• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.731-738
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• 2004

Secondary school science teachers' preception on inquiry learning was investigated by using questionnaires. According to these results, science teachers, who are participants of the current Korea National Science Curriculum, responded that raising the 'interest in science' was the most important objective of science education, and using practical scientific subject matters in class will do such. More than 72% of science teachers have used reconstructed materials. When reconstructed textbook contents were used, teachers through that the most important object is the 'acquirement of scientific knowledge'. Most science teachers perceived inquiry leaning as a student centered open investigation. Among factors that disturb inquiry leaning, critical ones were 'entrance examination', 'lake of teaching-leaning materials', 'little understanding of inquiry leaning', and 'lake of student's will to inquiry'.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.206-217
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• 2010

This study aims to explore preservice teachers' overall views of nature of science and compare their views by gender and certificate area (biology vs. non-biology teachers). In addition, a comparison with American preservice teachers' views was also implemented. The Views of Nature of Science (Abd-El-Khalick, 1998), an openended questionnaire, is utilized to explore participants' views of nature of science. Along with 'definition of science', six aspects of the nature of science, (1) theories and laws, (2) tentativeness, (3) social and cultural embeddedness, (4) creativity, (5) theory-laden, and (6) inference, were investigated. The qualitative result indicates that the participants' first image of science was about the method of science such as observations and experiments. Furthermore, these preservice science teachers particularly have a difficulty in differentiating between scientific theories and laws, and understanding the importance of creation and imagination in developing scientific knowledge. In addition, compared to American preservice teachers' view of the nature of science, Korean preservice teachers possess naive views in creative and imaginative aspect. Interestingly, biology teachers demonstrated lower understanding in theories and laws as well as tentativeness of scientific knowledge. However, there is no difference by gender.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.267-277
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• 2015

This study explored elementary school teachers' perspectives on science inquiry teaching. First, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to elicit teachers' experiences of their approach to inquiry teaching. These self-reported approaches revealed three conceptions of teaching for inquiry learning in science: 'science process skills-centered' category focused on observing, classifying, measuring, and fair testing; 'generating scientific questions' category focused on students' question-generating; and 'illustrate concept and/or content' category focused on science content demonstration by making use of experimental procedures to obtain expected results. Second, teachers were asked to place 18 activity cards either close to or further from an 'inquiry-based science classroom' card. The relative distances from the activity card to the central classroom card were measured. The teachers perceived that students' activity of 'designing and implementing appropriate procedures' was the most important in supporting an inquiry-based science classroom. Understanding teachers' views has implications for both the enactment of inquiry teaching in the classroom as well as the uptake of new teaching behaviors during professional development.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.621-635
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• 2010

Problem-based Learning (PBL) has been known as an effective strategy for dealing with various aspects of education such as the enhancement of students' motivation, interest in subjects, academic achievement, and cooperative abilities. However, PBL has not been widely implemented in secondary schools. The purpose of this study is to investigate secondary school teachers' perception of problem-based learning and their way of applying it. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with nine secondary school teachers. Five of them had experience in implementing PBL, while four of them had interest in using PBL but had not yet had the experience. Different concepts were extracted and categorized. Nvivo 2.0 was used for analysis. The results were as follows: Changes in student attitude toward class, improvement on cooperation with others, self-regulated learning skills, and satisfaction from students' positive comments on PBL enabled teachers to become more enthusiastic and positive toward PBL. The stress of developing proper problems and the enormous amounts of time and efforts required in using PBL were shown as barriers for teachers in implementing PBL. However, some negative perspectives about PBL changed into positive after teachers experience PBL. By examining each teacher's way of implementing PBL, several teaching strategies suitable to their school systems were suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.788-800
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the elementary school teachers' perception of science writing. In this study, 10 elementary school teachers who have taught in the 3rd or 4th grade science lesson in 2010 were selected. Researchers constructed interview guide in three parts including the teachers' understanding of science writing, the status of science writing teaching and the difficulties of science writing in their classes. For the investigation, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 elementary school teachers were conducted individually. The results showed that the elementary school teachers were unfamiliar with the word ‘science writing’ and considered science writing as a writing using science learning contents. Also, they think that teaching science writing in their science lessons was not needed and didn't assess and provide detailed feedback with the students' written works. Most teachers needed teaching materials and assessment tools for science writing. To develop elementary teachers' understanding of the value and use of writing for learning in science, they will need to participate in science writing programs for in-service teachers and various teaching materials and assessment tools should also be developed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.314-327
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary science teachers' general perceptions of scientific and creative problem solving. The secondary science teachers responded to a survey. The results indicated that most of the teachers perceived enhancing scientific and creative problem solving skills as one of the most important goals in teaching science. However, they hardly implemented instructions for scientific and creative problem solving in their science lessons. They reported the absence of specialized teaching strategies and assessment tools for scientific and creative problem solving, and university entrance exam-oriented social and educational atmosphere as major barriers. In addition, the teachers tended to present limited understanding of scientific and creative problem solving, which is merely focused on creativity. Considering the results, it was thought that a guide to a clear conception of scientific and creative problem solving was needed. Also, many teaching strategies and appropriate assessment tools for adopting and scientific and creative problem solving were required.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.570-584
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to find out high school students' perception on psychologicallearning environment generated by science teachers and their attitude change related to science. The subjectsconsisted of 539 freshmen in a boys' high school pre-applied of common school group in S city. This study wasconducted with students' perception survey and classification of teachers' features according to it. The surveyabout science-related attitude was also made in early 1st semester and 2nd semester, and the students showingthe great attitude change related to science were interviewed. The results of this study revealed that statistically,students had a more positive perception on female teachers than on male ones and that according to their teachers,there were clear different in the psychological learning environment perceived by students. As for the relation of teachers' features and students' attitude change, it showed the negative effect only when the teacher was incharge of only one class, but in most of the cases, there was no meaningful correlation. The semi-structuredinterview with students with great attitude change related to science indicated that the main cause of the changewas the achievement they made in class. The interview showed that the change related to science happenedunder the indirect influence of teachers rather than direct influence. Furthermore, students wanted scienceteachers to meet the science class possessing various instruction behaviors and support behaviors. Therefore,science teachers playing an important role in students' choice of career should make efforts to realize thelearner-centered curriculum and change students' science-related attitude into a positive direction.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.527-535
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• 2021

The STEAM education was applied to science high school students, and changes in perceptions of students and teachers were investigated after class treatment. By the results of the student's perception survey, very positive results were found in increasing problem-solving capabilities, educational satisfaction, etc. More than 98% of students said they would continue to participate in STEAM education classes. Meanwhile, the lack of time for class activities put a burden on students to complete the problems during class. Especially nanoscience content and activities were properly organized in consideration of the level of cognitive development of the students. In addition, as a result of a survey of teachers' perceptions for students, more than 80.0% of teachers responded very positively in 'self-directed learning ability' and 'problem-solving capability', etc.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.96-106
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to identify the actual conditions of operation in school and investigate the perceptions of science teachers and students regarding the 7th elective-centered curriculum of high school science subjects. For this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted for the selected subjects including 127 high school science teachers and 763 high school students in their third year who had experienced the 7th elective-centered curriculum. As a result of the study, concerning the way to present the elective subjects of science, many cases were the alternative way and the group-elective way in humanity courses while natural science courses had the alternative way and the free-elective way in most cases. In other words, in many cases, the right of elective was given within a limited range. The result of the investigation on science teachers' perceptions on the elective-centered curriculum was that negative views dominated as a whole. Especially, earth science teachers showed the most negative attitudes. The number of biology and chemistry teachers who supported students' right to opt subjects were lower than that of physics teachers and earth science teachers who were against it. To help students make a right choice, many viewed that the system of the college Scholastic Ability Test should be complemented in order to prevent any disadvantage to each elective subject or that it was necessary to have systematic and realistic career education. As the result of investigating the perception of high school students in their third year regarding the elective-centered curriculum, they were usually not very satisfied with it. As the reason for it, many said the selection right was limited. Many others also expressed that there were lack of public relations and education on subjects and careers. Based on these results, limits still exist in accepting all demands although there are a lot of efforts made to smoothly adjust supply and demand of science teachers as well as students' electives in the field of school. It is considered necessary to come up with counterplan and complements to prevent basic science from being neglected or lower academic achievement in the subject of science from happening, and at the same time to harmoniously deal with supply and demand of science teachers as well as the issues of students' demands given the actual conditions of school.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.88-106
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• 2023

This study aims to investigate the disparity between the teacher's perception of student-centered inquiry classes and the actual implementation of such practices. Specifically, we compared an elementary science teacher's self-perception of her science lessons with the observers' evaluation using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) of the "Temperature and Heat" unit. Research data were collected through classroom teaching survey, interview, and science lessons video which were analyzed using the RTOP. As a result of the study, the teacher recognized that she was practicing inquiry-oriented/student-centered classes, but the results judged by the RTOP score were found to be transitional/student-affected classes by a slight difference. Teacher H planned and practiced classes based on a high understanding and content knowledge of the curriculum and created a science classroom culture that promotes active interaction among students as well as students and teachers. However, teacher-led aspects were still emphasized in teaching design and implementation, and the project theme and content were inappropriate to improve the quality of students' science inquiry experience. In the end, the slight difference between teacher's perception of inquiry-oriented/student-centered classes and actual implementation is related to how student-centered "lesson design" is and how to plan and implement classes supported by "procedural knowledge" for students' experience in the science inquiry process. These results indicate that the teacher's self-evaluation alone is not enough to determine whether the teacher's intentions and efforts are actually being implemented, and that it is necessary to conduct objective analysis, evaluation, and discuss the results of science classes by the external observers.