• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.407-419
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• 2021

This study investigated the perception of science philosophy education targeting 150 elementary school teachers in metropolitan cities and provinces. The questionnaire survey on the perception of the philosophy of science education was composed of a 5-point Likert scale based on the interest and experience of the philosophy of science, the reason for difficulty in using it, and the introduction method, the expected effect. As a result of the survey, elementary school teachers' awareness of the interest and necessity of the philosophy of science was generally high, while the experience of learning and teaching the philosophy of science was low. In addition, to the reason why it was difficult to utilize the philosophy of science, teachers answered that there was insufficient teacher training and development of teaching and learning methods. As a way to introduce the philosophy of science in science education, it was thought that it was necessary to combine the concept learning and inquiry method, and elementary school teachers' perception of the expected effect of using the philosophy of science was generally high. The results of this study are meaningful in that they provide basic data on the direction of the introduction of the philosophy of science in elementary science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.472-479
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to develop an inquiry-based professional development program for in-service secondary science teachers and to investigate it's application. The inquiry-based professional development program was reconstructed based on SSCS problem-solving model, which is composed of 4 stages of search, solve, create, and share. The 28 science teachers' understanding of the SSCS program were investigated as implementing the program. As a result of this study, 8 SSCS modules have developed as the science teachers have searched, solved, created, and shared various situated problems. The science teachers found themselves to have positive perception of SSCS program. The SSCS program was effective in changing the learners' teaching/learning attitude and to develop individual scientific thinking. To make the SSCS problem solving successful and more effective, both science teachers' professionalism and pedagogical knowledge for selecting topic as the levels of learner should be considered.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.519-531
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• 2021

This study investigates the science teacher identity of pre-service science teachers (PSTs) in the context of a teaching practice course. Twenty-two PSTs who took the 'Biological Science Lab. for Inquiry Learning' course at the College of Education participated in this study. Artifacts created during the course were collected, and the teaching practices and reflections were recorded and transcribed. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine PSTs, recorded, and transcribed. We found the science teacher identity was not well revealed at the beginning of the course. Authoritative discourse appeared in the early oral reflections of PSTs, indicating that the PSTs perceived oral reflection activities as 'evaluation activities for teaching practice'. This perception shows that pre-service teachers participate in teaching practice courses as students attending a university, performing tasks and receiving evaluations from instructors. After the middle of the course, discourses showing the science teacher identity of the PSTs were observed. In the oral reflection after the middle part, dialogic discourses often arose, showing that the PSTs perceive the oral reflection activities as a 'learning activity for professional development'. In addition, in the second half, discourse appeared to connect and interpret one's experience with the teacher's activity, indicating that the PSTs perceive themselves as teachers at this stage. In addition, the perception of experimental classes was expanded through the course. During the course, the practice of equalizing the authority of the participants, providing a role model for reflection, and experiencing various positions from multiple viewpoints in the class had a positive effect on the formation and continuation of the teacher identity. This study provides implications on the teacher education process for teacher identity formation in PSTs.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1110-1120
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of gender differences in students' mathematics and science learning ability. The sample included 289 elementary and secondary school gifted teachers. The teachers filled out the survey, asking their perceptions of gender differences in mathematics and science learning ability, as well as of the reasons of the differences. The results were as follows: 1) 65% of the teachers responded that gender differences existed in students' mathematics and science learning ability, 2) 63% of the teachers perceived that the differences began around higher elementary or middle school ages, 3) 57% of the teachers thought that gender differences existed in the high-achieving student group. Teachers perceived the reasons of differences were 1) differences in inborn ability, 2) the different expectation, and 3) the different ways of parental cares. Since teachers' perceptions of students' ability would impact teachers' attitudes on students, implications and suggestions were included in this article to provide teachers insights that promote students' better learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.1343-1353
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• 2013

It is necessary to teach science terminology in order to solve the problems induced from the fact that students have low comprehension in science terminology. The purpose of this study was to investigate science teacher's perception of teaching science terminology. The questionnaires consisted of perception of science terminology, science terminology for teaching, teaching of science terminology, and teaching methods for science terminology. As a result, science teachers had difficulty with science terminology and were not familiar with them as well as students were. Despite having perceived the necessity of teaching science terminology because it serves as a great influence on students to study science, they didn't have enough knowledge of the teaching methods for science terminology, so that they felt difficulties in teaching science terminology. Finally, science teachers hope to display new science terminology with explanations on each page of the science textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.901-917
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop the questionnaire on pre-service elementary teachers' recognition of self-understanding and change capacity for science education and to investigate their recognitions with it. At the beginning of the study, we made a tool to investigate the self-understanding and change capacity of pre-service elementary teachers through literature review and discussions. The former half of the questionnaire was related to self-understanding with factors such as 'self-concept clarity,' 'career identity' and 'self-efficacy:' 'self-understanding as a pre-service elementary teacher' (12 items) and 'self-understanding as a pre-service elementary science teacher' (12 items). Its latter half was about the change capacity with factors such as 'change sensitivity,' 'goal consciousness,' 'collaboration,' 'reflection,' and 'mastery.' It consisted of three parts: 'general change capacity,' 'change capacity as a pre-service elementary teacher' and 'change capacity as a pre-service elementary science teacher' with 17 items, respectively. With this tool, we surveyed 153 pre-service elementary teachers. The results are as follows: First, pre-service elementary teachers have a positive recognition about self-understanding and change capacity, but the recognition of self-understanding and change capacity as pre-service elementary science teachers were relatively less positive. Second, factors of self-understanding and change capacity as pre-service elementary science teachers have a significant correlation with each other. Especially, there was a high correlation between 'self-efficacy' of self-understanding and 'goal consciousness' and 'mastery' of change capacity. Based on these results, some implications for self-understanding and change capacity related to science education were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.252-264
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• 2002

In this study, the experimental apparatus for boiling point and melting point in science textbooks of various curriculums were analyzed. Science teachers' views on the difference between the experimental value and the value written in textbooks were inquired, too. Their views on the experimental apparatus, nd results of freezing point,melting point, boiling point, fractional distillation, and thermometer calibration were also investigated. The results of this study showed that the types of experimental apparatus for boiling point and melting point were somewhat dif-ferent with science textbooks and curriculum. The teachers' views were also various according to their background. In the experiment of the fractional distillat ion, a large number of teachers recognized mismatch between the exper-imental value and the value written in textbooks as mistake of textbook contents or problem of experiment itself. The teachers of chemistry background take higher recognition of the requirement of thermometer calibration than those of non-chemistry background in middle school.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.224-238
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception of integrated school education and education for sustainable development of secondary school science teachers, judging that the existence of a common science teacher qualification certificate is related to the expertise of the common science map. To that end, the survey was conducted for three months from June to August 2018 for secondary school science teachers, and multiple choice questions were analyzed as statistical processing and descriptive questions as topical modeling. According to the analysis, teachers with a common science teacher qualification certificate had a high awareness of integrated school education, and the response average was high in all areas of value, direction and success condition of integrated school education. In addition, the average response of teachers with a common science teacher qualification certificate was also found to be higher than those with a common science teacher qualification. There were no major differences in perception between the two groups on the strength of science education and ESD integration, but the difference was that teachers with a common science teaching certificate focused on science in all topics and recognized science as a medium for each topic compared to teachers who did not.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.133-144
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• 2020

As a part of the second-year monitoring study on the implementation of the 2015 revised science curriculum in middle schools, this study focuses more on examining middle school science teachers' perceptions on the process-based assessment (PBA). A total of 105 middle school science teachers (44 teachers from science leading schools, 61 teachers from ordinary schools) responded to the survey questionnaire, and 16 teachers participated in interviews. The results include teachers' perceptions on the changes in their teaching and assessment methods, some challenges of implementing PBA, and educational implications of PBA. Survey results indicate that the teachers perceived themselves using more PBA methods after the 2015 revised science curriculum was launched. The teachers in science-leading schools present statistically higher average scores to the items on the PBA utilization than the ones in ordinary schools. However, the teachers felt confused in conceptually differentiating PBA from prior performance-based assessment. They also experienced some conflicts when implementing PBA under the achievement-oriented school atmospheres. In addition, they often faced difficulties in securing objectivity and reliability of PBA and felt the burden of evaluating individual students. This study suggests the necessity of giving more authority and trust to science teachers regarding PBA, constructing more supportive environment to cultivate teacher competency as evaluation experts, and the need to reduce task burden. However, some teachers who actively implemented PBA express some level of satisfaction as observing students' positive reaction to PBA.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.143-160
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• 2019

This study investigated 15 science teachers' perception and practice on free semester and science assessment. We analyzed frequencies of teacher choice for closed questions and used constant comparative method for teacher description and individual interview. Most teachers determined a low ranking for changes in assessment methods and mentioned a lack of objectivity on free semester assessment, unsystematic free semester assessment, and more importance on student activity and interest in science instruction. Most teachers understood process-based assessment as a direction of free semester assessment and teachers mentioned positive aspects for students or teacher difficulties dependent on their perception on process-based assessment. Half of the teachers failed to implement student self-assessment and student peer-assessment due to subjectivity and complexity. Some teachers did not provide feedbacks to students due to a lack of time and did not use certain assessment methods due to a lack of knowledge of the assessment. Teachers who did not have an experience of discussions in a teacher learning community mentioned reasons regarding a small number of the same grade teachers and inactive attitude of colleagues. Teachers who did not participate in professional development programs mentioned a lack of teacher understanding of free semester, participation of the teacher in charge, and teacher choice of participation as reasons.