• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.111-125
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the effects of the ENACT project on promoting pre-service science teachers (PSTs)' views on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. The ENACT project was designed to cultivate the social responsibility by integrating the theoretical framework of socioscientific issues (SSIs) education with problem-based inquiry approaches for the resolution of the issues. Thirty-two PSTs voluntarily participated in the project and completed the five stages over three months. Data was collected through a questionnaire to measure PSTs' view of the social responsibility of scientists and engineers (VSRoSE) and focus-group interviews. Results indicate that the PSTs presented statistically significant changes in their views of the social responsibility after the ENACT project. The mean scores of the five sub-dimensions of VSRoSE significantly increased. The interviews also supported that the PSTs had opportunities to seriously consider the social responsibility of scientists and engineers through epistemological exploration of science and technology (Cycle I), and problem-solving and action-taking (Cycle II). In particular, they agreed more on such responsibilities as consideration of societal needs and demands, pursuit of the common good, civic engagement and services using their expertise, communications with the public regarding potential risks, and participation in policy decision-making related to science and technology advances. Educational implications for SSI education and teacher education were suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.895-905
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• 2015

Citizens should be sensitive to the complex and controversial SSIs (Socioscientific Issues), be able to make a responsible decision with evidence and empathy, and furthermore take political action for the larger welfare. The premise of this research is that understanding the nature of science (NOS) takes an important role when students and adults participate in the discourse on SSIs because SSI reasoning requires individuals to examine information and counter-information with skepticism. We therefore designed SSI programs that were incorporated with NOS by adapting a contextualized-reflective approach. The leading research question was to what extent SSI contexts contributed to promoting students' understanding of NOS. A total of 71 11th grade students participated in this program. The school was located in an urban city near the capital city of Seoul, South Korea. We designed SSI programs to cover the issues of genetically modified organisms, climate change, and nuclear energy. Each issue required four to six class periods to complete. We conducted pre- and post-program tests using the revised VNOS-C, recorded group discussions or debates and collected student worksheets to observe the increase of student NOS understanding. As a result of this program, students showed moderate improvement in their understanding of NOS.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.637-650
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• 2017

It is necessary for undergraduate students whose citizenship reaches a maturity stage to recognize the importance of citizen participation in social issues related to science and technology and to be able to make meaningful use of citizens' rights and responsibilities. Therefore, in order to understand the actual status of undergraduate students' perceptions and practice capacity for citizen participation in science and technology, university students were selected from the department of arts physical studies (33 cases), humanities social studies (62 cases), and science engineering studies (67 cases) at D university in Gyeonggi province. Then, we investigated the scientific technology and society's interaction oriented by citizen participation, responsible decision-making ability, and the effectiveness of the social issue by scientific technology. Analyses of the results reveal that the overall perception level of the students about the interaction between scientific technology and society was high according to department of the arts physical studies, humanities social studies, science engineering studies, in that order, but the scores were not all in average. Therefore, it was found that the current undergraduate students lacked a deep understanding of the interaction between scientific technology and society regardless of the major field. In addition, the students' perception on citizen participation in the interaction between scientific technology and society was found to be problematic regardless of the major field. In responsible decision-making ability, undergraduate students were found to have difficulties in selecting the best alternative in terms of individual beliefs and welfare of others and formulating the action strategies. In addition, the self-confidence of the students about knowledge, skill, and capacity for action related science and technology in the effectiveness of the social issue by scientific technology was very low regardless of major field. We discussed educational implications of these findings.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.169-177
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• 2015

Since socioscientific issues (SSI) reflect various characteristics of new technologies designed to meet the incessant human needs in the contemporary society, this study explores the feasibility of adapting nature of technology (NOT) to analyze students' socioscientific decision-making. To achieve the aim, forty-five college students enrolled in a liberal arts course on science and technology studies participated in the study and responded to a GMO (golden rice) scenario in a written form. Four major viewpoints were identified from their writing: 1) is the technological artifact able to solve a societal problem?, 2) are there some alternatives to solve the societal problem?, 3) what kinds of side effects or flaws could turn up during distribution and consumption of the technological artifact?, and 4) can we cope with the technological uncertainty? We revisited the viewpoints within the NOT framework (technology as a 'fix,' cultural context and role of values, technological trade-offs, technology as a system, and technological progression). As a result, unlike NOS, NOT were quite explicitly represented in their decision-making and students' level of understanding on NOT varied. It indicates that NOT can be a promising construct for cultivating informed SSI decision-making.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.64 no.5
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• pp.291-303
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• 2020

This study aimed to explore the patterns of college students' dialogic argumentation in the context of nanotechnology issues, and to compare these patterns based on their idiocentrism and allocentrism. Nanotechnology represents the characteristics of socioscientific issues in that it is widely used in various fields, but at the same time, it includes the likelihood of negative effects. 33 college students who enrolled in science-related course participated in this study. Participants were divided into idiocentric groups and allocentric groups based on the INDCOL scores, and they participated in group discussions on nanotechnology. All discussions were audiotaped and analyzed using the framework of discourse clusters and schemes. Results showed that participating students engaged in dialogic argumentation with the process of exchanging of individual perspectives, exploration of different perspectives, and coordination and negotiation; specifically, they spent most of their time in exploring different values and perspectives regarding nanotechnology. Results also indicated the differences in discourse clusters and discourse schemes between idiocentric and allocentric groups. Allocentric groups more often negotiated to settle on a group decision than idiocentric groups did, and discourse schemes in their negotiation process were slightly different from the ones in idiocentric groups.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.303-315
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• 2016

Socioscientific issues (SSI), by their nature, are conceptually embedded in technology. Previous research reported that nature of technology (NOT), unlike nature of science, was quite explicitly manifested in SSI decision-making, and NOT could be a promising construct for promoting SSI reasoning. In this study, authors introduced an integrated conceptual framework for NOT, which consisted of four dimensions (i.e., artifacts, knowledge, practice and system) as diverse modes of technology. We adapted the framework to investigate students' conceptualizations of NOT in the context of various SSIs. Data was collected from 45 college students enrolled in a liberal arts course on science and technology. The students participated in a team project, where they prepared and led discussions for SSI topics in class. Seven topics concerning SSIs were selected by students themselves. The preparation and class discussion of each student group were audio-recorded, and final reports were also analyzed. As a result, NOT sub-components in the dimensions of artifacts and system were explicitly represented in most contexts of SSI with various ranges of understanding. Other sub-components under the dimensions of knowledge and practice were rarely or implicitly shown in the discussion. The depth of students' understanding on NOT varied. Implications for science education were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.323-334
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• 2017

Current science education aims to guide students as future responsible citizens to make informed decisions on socioscientific issues (SSI). In the authors' previous study, it was found that conceptions of nature of technology (NOT) were explicitly represented in various contexts of SSI with differentiated levels of understanding, and cases of the informed NOT understanding included the key features of well-reasoned SSI decision-making. Therefore, enhancing NOT understanding could be one of the elements to leverage students' informed SSI decision-making. In this study, we developed a rubric to assess NOT understanding in the context of SSI and applied it to evaluate the impact of SSI instruction. Participants were 58 college students who took an SSI course for 6 weeks. Before and after the SSI course, they were asked to write decision-making essays on the Golden Rice issue (a type of genetically modified food). As a result of analyzing the pre- and post decision-making essay using the rubric, it was found that NOT understanding was improved after the SSI course; in addition, the salient patterns of NOT changes were analyzed in detail in order to gauge the influence of the SSI classes. Implications for science education were discussed.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-35
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• 2013

The aim of this article is to criticize the discourses and practices of the appropriate technology for international development cooperation in Korea which focus narrowly on the technologies and are oriented to the providers of technologies. To present an alternative, we will discuss the appropriate technology by the insights from 'socio-technical system' studies which underline not only technological side but also the social, institutional and user's side, and analyze the interactions between them. This research deals with several cases mainly regarding small scale's renewable energy from Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, Mongolia and Nepal. We put out some suggestions to improve the discourse and practices of appropriate technology in field of international cooperation by Korea.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.121-126
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• 2022

This study purports to achieve three different yet related tasks. First of all, this study reviews thoroughly social economy as an academic subject which have been drawing much attentions in social science. Secondly, this study examines developmental trajectory of social economy in Korea and reviews categories and types of social economy in current Korean society. Lastly, this study introduces several arguments around social economy. For these tasks, brief summary of the definitions of social economy from foreign and domestic scholars will be provided. Then five controversial subjects on social economy will be introduced. Those are the effect of social economy on employment, the future of social economy in the context of welfare state, the sustainability of social economy, the relationship of social economy with civil society, and the relationship between social economy and basic income. The author hopes that this study could provide thorough pirctire of social economy conceptually as well as practically for those who are interested in social economy both in academia and civil society organizations.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2012.11a
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• pp.1720-1723
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• 2012

과학기술,사회(STS, Science and Technology in Society)란 과학과 기술을 역사적이고 사회학적인 시각으로 바라보자는 관점을 뜻한다. 이는 시민들이 이런 시각을 가져야 과학기술과 관련된 사회 쟁점에 대한 올바른 판단이 가능하다는 의미이다. 이를 위해 국가 교육과정체제 이후의 평생교육으로써 성인을 대상으로 하는 과학문화 소통 프로그램이 필요하다. 본 논문은 국내와 해외의 성인 대상의 과학 문화 프로그램을 분석하여 올바른 과학문화 소통을 위한 프로그램 과정은 어떤 모습으로 설계되어야 하는지를 제안한다. 제주대학교 과학기술사회연구센터(STS연구센터)에서 연구하고 있는 제주 특성을 활용한 과학기술문화교육 프로그램을 소개하고, 향후 정보과학 기반의 연구방향도 소개하고자 한다.