Introduction
Horticulture is thought to improve the quality of life, food production, food preparation and medical supplies. It has been widely used in therapy and education from ancient days.
Horticulture can have powerful educational effects. Horticultural activity can help children to have increased self-esteem and to increase their love for learning. The activity can improve relations between family members, social relations and increase solidarity in groups. And, horticultural activity can help school children be interested in horticulture and plants. Additionally, the activity can be effective to elevate their academic achievement. Horticultural activity can be easily integrated into the general curriculum as a leaning medium. Teachers can teach science, mathematics, history, social study, language, fine arts and others through horticultural activities. This activity may help students recognize concepts clearly that they have learned abstractly at the class. For example, a student who measures growth of bean and make a graph every day can be much more interested in its growth than just watching graph and diagram in textbooks(California School Garden Network, 2006). Especially, horticultural activities can be very helpful in helping students to learn mathematics. Problem solving skills can also be learned in typical horticultural activities(Jennifer et al, 2006).
The Ministry of Education in Korea has set goals in order to encourage students to be creative in an international scope. Therefore, 2009 curriculum was revised as follows: 1) Reduce students’ excessive learning burden; 2) Increase students’ interest in learning; 3) Teach not fragmental knowledge, but with a thorough understanding and learning ability; 4) Change learning process from memorizing to thinking and sharing with emphasizes in putting knowledge into practice(The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2009). Horticultural activity is said to be effective in achieving these goals set by the government’s educational policy. Horticulture, being used as a learning tool, may be useful in several aspects: First, horticulture is a life-long learning activity and is interesting. Second, the activity can be integrated into various kinds of curriculum. Third, material of living lives can be used. Fourth, curriculum can be combined properly. Fifth, the activity allows students to create beautiful surroundings in classrooms and schools, and helps to develop community actively(Lynn & Pranis, 1983).
Despite value of the use of horticulture, horticultural activity in Korea is rarely integrated into the curriculum to put it into practice. Therefore, teachers should make an effort to make use of horticulture in the curriculum. By doing horticultural activities in schools, teachers can diversify learning tools to integrate and manage many subjects, and to develop programs. In other words, research is needed to connect gardening with learning(California School Garden Network, 2006).
Generally speaking, students’ interest in mathematics is low(Kim, 2007). Interest is a main factor for elementary student in learning mathematics(Fang et al, 2009). Therefore, this study examined effects of horticultural activity upon school children’s interest in mathematics when horticulturemathematics integrated education was done in the 2008 mathematics class of elementary schools based on research on horticultural activity of elementary schools and ‘Math in the Garden’(Jenifer et al, 2006). And, the study investigated the response from both school children and parents to help the horticulture be used as an integrated education method.
Materials and Methods
1. Subjects and time
The subjects were 30 students in their fourth year of ‘S’ Elementary School at Gangdong-gu, Seoul, that is to say, 30 students of one class of the treatment group and another 30 students of another class of the comparison group. The treatment group consisted of 17 boy students and 13 girl students, while the comparison group had 16 boy students and 14 girl students.
2. Procedures
1) Design of horticulture-mathematics integrated education program
The study examined unit 4-1(Ga) of mathematics textbook of the fourth year of elementary school to integrate both horticulture and mathematics, to investigate the theme and the materials, and to develop integrated education program to apply it in teaching the students. Unit 4-1(Ga) of mathematics of the fourth year of elementary school is first semester of the year for 7th version curriculum. The territories are number & arithmetic, character and mode, figure, measurement, regularity, function, probability and statistics(the Ministry of Education, 2005).
This program was focused on number & arithmetic, character and mode, figure, measurement, regularity, function. It was composed of number & arithmetic; understanding big number, multiplication and division, mixed computation, and fractions, figure; triangle, measurement; angle, weight, character & mode, regularity, and function; problem solving method. Teaching guide sheet had introduction, development, and arrangement with topic, objective, and materials. Title of activity at each session, and areas and unit of the mathematics are listed in Table 1.
Table 1.
Horticulture-mathematics integrated program.
The students could experience mathematical order and rules from the plants, and they learned mathematics by using plants. Each student grew plants in pots, observed the outcome of the plants growing to be familiar with the plants, and described growing of the plants by using a graph of broken lines.
2) Implementation of horticulture-mathematics integrated education program
The mathematics-horticulture integrated education program was used in mathematics class of regular subject class from April 1, 2008 to July 15, 2008. The students were taught one time each week during the 12 sessions. Each session took 40 minutes. The schools were short of field for horticulture, and the program was carried out in the classroom.
3) Pr test and post test
Both a pre test and post test were administered 1 week before the program and 1 week after the program respectively. Teachers in charge of treatment group and the comparison group conducted the tests to investigate students’ math attitude by using Aiken’s questionnaire of the math attitude score. Three months after the program, test was conducted to find that students were still interested in the mathematics. When activity of each unit was over, a test of the mathematics unit was conducted. After the program, questionnaires were used to investigate the preference of horticulture-mathematics integrated education for both the school children and their parents.
3. Assessment instrument
1) Aiken’s questionnaire of math attitude scale
Aiken’s questionnaire of math attitude scale consisted of 20 questions to have 100 points in total with 5-points in each question. The contents of questionnaire was ‘I want to be good at math although math is not fun’, ‘I am pleased with math time’ and so on. There are both 10 sequential and 10 reverse questions; The former consisted of ‘much true’(5-points), ‘true’(4-points), ‘common’(3-points), ‘not true’(2-points) and ‘not much true’(1-point). On the other hand, reverse question had opposite points.
2) Test of mathematics unit achievement
After the integrated education, the teacher in charge of the treatment group conducted a test of mathematics unit: The teacher developed these units consistent with the program by referring to textbooks of the 7th version curriculum unit 4-1(Ga) mathematics and the advanced course for the treatment group and comparison group. When the learning of each unit was over, the teacher conducted test of 7 units of mathematics 4-Ga, that is to say, unit 1(large number), unit 2(multiplication and division), unit 3(angles), unit 4(triangle), unit 5(time and weight), unit 6(mixed calculation), and unit 7(fraction), etc.
3) Preference test of horticulture mathematics integrated education for both school children and parents
After the 12th session of the integrated education, both school children and parents of the treatment group were tested. The questions for the children consisted of children’s interest in the education and plants as well as interest in the mathematics subject.
The questions were 8 like these 1. What do you feel when you think about horticulture-mathematics integrated program? 2. What did you newly learned about plants from horticulturemathematics integrated program? 3. What’s your best memory about horticulture-mathematics integrated program? 4. What’s your favorite activity among horticulture-mathematics integrated program activities? 5. What’s the most difficult part in horticulturemathematics integrated program? 6. How does your mind changed about mathematics after horticulture-mathematics integrated program? 7. What do you feel when you look around after horticulture-mathematics integrated program? 8. How does your school life changed after horticulture-mathematics integrated program?
4. Material analysis
After the pre and post tests, the Aiken’s mathematics and attitude questionnaire were used to test the mathematics unit: SAS Enterprise Guide 4 was used to do a t-test. The preference questionnaire for the integrated education of both school children and parents showed the number of the answer in percentage.
Results and Discussion
1. Interest in the mathematics
The questionnaire of Aiken’s mathematics and attitude was used to investigate interest in the mathematics. Both the treatment group and the comparison group had no difference of average at post test: However, the treatment group recorded 86.7 at follow-up test, which is much higher than 66.5 of the comparison group(Table 2).
Table 2.
Effect of horticulture-mathematics integrated program on the learning interest.
| Item | Comparison group (C) | Treatment group (T) | Difference (C-T) | DF | t Value | p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||
| Pre-test | 73.3z | 75.5 | -2.233 | 58 | -0.39 | 0.6963 |
| Post-test | 76.8 | 79.9 | -3.067 | 58 | -0.55 | 0.5840 |
| Follow up | 66.5 | 86.7 | -27.12 | 52 | -4.25 | <.0001*** |
High interest in learning is needed to elevate academic achievement: students who have achieved academic records successfully can make use of learning for their lifetime(Leslie, 2005), and interest in learning has close relations with academic achievement(Andreas, 1999). Students’ interest in learning increased at follow-up, and the integrated education is likely to increase students’ academic achievement of the mathematics in affirmative way in the long term. The reason of this result is supposed that student might not be able to connect and objectify integrated program and mathematics in progress and just after program, but they would have understanding program, and objectify the link between the program and mathematics by themselves.
2. Test of mathematics unit achievement
In the test of the mathematics unit of both the treatment group and the comparison group, the treatment group recorded better scores of ‘angles’ and ‘triangle’ than the comparison group did. The treatment group recorded 3.87 in average of ‘angle’ unit, while comparison group did 3.2. And, treatment group recorded 4.5 in average of ‘triangle’, while comparison group did 4.03. Both groups didn’t differ significantly on the unit of ‘large number’ and ‘time and weight’. And, treatment group recorded 3.9 in average at ‘fraction’ unit, while comparison group did 4.4, which is higher than that of treatment group (Table 3). As follow the result, horticulture-mathematics integrated education program didn’t improve children’s mathematics records shortly and directly. Therefore, it is suitable that horticulture-mathematics integrated education program is used for improving and keeping up interest about mathematics instead of improving math score directly.
Table 3.
Effect of horticulture-mathematics integrated program on the mathematics unit achievement test.
| Item | comparison group (C) | Treatment group (T) | Difference (C-T) | DF | t Value | p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||
| Big number | 3.97z | 4.23 | -0.26 | 59 | -1.02 | 0.3132 |
| Angle | 3.87 | 2.55 | 1.31 | 59 | 6.32 | <.0001*** |
| Triangle | 4.37 | 4.13 | 0.24 | 59 | 1.12 | 0.2670 |
| Time & weight | 3.07 | 3.45 | -0.39 | 59 | -1.36 | 0.1775 |
| Mixed calculation | 3.40 | 3.52 | -0.12 | 59 | -0.46 | 0.6461 |
| Fraction | 4.09 | 4.68 | 0.22 | 59 | 1.97 | 0.0535 |
| Searching problem solving method | 21.23 | 20.36 | 0.88 | 59 | 1.01 | 0.3152 |
3. Preference test of the integrated education of both school children and parents
After the integrated program, both school students and parents had a change of interest and attitudes(Table 4). The students replied to the question of “What do you think of horticulture-mathematics education program?” said ‘interesting’ (56.7%), ‘interest in the mathematics’(30.0%) and ‘interest in the plants’(13.3%). Cognitive factor, emotional status and quality of the experience during learning can play an important role at learning efficiency. Interest in the subject can be remarkably increased, depending upon motivation, pleasure and concentration, etc(Andreas, 1999). The students replied to the question of “What do you think of horticulture mathematics?” say ‘interesting’(56.7%). So, the integrated education program was found to give students pleasure in mathematics and helped students be interested in the subject. The students replied to the question of “What did you find out new about the plants?” said that they discovered characteristics of the growth(63.3%), name of the plants(20.0%), discovery of the plants(16.7%), and use of the plants(10.0%), etc. So, the students seemed to have increased interest in the plants. The students replied to the questions regarding the test activity of each session, “What is your favorite memory regarding the horticulture activity?” and “What is the most interesting at horticulture and mathematics subject?”, and they were found to be interested in canape(63.3%) and cooking(50.5%) respectively. More interest in learning material can increase interest in learning(Andreas, 1999). In this study, various kinds of activities with the plants greatly helped increase the students’ interest in mathematics. The students were interested in cooking and food, etc more than plant related activities. So, various kinds of plant related activities should be developed to let school children be interested in horticulture mathematics integrated education. The students replied to the question of “What is the most difficult at horticulture mathematics?” said measuring of angles (23.3%) and growing of peach(23.3%). Therefore, the horticultural activity was thought to help school children increase understanding and create interests. On the other hand, the students replied to the question of “Do you think of mathematics subject in different way after learning horticulture mathematics?” said that the mathematics was interesting(83.3%). The students replied to the question of “What do you think of surrounding plants after learning horticulture mathematics?” response to interest and love was 63.3%. So, the integrated education program appears to be a good way to help school children become more interested in mathematics. The students replied to the question of “How did your school life change after learning horticulture mathematics?” and they said interest in the mathematics(66.7%) and interest in school life(20.0%): So, the integrated education program was found to help school children to have a better attitude toward school.
Table 4.
Children's responses to the questions about horticulture-mathematics integrated program(HMIP).
In this study, horticulture-mathematics integrated education program was much likely to be applied to elementary schools to help students be interested in mathematics and to participate actively in school.
The teaching program should be created, and each activity systematically researched so that the level reflects the proper curricula for the given class. The mathematics horticultural integrated education should be done not just to improve students’ short-term mathematics score, but to let students be interested in mathematics for the long run. Integrating horticulture into the learning process has beneficial effects on the students’ long-term interest in both plants and mathematics.
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