Research Trends in Elementary Mathematics Education: Focused on the Papers Published in Domestic Journals During the Resent Seven Years

The purpose of this study was to analyze the research trends of elementary mathematics education with regard to the topics, methods, subjects, and mathematical contents of such research. For this purpose, the papers published in domestic journals during the recent 5 years (2004-2009) were analyzed. A total of 383 papers from 8 professional journals were analyzed with the 4 criteria. First, the frequent research topics included instructional design and methods, learners' perspectives and abilities, and analysis of curriculum and textbooks in order. Second, qualitative research methodology was used twice as many as quantitative one. Whereas a survey was the most frequent quantitative research method, content analysis and case study were for qualitative methods. Third, research subjects included mainly typical students, specifically fifth and sixth graders. Papers dealing with lower graders or low-achievers as well as pre-service teachers were rare. Lastly, whereas the research on geometry as well as number and operations was active, that of measurement as well as probability and statistics was not. On the basis of these results, this paper includes several implications for the future research direction in elementary mathematics education.