• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.755-765
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• 2019

This study aims to develop the scales to measure the innovation configurations of Science. Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) from the perspective of elementary school teachers and investigates the effect of the innovation configurations and related environmental factors on the usage levels of STEAM based on the newly developed scales for the innovation configurations of STEAM. The scales for the innovation configurations of STEAM are based on analyzing the various previous studies and in-depth interviews and consist of four sub-configurations: The 'Preparation,' 'Design,' 'Implementation,' and 'Evaluation.' The innovation configurations of STEAM was investigated with the developed scales through 266 teachers who are leading STEAM school teachers, are involved in STEAM research group, or are implementing STEAM in general schools. The final 19 questionnaires for the scale of the innovation configuration of STEAM are confirmed with exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis. In order to examine the relationship between the innovation configurations and levels of use, the direct relationship between four sub-configurations and the usage levels of STEAM and the effect of environmental factors on the innovation configuration and the usage levels of STEAM have been conducted and their interactions are considered. The results show that 'Implementation' in the innovation configurations of STEAM and 'STEAM training experience' are most important factors to improve the usage levels of STEAM for elementary school teachers. It implies that the scales are very helpful in improving as well as figuring out the current innovation configurations of STEAM.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.1329-1342
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• 2013

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between the change of beginning teachers' beliefs about a lesson and that of teaching practice and argument-based inquiry using science writing. Participants were three science teachers (A, B, and C) from different middle schools. Classroom observation and interview data were collected and transcribed for analysis. A Summary Writing test was also administered to examine whether there was an improvement in students' learning. The results indicated that the interaction between the teachers and their students developed, which is concluded as an improvement in the teaching practice. Teacher A and B also reported that teacher-student interaction had improved. Teacher A and C came to understand that argument-based inquiry using science writing classes constituted learner-centered instruction. The result from the Summary Writing Test showed the impact of the changes in teaching practice and in teachers' awareness of students' learning as well as produced meaningfully higher scores than compared groups on the rhetorical structure of all the specific areas in teacher A's school and on the scientific concept at B and C's schools.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.316-330
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• 2008

During the past two decades or so, science (or scientific or scientific & technological) culture has become one of the main themes not only of policy makers but also of science educators. Although, the idea of science culture has been taken as a desirable goal, there is little agreement about what it means and how to measure it. Particularly in Korea, there has been a rapid growth of science culture projects and programs, either by governmental or non-governmental, but with little systemic monitoring and evaluation for its practice. The purpose of this study is, thus, to explore a model of measuring science culture and develop a comprehensive indicator system for it. We reviewed many literatures on definitions of science culture and the surveys for related terms, particularly, of recent national and international surveys (e.g. US Science and Engineering Indicators, Eurobarometer, Japanese Science and Technology Indicators). Based on this review, a model for science culture is proposed and then used to define the Science Culture Indicators (SCI). This model encompasses two dimensions(i.e. individual and social), which are further divided into two aspects (i.e. potential and practice). Each dimension is expected to represent citizen literacy of and national infrastructure of science culture respectively. Each category in this $2{\times}2$ matrix is further divided into several sub-categories. The discussion concerning how the model and the indicators can be used to check the states of science culture at social as well as individual levels will be given with some concrete examples, such as indicators particularly related to science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.15-28
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes of students' modeling ability in terms of 'meta-modeling knowledge' and 'modeling practice' through co-construction of scientific model. Co-construction of scientific model instructions about astronomy were given to 41 middle-school students. The students were given a before and after instruction modeling ability tests. The results show that students' 'meta-modeling knowledge' has changed into a more scientifically advanced thinking about models and modeling after the instruction. Students were able to be aware that 'they could express their thoughts using models', 'many models could be used to explain a single phenomena' and 'scientific models may change' through co-construction modeling process. The change in the 'modeling practice' of the students was divided into four cases (the level improving, the level lowering, the high-level maintaining, the low-level maintaining) depending on the change of pre-posttest levels. The modeling practice level of most students has improved through the instruction. These changes were influenced by co-construction process that provides opportunities to compete and compare their models to other models. Meanwhile, the modeling practice level of few students has lowered or maintained low level. Science score of these students at school was relatively high and they thought that the goal of learning is to get a higher score in exams by finding the correct answer. This means that students who were kept well under traditional instruction may feel harder to adapt to co-construction of scientific model instruction, which focuses more on the process of constructing knowledge based on evidences.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

This study aims to explore students' epistemic practices and considerations, which are explained as underlying epistemic thoughts that guide their epistemic practices, during argumentation in science classrooms. We also investigated how collaborative reflection facilitated the development of such epistemic considerations. Two seventh-grade classes participated in this study by engaging in argumentation activities and collaborative reflection after classes. A group with students' change in epistemic aspects and the influence of collaborative reflection clearly revealed from their practices was chosen as a focus group. We recorded their class discussions and collaborative reflections with the researchers. Transcriptions of the recordings and checklists we collected during the collaborative reflections were used for analysis. Results showed evident changes in the students' epistemic considerations and practices and four factors facilitating such developments were identified. First, the researcher facilitating the students to recognize each other as collaborators during collaborative reflection led development of epistemic considerations on "audience using the knowledge products." Second, the collaborative reflection facilitated construction of context for peer interactions where the students encouraged each other to participate in the discussion, resulting in the development of other students' epistemic considerations on "justifications in knowledge products." Third, the items provided on the checklists explicitly delineated expectations on their practices in argumentation, also facilitating development of epistemic considerations. Lastly, the students' imitation of the researcher's pattern of discourse facilitated construction of causal explanation and development of epistemic considerations on "nature of the knowledge products." This study will contribute to the construction of strategies that develop students' epistemic considerations and productive epistemic practices in argumentation.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.197-203
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyse the characteristics of domestic scientific inquiry related research topics and consequently provide fundamental data and suggestions from a teaching method point of view. The study subjects was collected from the initial issue to the february 2016 issue of academic journals and using the keyword that 'inquiry', 'scientific inquiry'. The framework of Professional factors of teaching practice was developed and used for selecting subjects of study. The selected study subjects were analyzed according to the framework. And Topics of study were categorized and analyzed. The topic was thoroughly debated between 2 science education experts and 4 doctorate candidates within a specialist workshop. Results show that scientific education environments, scientific inquiry evaluation and teaching ability was studied less than education process and textbook analysis, scientific inquiry designing and application. And The research on the topics indicated that most research is concentrated in specific areas. It is postulated that additional research into scientific education environments, scientific inquiry evaluation and teaching ability would further develop the teachers' teaching abilities and enable a more successful science lesson in the classroom.

• Journal of KIISE:Computer Systems and Theory
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.421-431
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• 2004

This paper presents adaptive execution techniques that determine whether parallelized loops are executed in parallel or sequentially in order to maximize performance. The adaptation and performance estimation algorithms are implemented in a compiler preprocessor. The preprocessor inserts code that automatically determines at compile-time or at run-time the way the parallelized loops are executed. Using a set of standard numerical applications written in Fortran77 and running them with our techniques on a distributed shared memory multiprocessor machine (SGI Origin2000), we obtain the performance of our techniques, on average, 26%, 20%, 16%, and 10% faster than the original parallel program on 32, 16, 8, and 4 processors, respectively. One of the applications runs even more than twice faster than its original parallel version on 32 processors.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.543-563
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• 2020

This study explores how the teaching practices of two teachers changed during scientific modeling classes. It also aims to understand these changes in terms of the teachers' modeling pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development. The study participants were two elementary school teachers and their fifth-grade students. The teachers taught eight lessons of scientific modeling classes about the human body. The data analysis was conducted for lessons 1-2 and 7-8, which best showed the change in teaching practice. The two teachers' teaching practices were analyzed in terms of feedback frequency, feedback content, and the time allocated for each stage of model generation, evaluation, and modification. Teacher A led the evaluation and modification stages in a teacher-driven way throughout the classes. In terms of feedback, teacher A mainly used answer evaluation feedback in lesson 1-2; however, in lesson 7-8, the feedback content changed to thought-provoking feedback. Meanwhile, teacher B mostly led a teacher-driven model evaluation and modification in lesson 1-2; however, in lesson 7-8, she let her students lead the model evaluation and modification stages and helped them develop models through various feedbacks. The analysis shows that these teaching changes were related to the development of modeling PCK components. Furthermore, the two teachers' modeling PCK differed in teaching orientation, in understanding the modeling stages, and in recognizing the value of modeling, suggesting the importance of these in modeling teaching practice. This study can help improve the understanding of modeling classes by revealing the relationship between teaching practices and modeling PCK.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.69-85
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to explore teachers' responsive moves that affect students' argumentation practices, and to propose responsive teaching strategies in argumentation-based science classroom. Two teachers, who have not implemented argumentation in their classes, and 57 students, participated in this study. We recorded and transcribed their classes and interviews for the analysis. According to grounded theory approach, we categorized the teachers' responsive moves as focused on either structural or dialogical aspects of argumentation, and qualitatively analyzed their responsive teaching practices in classes. We discovered that the teachers mostly responded to structural rather than dialogical aspects of argumentation, particularly during the students' small-group discussions. This was mainly due to their instructional goals, which focused on the structural aspect of argumentation, and the limited time available for supporting small-groups. Regarding the structural aspects, those responsive moves that explored the students' thinking or facilitated their reasoning helped them to share their thinking and justify their arguments further with recognition of learning goals in the argumentation activities. Regarding the dialogical aspects, which were seen mostly in whole-class discussions, the moves that underlined similarities and differences between arguments, facilitated the sharing of a small-group's arguments with the entire class, or asked a specific student to evaluate the arguments were notable. These moves supported clarification of various small-groups' arguments, which led to reconstruction of coherent argument through evaluation and rebuttal of these arguments, consequentially facilitating dialogical interactions. Based on these results, we proposed responsive teaching strategies in an argumentation-based science classroom.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.947-957
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• 2016

Today, in accordance with emphasizing the importance of character education, science educators have tried to implement character education in the field of science education. Therefore, this research aims to confirm the possibility of the realization of 'Practice Centered Mechanism of Manifesting Character' developed on the basis of character education theory through the application of the NABI Program based on Nature-Study. For this, the NABI program was applied to 24 3rd grade students of an elementary school for a period of ten months. Qualitative data was collected like students' reports, journals, and video recording of the classes. This data was classified into 'value, judgment, action,' the steps of 'Practice Centered Mechanism of Manifesting Character,' and text was written by interpreting the data. The research resulted in the following: First, students formed 'value' by making a connection with the objects. And the various values - individual, interpersonal, social, ecological, and spiritual - are formed according to the type of objects with which the students felt a connection to. Second, students need to judge the problems of the real world at the 'judgment' step. Third, at the 'action' step, students practice moral behavior in relation to the sympathy or feeling they felt with the objects that they made a connection to. In conclusion, 'Practice Centered Mechanism of Manifesting Character' can be realized through the application of the NABI Program. The NABI Program can be a definite way to implement character education in the field of science education.