• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.256-271
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• 2018

The study aimed to investigate how the science gifted connect and integrate science concepts in the process of problem finding. Research subject was sampled from 228 applicants for a science gifted education center affiliated with a university in 2015. A creative problem solving test (CPST) in science, which administered as an admission process, was utilized as a reference to sample two groups. Sixty-seven students from top 30% in test scores were selected for the upper group and 64 students from bottom 30% in test scores were selected for the lower group. The CPST, which was developed by researchers, included one item about how to connect two science concepts among eight science concepts, sound, electricity, weight, temperature, respiration, photosynthesis, weather, and earthquake extracted from elementary science curriculum. As results, there were differences in choosing two concepts among four science major areas. The ways of connecting science concepts were characterized by three categories, relation-based, similarity-based, and dissimilarity-based. In addition, relation-based was characterized by attributes, means, influences, predictions, and causes; similarity-based was by attributes, objects, scientific principles, and phenomena, and dissimilarity-based was by parallel, resource, and deletion. There were significant (p<.000) differences in ways of connecting science concepts between the upper and the lower groups. The upper group students preferred connecting science concepts of inter-science subjects while the lower group students preferred connecting science concepts of intra-science subject. The upper group students showed a tendency to connect the science concepts based on similarity. In contrast, the lower group students frequently showed ways of connecting the science concepts based on dissimilarity. In particular, they simply parallelled science concepts.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.545-557
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to classify types of preconception on the seasonal change to middle school students and to find out how the developed multimedia material changes their conception in the seasonal change. The questionnaire about the variation of season consisted of 10 items. Questions are given to 80 ninth graders. Control and experimental group was 23 and 57 students, respectively and they were instructed for two class periods. A learning method using multimedia was applied to the experimental group. On the other hand, traditional teaching-learning method was used for the control group. A learning method using multimedia in this study had an effect on the conceptual changes (p$<$0.01). Data in this study was divided into six levels to classify the changes of concepts in detail. As a result, it showed that a learning method using multimedia was effective for students to make progress from unscientific to scientific concepts, to build up scientific concepts, to build up scientific concepts, and to elaborate scientific concepts as compared with traditional method.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.345-353
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of mental capacity and understanding of the oxi-dation-reduction concepts on the completion of the balancing redox equations. Participants were 92 senior high school students and 57 science high school students. Tests were conducted to measure the mental capacity, the understanding of the oxidation-reduction concepts and the completion of the balancing redox equations and the influence on the per-formance was analyzed. The performance of the senior high school students increased as the mental capacity increased, but the performance of science high school students did not change by mental capacity. Most of senior high school stu-dents couldn't understand the oxidation-reduction concepts well. Most of science high school students, however, under-stood the concepts completely and partially. The students who had a good understanding of the oxidation-reduction concepts showed a good performance for both senior and science high school students, regardless of the problem pattern.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.243-252
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• 2018

In this study, we compared 8th graders' macroscopic and microscopic conceptions related to the properties of substances. A test for the basic particle concept and a test for the macroscopic and microscopic concepts of melting point, solubility, and density were developed and administered to 371 students. Their responses were classified into 4 categories on the bases of their understanding of the macroscopic and microscopic concepts. The proportions and characteristics of each category were also analyzed. The analyses of the results revealed that the students who understood the macroscopic concepts had various misconceptions at the microscopic level. Many students had difficulty in understanding not only microscopic concepts but macroscopic concepts. The microscopic responses of the students who did not understand the macroscopic concepts hardly corresponded with their macroscopic level responses. The students who responded correctly to the test for the basic particle concept also had difficulty in understanding the concept of the properties of substances. When they understood the macroscopic concepts, the proportions of the students who understood the microscopic concepts were high. On the bases of the results, educational implications for effective teaching and learning of concepts related to the properties of substances and for improving the future national curricular are discussed.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.451-469
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• 2012

This research intends to examine how 6th graders (age 12) conceptualize the area of geometric figures. In this research, 4 problems were given to 122 students, which the 4 problems correspond to understanding area concept, finding the area of geometric figures-including rectangular, parallelogram, and triangle, writing the area formula for finding area of geometric figures, and explaining the reason why the area formula holds. As the results of the study, we identified that students revealed the most low achievement in the understanding area concept, and lower achievement in explaining the reason why the area formula holds, writing the area formula, finding the area of geometric figures in order. In based on the results, we suggested the didactical implication for improving the students' conception about the area of geometric figures.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.103-116
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to explore $6^{th}$ graders learning progression for lunar phase change focusing astronomical systems thinking. By analyzing the results of previous studies, we developed the constructed-response items, set up the hypothetical learning progressions, and developed the item analysis framework based on the hypothetical learning progressions. Before and after the instruction on the lunar phase change, we collected test data using the constructed-response items. The results of the assessment were used to validate the hypothetical learning progression. Through this, we were able to explore the learning progression of the earth-moon system in a bottom-up. As a result of the study, elementary students seemed to have difficulty in the transformation between the earth-based perspective and the space-based perspective. In addition, based on the elementary school students' learning progression on lunar phase change, we concluded that the concept of the lunar phase change was a bit difficult for elementary students to learn in elementary science curriculum.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.707-719
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• 1999

This article studies the understanding of acid and base concepts of the 3rd-grade students in middle school. An effective teaching strategy for improving their acid and base concepts was designed by considering students' prior knowledge using Lawson's learning cycle method. The control group was adapted by the traditional teaching strategy which isn't considering students' prior knowledge. After the class, understanding of acid and base concepts of treatment group was significantly higher than that of control group. But the level of students' understanding of strong acid, weak acid strong base and the strength of acid in aqueous solution was low even after the class of two groups. This indicates indirectly that the microscopic views of acid and base concepts in aqueous solution are not easy to learn for these students. For the four categories of acid and base concepts, students' responses were reviewed carefully and classified into scientific conceptions and misconceptions. These results will be useful for developing an effective teaching strategy of acid and base concepts.

• The Journal of Korean Association of Computer Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.49-58
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• 2018

Competency is an extended concept rather than knowledge and skill, which means the ability to efficiently and rationally solve various problems. This study focuses on the core competencies presented in the 2015 Revised Informatics Curriculum and aims to analyze the constitution method and composition of domestic and overseas Instruments that can measure core competencies. As a result of analyzing 12 Instruments developed by the countries and organizations, nine Instruments measure two or more competencies based on computing thinking, information culture literacy, and cooperative problem solving ability. Three Instruments have one competency were measured. Ten instruments were computer based tests, and 50% of the items were developed by two or more of multiple choice item, subjective item, and descriptive item. It is important to note that this study provided a crucial step in the development of Instruments to diagnose competencies to be developed into informatics science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2015

In this study, assessment items to examine geocognition on plate tectonics were developed and applied to middle and high school students and college students. Conceptual constructs on plate tectonics are Earth interior structure, specific geomorphology, and geologic phenomena at each plate boundary. Construct for geocognition included temporal reasoning, spatial reasoning, retrospective reasoning, and system thinking. Pictorial data in each item were all obtained from GeoMapApp. Students' responses to the items were analyzed and measured cross-sectionally by Rasch model, which distinguishes persons' ability levels based on their scores for all items and compared them with item difficulty. By Rasch model analysis, Wright maps for middle and high school students and college students were obtained and compared with each other. Differential Item Functioning analysis was also implemented to compare students' item responses across school grades. The results showed: 1) Geocognition on plate tectonics was an assessable construct for middle and high school students in current science curriculum, 2) The most distinguished geocognition factor was spatial reasoning based on cross sectional analysis across school grades, 3) Geocognition on plate tectonics could be developed towards more sophisticated level through scaffolding of relevant instruction and earth science content knowledge, and 4) Geocognition was not a general reasoning separated from a task content but a content-specific reasoning related to the content of an assessment item. We proposed several suggestions for learning progressions for plate tectonics and national curriculum development based on the results of the study.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.335-346
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• 2017

In this study, we developed and examined the validity and reliability of the Test for Indicators of Positive Experiences about Science (TIPES) that measures students' positive experiences about science. We have developed TIPES through literature reviews, development of the preliminary version of TIPES, a pilot test and revisions of the preliminary version, and the test of the final version. Through literature reviews and Delpi methods, we developed the preliminary version of TIPES, which consists of five categories such as science academic emotion, science-related self-concept, science learning motivation, science-related career aspiration, and science-related attitude. Using the preliminary version, we conducted a pilot test with 198 students consisting of 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th graders, and modified the first version based on the results from the pilot test and expert meetings. We then conducted a main test with the revised version of TIPES with 1,841 students consisting of 4th, 6th, 8th, and 10th graders. According to a confirmatory factor analysis, a reliability test and descriptive statistics analyses, TIPES found to have a good validity as well as reliability. In addition, there are statistically significant differences in the norm distribution and scores of TIPES by student's grade, gender, school location, and level of participation in science-related activities. Discussed in the conclusion are the implications of this research for science education research and science teaching and learning practices in the school.