• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.106-117
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• 2022

This study analyzes the characteristics of the "Conclusions" section of a thesis in elementary science education and presents a conclusion model that can be used in elementary science education. In the "Elementary Science Education" journal published by the Elementary Science Education Association, the conclusion section was analyzed on the four-year academic papers published. First, the title of the concluding chapter and the number of conclusions frequently used in elementary science education were identified. Results showed that most commonly used title for the conclusion section was "Conclusion and Suggestion," and the length of the section was 85.4 lines or 2.1 pages.. Then, as a result of analyzing the conclusions of elementary science journals in sentence units, we found stages as a kind of semantic unit frequently used in elementary science education papers. Further, we obtained that these stages are often used in connection with specific stages. Finally, a conclusion template for papers commonly used in elementary science education was presented. The results of this study can be used as basic data when drafting elementary science education papers. Furthermore, specific thesis regarding education plans and educational materials might be prepared for elementary science education graduate students based on the present results.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.30-43
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• 2022

In this study, elementary students' science communication competence was investigated based on the grammatical features expressed in their language-use in classroom discourse and science writings. The classes were designed to integrate the evidence-based reasoning framework and traditional learning cycle and were conducted on fifth graders in an elementary school. Eight elementary students' discourse data and writings were analyzed using lexico-grammatical resource analysis, which examined the discourse text's content and logical relations. The results revealed that the student language used in analyzing data, interpreting evidence, or constructing explanations did not precisely conform to the grammatical features in science language use. However, they provided examples of grammatical metaphors by nominalizing observed events in the classroom discourses and those of causal relations in their writings. Thus, elementary students can use science language grammatically from science language-use experiences through listening to a teacher's instructional discourses or recognizing the grammatical structures of science texts in workbooks. The opportunities in which elementary students experience the language-use model in science learning need to be offered to understand the appropriate language use in the epistemic context of evidence-based reasoning and learn literacy skills in science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.111-124
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to explore science teachers' perceptions of good science teaching. To this end, the Korean Teaching Observation Protocol (KTOP), which was developed for the purpose of observing and improving science teaching, was utilized. In the first survey, teachers were asked whether they thought each item in the KTOP was important for good science teaching, the extent to which they implemented these items, and the level of difficulty in implementing them. The second survey asked teachers what they believed to be the reasons and solutions for the KTOP items that they had responded as difficult to implement. The responses obtained from 63 teachers in the first survey and 35 teachers in the second survey were categorized based on the characteristics of the responses. The categorized contents were then summarized and discussed for their features. As a result, science teachers responded that all items in KTOP, except for one, are important for good science teaching. However, it was also shown that the level of execution was low in cases where implementation was difficult. For the 13 KTOP items that were considered important but difficult to implement and showed relatively low implementation level, many respondents (69%) attributed the reason to both students and teachers. However, the most common response (60%) was that the teacher should solve those difficulties. From this, it was found that understanding and supporting teachers, as well as enhancing their competencies, are more important for good science teaching than external factors. We hope that this research findings will help to better understand the specific difficulties that science teachers face in their classes and contribute to practical efforts that aim to address these challenges.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.626-638
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of the scientifically gifted high school students to the research and education (R&E) program. 270 scientifically gifted high school students participating in R&E program were sampled and surveyed according to the R&E' purpose, the process of topic selection, the advantage, and disadvantage of R&E. 4 students among them were interviewed in depth. Students perceived the purposes and advantages of R&E as fostering the scientist' qualifications, providing the research opportunities, and improving the inquiry ability and the disadvantages of R&E as the time consumption in research, the participation as a sideline, and the difficulty of contents. The R&E program was mainly composed of a pre-determined topic, fixed procedures, and expert's settlements in the problem-emerging situation and was not cognitive but technical apprenticeship. In addition, students considered the participation of R&E as a chance of experience about the high techniques and the valuable instruments instead of the improvement on the creative problem-solving ability. The role of mentors in the R&E program is so important that it affects largely on the productive participation and the perceptions of science and scientists.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.350-358
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of interview with a scientist and engineer on service performance assessment on science career orientation and image of scientists. Science track students in the 11th grade carried out the interviews and made powerpoint presentations. After the students' presentation in the chemistry class, the teacher made comments on the contents of the interviews. Students gave presentation in each class for a year. Before starting this assessment, students took science career orientation questionnaire and DAST (draw-a-scientist-test). These two tests were conducted again at the end of the year. The results of this study showed that there was no significant difference between pre- and post-test score for the science career orientation. However, a significant difference was observed in the 'preference for science learning' category. These results showed that the career decision of a high school student has already been fixed rigidly. On the other hand, there was a significant difference (p < 0.01) between pre- and post-test on the image of scientists. This demonstrated that the stereotypic image for a scientist was reduced by the interview performance assessment and that, students came to have an affirmative perception of scientists on service.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.194-204
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between types and sources of background knowledges of elementary preteachers' questions about astronomy contents in the elementary science text books. Data were extracted from the preteachers' classes established in a university of education. The results are as follows. First, right background knowledges of questions were found in about 58% questions, wrong background knowledges 15%, and no background knowledges 26%. Second, it was found that 'school' as a source of background knowledges was found in 29% questions, 'friend' 21%, 'internet' 14%, 'book reading' 12%, 'others' 9%, 'TV' 7%, 'institute' 4%. In case of the type that right background knowledges have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'book reading' and 'TV' sources rate increased, but 'internet' and 'others' decreased when compared to total questions. In the type which background knowledges are right and did not have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'internet' source rate increased and 'friend' decreased. In case of the type that wrong background knowledges do not have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'friend' and 'TV' sources rate increased, but 'school' and 'book reading' decreased. The type which background knowledges are right and did not have casual relation or correlation with question contents, 'internet' source rate increased and 'friend' decreased. In case of the type of no background knowledges, 'TV' and 'institute' source rate increased, but 'internet' and 'book reading' decreased. Third, the questions in 'Earth and Moon' unit have little background knowledges. The questions in 'solar system and stars' have background knowledges with no relation to the questions. Especially, in the unit 'changes of seasons', right background knowledges were found in more than half questions, but the contents of questions and background knowledges were not connected scientifically.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.505-518
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• 2003

A survey has been administered to investigate the adequacy of the chemistry teacher employment examination. The questionnaires were sent to the professors of the fourteen departments of chemistry education all over the nation and the responses were collected from the thirteen departments. From the analyses of the responses, the problems were pointed out and the suggestions were made for the improvement of the examination to recruit excellent chemistry teachers. Reconsideration of the ratio of subject matter education to subject contents, adjustment of format and number of questions, maintaining of proper degree of difficulty and discrimination of items, reconsideration of relevancy to practical education, raising the number of committee for the examination, the reflection of the 7th science curriculum, and opening to the public of the information related to the teacher employment examination were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2007

This study investigated how the contents of biology domains that were dealt with in the 7th national elementary-school science curriculum were in turn dealt with in the other subject matter areas. Through this, it was hoped that the place and identity of biology as a subject could be more clearly established and defined and additionally, more basic data for developing the new national science curriculum could be acquired at the same time. Subject matter areas that overlapped with biology in the 7th national elementary-school curriculum were practical arts, social studies and physical education. The structure and composition of specific components that were dealt with by these subject matter areas were very different from those of science, and the analysis showed that they failed to correspond across grades. Moreover, topics such as 'natural calamities and the environment' and 'human reproduction' that were dealt with by other subject matter areas, but not in science must be included for developing the new national science curriculum. Accordingly, when it comes to composing the contents of each subject matter area during creation of the new national curriculum, the relevant experts in related subject matter areas should be mobilized to conduct in-depth analysis of the following areas: viability, the most appropriate level of difficulty, and appropriateness of any hierarchy of relative importance between subjects. Additionally, efforts to reflect any improvements in the way the new national curriculum is developed which come about through this research are needed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.487-496
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• 2001

In a 7th graders' cooperative science class, verbal behaviors were categorized and their relationships with the improvement of learning strategies used. motivation, and attitudes were investigated. Students' perceptions of cooperative learning were also studied by the achievement level. Verbal behaviors in cooperative learning were positively related with the improvement of monitoring and organization strategies used, self-efficacy, and attitude toward science class. In the analyses of students' perceptions of cooperative learning, medium- and low-achieving students had positive perceptions but some high-achieving students had negative ones. In the aspect of effectiveness of cooperative learning, especially, medium- and low-achieving students perceived that they could learn more and better due to verbal interactions with peers. To be contrary, high-achieving students perceived that they learned less and superficially.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.9-23
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• 2009

This research defined professionality of science teacher from the perspective of PCK. An teaching strategy in the in-service teacher training for the gifted education was proposed based on the definition and implemented at an in-service teacher training program for the gifted education in order to explore about the teaching strategy and suggest practical implications that could improve the program. The in-service teacher training teaching strategy proposed in this research consists of three components: 'crafting activity materials', 'conducting inquiry-based experiment', 'developing rubric for identification of giftedness'. The survey carried out for the participants of the teacher training program showed that teachers perceived the importance of the need for the rubric for gifted identification, developing activity materials for the gifted education in science, and developing the rubric of gifted identification as properties for in-service teacher training programs fur the gifted education. However, the insufficiency of time and opportunities for being fully engaged in such a program made teachers feel lack of self-confidence in developing activity materials for the gifted education in science and rubric for gifted identification. Therefore, teacher training programs reflecting real features of the gifted education should be constantly developed and provided to enhance the effectiveness of in-service teacher training programs.