• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.769-781
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• 2016

This study investigated the interactions among the PCK components of pre-service secondary chemistry teachers considered in the processes of making written test items individually and in small groups. The processes of making written test items individually for 8 pre-service teachers was studied through the think-aloud method. The analysis of the results revealed that the 'assessment in science education' of the five PCK components was most frequently used in making test items. 'Curriculum for science education,' 'subject matter knowledge,' and 'students' were also frequently used although fewer than the previous component. However, 'instructional strategies and instruction for science education' was hardly used. The integrations between two or three components with various types were frequently found. However, integrations among four to five components were not found. The processes of making written test items in two small groups consisting of four pre-service teachers were observed. The analysis of the results revealed that the PCK components used in small groups were similar to those in the individual processes. However, 'curriculum for science education' was less frequently used, and the numbers of subcategories used at a relatively high frequency increased from other four components in small groups. In the aspects of integration, the proportion of the integrations between two components decreased and that for three components increased compared with those in the individual processes. The integrations among four or five components were also newly found. However, the integrations of 'curriculum for science education' with the other components were less frequently found. The integrations of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science education' with other components were still hardly found.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1613-1626
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to develop an effective mentoring program model. In order to develop an effective mentoring program, we identified four elements of mentoring program based on the analysis of secondary science teachers perceptions of in-service science teacher training program and mentoring. For the study, a questionnaire was developed by the authors and it was administrated to 114 secondary science teachers participated in science teacher training program. The interviews were conducted with 14 secondary science teachers. The results of this study are as follows: Most of the secondary science teachers recognized that in-service science teacher training program, which they had taken, positively affected their teaching. However, there are some aspects needed for improvements in the current teacher training program. They wanted to take the opportunities to interact with their colleagues and researchers, sharing their experiences on teaching within the teachers' community, and reflecting on their own teaching. Based on these analysis we suggest four elements for effective mentoring program. These are 'Communication,' 'Reflection for Mentor,' 'Reflection for Mentee,' and 'Evaluation.' In addition, the mentoring program is proposed to consist of four activities such as 'Feedback on teaching', 'Seminar and Workshop', 'Conference', and 'Self-evaluation'.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.549-558
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• 2014

Integrated concepts that are broad enough to embrace facts, principles, laws, and concepts of multiple disciplines could become the core of integrated education. Integrated concept-centered education enables effective and practical learning. In this study, the Delphi Method was implemented targeting experts in science (physics, life science, chemistry, and earth science) and humanities (history, geology, economics, ethics, and politics) to find out the integrated concept that can be used to design the concept-centered integrated education in the Republic of Korea. 124 experts participated in this survey. Delphi survey was conducted for three rounds. In the first round, an open questionnaire was given to experts to collect feasible integrated concepts in each major field. Then, in the second round experts were asked to select integrated concepts that could be used practically in the field of their major. In the third round, the integrated concept with selection frequency over medium value were given. They were asked to evaluate the applicability of integrated concepts by using the Likert-scale questionnaire. Through this process, content validity was analyzed. As a result, five integrated concepts (change, interaction, space-time, energy, and equilibrium) were selected for the inter-science integration. And thirteen integrated concepts (conflict, community, relationship, structure, power, diversity, culture, change, society, interaction, freedom, justice, and equality) were chosen for the inter-humanities integration. Finally, for the science-humanities integration, seven integrated concepts (structure, diversity, change, interaction, cycle, system, and environment) were determined.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.421-433
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• 2023

This study examined the reasoning of gifted elementary science students in a socioscientific issues (SSI) classroom discussion on COVID-19-related trash disposal challenges. This study aimed to understand the characteristics of evidence use and decision-making difficulties in each type of SSI-related reasoning. To this end, the transcripts of 17 gifted students of elementary science discussing SSIs in a classroom were analyzed within the framework of informal reasoning. The analysis framework was categorized into three types according to the primary influence involved in reasoning: rational, emotional, and intuitive. The analysis showed that students exhibited four categories of evidence use in SSI reasoning. First, in the rational reasoning category, students deemed and recorded scientific knowledge, numbers, and statistics as objective evidence. However, students who experienced difficulty in investigating such scientific data were less likely to have factored them in subsequent decisions. Second, in the emotional reasoning category, students' solutions varied considerably depending on the perspective they empathized with and reasoned from. Differences in their views led to conflicting perspectives on SSIs and consequent disagreement. Third, in the intuitive reasoning category, students disagreed with the opinions of their peers but did not explain their positions precisely. Intuitive reasoning also created challenges as students avoided problem-solving in the discussion and did not critically examine their opinions. Fourth, a mixed category of reasoning emerged: intuition combined with rationality or emotion. When combined with emotion, intuitive reasoning was characterized by deep empathy arising from personal experience, and when combined with rationality, the result was only an impulsive reaction. These findings indicate that research on student understanding and faculty knowledge of SSIs discussed in classrooms should consider the difficulties in informal reasoning and decision-making.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.47-63
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• 2023

In this study, we analyzed the PCK components in the materials units of the third and fourth grades of the Korean government-authorized teacher's guides for elementary school, developed in the 2015 revised national curriculum. The results showed that the PCK components were presented in a relatively balanced manner compared to the teacher's guides for middle school. Knowledge of the subject matter accounted for the highest proportion, and knowledge of instructional strategies in science accounted for a higher proportion than knowledge of the science curriculum. The knowledge of assessment in science showed the greatest deviation among publishers, and knowledge of students tended to show the lowest. By subcomponents, experiments and inquiries had a higher proportion than concepts and theories. The ratio of horizontal articulation was lower than that of vertical articulation or lesson objectives, and lesson objectives were presented in various ways, such as in core competencies and achievement standards for science. As questioning was emphasized, teaching strategies and questioning appeared at a similar rate. Motivation and interest, misconceptions were linked to teaching strategies and questioning. In some cases, assessment items and assessment criteria were presented at each level, and various PCK components were linked to these two components. Components with relatively large differences among publishers were supplementary or in-depth concepts, inquiry in textbooks, instruction sequence and method, subject-specific strategies, and assessment items. From the results, the implications for the development of teacher's guides were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.396-410
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• 2000

In this study, the concept presentation form, the content coherence of sub-dimensional concepts and the number of concepts of the 6th and the 7th Korean curriculum were analyzed comparing the guide to developing the secondary biology curricula to develop biological literacy with BSCS. According to the result, the discrimination between concept levels in the frame of contents of the Korean curricula is insufficient, because each of concepts presented in the knowledge domain as upper level and sub-dimensional concept elements as lower level are simply arrayed. Considering too much concepts of ecosystem, genetics, reproduction and metabolism, there should be an effort to reform the biological curriculum to include concepts evenly, not in the biased state, to reflect all the 6 unifying principles by BSCS for developing students' biological literacy. Finally there should be an effort to reflect the characteristics of each subjects concretely among Science 10, Biology I and Biology IT in the 7th curriculum considering the result that essential concepts to develop biological literacy are presented more in some principles of Biology II than Biology I. Thinking the results of the present study, concrete discussions should be made to set up the standard reference about biological literacy and to present essential concepts for teaching and learning to develop it in the process of biology textbook development for meeting the 7th Korean curriculum and in the development of 8th Korean curriculum in advance.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2015

In this research, two careers connectable with the contents of the curriculum of fifth to sixth grade elementary school students were selected among other promising future careers in biotechnology and medical engineering fields. 'Design-based promising future career STEAM program' was developed and its validity and effectiveness were verified. Reflecting recent issues, and complying with the STEAM standard (frame) instructional materials were developed through group deliberations for nine months, based on the achievement standards through an analysis of subject curriculum revised in 2009. This was prepared so that students are able to experience biotechnology and medical engineering related careers in a simulational form emphasized with creative design to make them prefer natural sciences and engineering careers and draw their interests and recognition of the relevant careers under the two disciplines. As a result of such application to STEAM Leader School students at the verification stage of the program, the contents and level of the program were verified suitable, receiving favorable reviews. And as a result of applying the developed program on other elementary school students, it was discovered that significant improvements were found in their career consciousness. Through this research, it was suggested that there is a need for a simplification of the curriculum content standards, a provision of 'standard for integration,' development of teachers' ability in reconstituting or organizing the STEAM and proceeding classes, continuous long-term support to see the effects of a policy or a program, and a reinforcement of career education integrated in the curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.499-510
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to understand interactive learning during docent-led tours in a science museum focusing on scaffolding. We developed a scaffolding framework by collating the work of other researchers in related fields. The results show that scaffolding included three dimensions: purpose, interaction, and domain. The purpose dimension, divided into six categories, is related to the intention of the scaffolder and what the scaffolding are for: strategic, social, procedural, conceptual, verbal, and metacognitive. The interaction dimension reflects students' interaction with the scaffolder in two ways: dynamic (situation specific) and static (planned in advance). The domain dimension is related to two contents: domain-general and domain-specific (such as science). The scaffolding framework was applied to dynamic interactions between docents and visitors. The data was collected from elementary school students' family visits with the guidance of two docents at the Seodaemun Museum of Natural History. The data collected consisted of surveys, interviews, video-recordings, and transcripts. The analysis shows that five guiding contexts and scaffolding phases were recognized; 1) strategic scaffolding in a poorly illustrated exhibit; 2) conceptual scaffolding in a thoroughly explanative exhibit; 3) verbal scaffolding in misleading interpretation; 4) procedural scaffolding in a manipulative exhibit; and 5) metacognitive scaffolding with inaccurate content. In addition, the results show that the docents used the dynamic and static scaffolding synthetically so that the docent-led tour was effective. In conclusion, this study presents the usefulness of understanding visitors' science learning through the scaffolding framework, as well as the how docents can scaffold actively.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.706-716
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the science process skills and teaching methods between the 6th and the 7th elementary school science textbooks. For this study, science textbooks and teacher's guidebooks from the 3rd to the 6th grade were analyzed. In this research the science process skills are divided by basic process skills(BPS) and integrated process skills(IPS). The BPS is composed of observing, classifying, measuring, predicting and inferring skill, which are 5 subcategories. The IPS is composed of problem cognition, formulating hypothesis, controlling variables, transforming data, interpreting data, drawing result, and generalization, which are 7 subcategories. The results found in the analysis of science process skills in the 6th and 7th science textbooks are as follows: 1. The percentage of the BPS was increased, but the IPS was decreased in the 7th than the 6th. 2. The percentage of the IPS was higher than the BPS in the 6th science textbooks, but the BPS was higher than IPS in lower grade and the IPS was higher than the BPS in higher grade in the 7th textbooks. 3. Observing and problem cognition skill were most dominant in the 6th and 7th science textbooks. 4. The percentages of observing(24.8%), classifying(5.4%), measuring(5.6%), inferring(6.0%) in the BPS and interpreting data(4.4%) in the IPS were increased, but predicting(3.8%), formulating hypothesis(0.5%), controlling variables( 1.8%), transforming data( 1.2%), drawing result(0.8%) and generalization(0.9%) skills were decreased in the 7th. And teaching methods suggested in the curriculum are as follows: the percentages of learning by observation(19.2%) and role play(0.1 %) were decreased, but learning by experiment(6.2%), learning by discussion(2.0%), learning by investigation(4.6%) and creative learning(6,4%) were increased in the 7th than the 6th. In conclusion, it was found that the basic process skills were emphasized in the 7th science textbooks than the 6th and the science process skills in the science textbooks of the 7th curriculum were distributed by the grade level of the elementary children.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.347-358
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to research on the professional development of pre-service chemistry teachers in terms of personal practical knowledge(PPK), and draw a discussion for pre-chemistry teacher education. A reflective discussion through a Community of Practice(CoP) activity has been conducted with 5 pre-service chemistry teachers studying in a college of education located in Seoul. The analysis of the results reveals that 'Subject-matter knowledge' is leaning toward massive chemical contents, 'Curriculum knowledge' is below the level of selecting, analyzing, and applying curriculum materials. 'Instruction knowledge', especially the knowledge of chemistry experiment and research, is not enough to lead secondary students' scientific experiment. 'Milieu of school knowledge' is stunted in growth for the reason of communication-deficiency between a college of education and a community, and among education- related groups. 'Self-knowledge' has been diminished not only because there is a bad influence from college classmates not wanting to be a teacher, but also a lack of communication in the chemistry-education department which can make pre-teachers' belief strong. In conclusion, it is especially needed for the chemistry-education department to strengthen pre-teachers' 'Self-knowledge' in order to develop PPK. This study suggests operating 'a professional community' that has a periodic meeting with pre-service teachers, teachers, professors, community people, education practitioners, and researchers. In addition, it would be effective for increasing pre-teachers' PPK to reconsider depth and direction of 'Subject-matter knowledge', to give an opportunity to examine curriculum materials critically and reorganize them, to improve the course of chemistry experimental subject to the way of improving pre-teachers' leadership in chemistry inquiry experiment, and to raise the quality of educational service activities.