first 5th Year MAE degree/certification program for teachers in Missouri. Modeled after the same recommendations voiced by the Holmes Group in 1986 for teacher education, the MAE program is focused on the professional education of cohorts who have strong liberal arts and sciences undergraduate degrees. Grow-Maienza is a former chair of the department of education at Sinte Gleska college on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation, and has served as consultant to the Indonesian Department of Education and Culture, and on the exchange faculty of Pusan National University in Korea.
Grow-Maienza is published in The Teacher Educator's Handbook (Jossey-Bass), in Administration Quarterly, and in the Journal of Educational Psychology. Her interest in Asian mathematics curricula came about as a result of her concern with elementary teachers' preparation for teaching mathematics in the United States and a classroom study she conducted in Pusan, Korea with Hahn and Joo in 1996 (2001). Grow-Maienza, following her observation study in Korea, received funding from the National Science Foundation to translate the textbook series used in the sixth national curriculum in Korea. With Susan Beal, Grow-Maienza has analyzed the student texts and teacher's manuals. Grow-Maienza and Beal have presented results widely at conferences of educational research and mathematics education professional organizations.
Susan Beal, Ph.D., University of Chicago, is retired from the Department of Mathematics, Saint Xavier University in Chicago and has joined the Institute for Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Beal is an active member of the profession. Currently vice president of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM), she has served also on the boards of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE), Women and Mathematics (WME) and on the ISBE Task Force on the Mathematics Preparation of Teachers. She is a founding member and past-president of the Illinois Mathematics Teacher Educators (IMTE) and former editor of the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics Journal.
Beal has served as a professional developer for the Chicago Teachers Academy, the Teaching Academy for Mathematics and Science and as a mathematics consultant for many schools in the United States and Ecuador. She has published for the Ideal School Supply Company, Middle School Mathematics Project, Greenwood Publishing Group, Texas Council of Mathematics Journal and Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics Journal.
Beal's interest in Asian mathematics curricula started with a visit to a Japanese school during a Lesson Study project. Beal has been a "facilitator" for a Chicago Public School middle group lesson study. Beal was a consultant to Janice Grow-Maienza during the writing of the National Science Foundation report (2002). Beal with Grow-Maienza is disseminating results of the analysis of Korean Mathematics.