• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.185-200
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• 2024

This study explored the changes in the elementary science teaching expertise of teachers who participated in an in-school professional learning community for elementary science instructional research. Six elementary school teachers from grades 4, 5, and 6 at an 18-class S elementary school in a medium-sized city in Chungcheongbuk-do conducted collaborative instructional research on elementary science lessons as part of an in-school professional learning community, which was held 26 times over 7 months in 2020. During the professional learning community, video and audio recordings of the activities, research lessons, course materials, and professional learning community reflection activities were collected for analysis. The collected data were analyzed using qualitative research methods; data processing, reading, note-taking, description, classification, interpretation, reporting, and visualization; and the instructional professionalism elements were extracted based on the instructional professionalism framework. In the early professional learning community activity stages, the participating teachers first discussed their teaching perspectives, their experiences, and their goals for teaching science, which resulted in a selection of research questions. The teachers then collaboratively designed and implemented research lessons for each grade level, after which lesson reflections were conducted. The teachers' abilities to engage in qualitative reflection on the research questions improved after each reflection iteration. It was found that this professional learning community collaborative lesson study experience positively contributed to teaching expertise development. Based on the study findings, the implications for using professional learning communities to improve elementary teachers' science teaching expertise are given.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.439-448
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• 2022

The goal of this study is to develop a protocol that can be used for the purpose of developing inquiry class expertise in science teacher PLC, and to explore the possibility of field application of the developed protocol through test application with in-service teachers. PLC protocol for science inquiry class, consisting of five stages, was developed and applied sequentially to six participating teachers. In order to check the applicability of the protocol, the participating teachers wrote a reflection journal for each stage, and after the completion of the five-stage protocol, the participants' perceptions of the protocol were investigated through a group interview. The results are as follows: first, a protocol for enhancing science teachers' professionalism of inquiry classes was composed and developed in five stages such as (1) Revealing ideas about science inquiry classes, (2) Sharing science inquiry class experiences, (3) Looking together at students' scientific inquiry results, (4) Building literacy for science inquiry teaching, and (5) making science inquiry lesson plans. Second, the possibility of extensive application of the PLC protocol developed in this study was confirmed through the reflection journal and post-interview analysis results of the participants. According to the participating teachers, the protocol helped the systematic operation of PLC and teachers' participation. In addition, by experiencing the five-stage protocol, the teachers had an opportunity to reflect on their inquiry classes and ponder for improvement, and gained confidence in inquiry classes. Based on the research results, ways to develop and utilize the PLC protocol for science teachers were suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.595-609
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the experiences of teachers who participated in the development of online science class videos in the context of covid-19, their perception of online science class, and the characteristics of the online science class content developed by teachers. A survey and interviews were conducted with ten elementary school teachers who made online science class videos themselves. Also the characteristics of the online science class were investigated by analyzing the online science class video produced by the participants. As a result, participants in the study recognized the lack of production time, difficulty in filming and editing, concerns over misconceptions, the problem of solving copyrights for existing materials, and the burden of external disclosure. Although it was a teacher who had experience producing online science class video contents, no research participants actively answered the merits of online science class. On the other hand, the study participants cited that the shortcomings of online science classes were that students had fewer opportunities for inquiry and lack of communication or interaction. In particular, these shortcomings were thought to have a great influence on the quality of online science classes, especially in making inquiry classes difficult. Some teachers took a negative view that online science classes could not completely replace face-to-face classes. However, if multiple teachers are presented with supplementary teaching activities that complement the content-based online teaching method, the method of combining online science classes and face-to-face classes is not. Through the analysis of the contents of the online science class, the introduction and arrangement steps of the online science class were similar to the process of the face-to-face science class, but the inquiry step and the conceptual explanation step showed a big difference from the face-to-face science class.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.199-213
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to find out what pre-service teachers' views of as a good science class in evaluating class demonstrations. The study was conducted on 32 students in the second year of college who are attending teacher training schools located in central region, Korea. 32 pre-service teachers demonstrated the class with a group of 2 students, and a total of 16 lessons were demonstrated. They also evaluated the class by participating in 15 lessons except ones own class. Therefore all the collected evaluation papers were 480 sheets. This study analyze this evaluation paper and find out the good science class that earth science pre-service teachers think. As a result, the pre-service teachers' views of good science class analyzed by 3 categories. The three categories were 'Highly Engaged Instruction', 'Well-structured class design', and 'Qualitatively superior class materials'. In other words, the pre-service teachers' views that well-structured class design and active interaction were the requirements of good science class. This study confirmed that pre-service teachers can draw images of good science class through experience of class demonstration and class evaluation.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.52-67
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of educational science magic program on creative problem solving ability, inquiry skill, and scientific attitude in elementary school science. For this, two classes of 3th grade were chosen in the J elementary school located in Suwon city as the experimental class(30 students) and the comparative class(30 students). The two groups were selected through a diagnostic examining program. Instruction using educational science magic program was applied to the experimental class. The results of this study were as follows. 1. the creative problem solving ability of the experimental class has statistically meaningful differences and improved, compared with the comparative class(p<.05). 2. the scientific inquiry skill was improved, but it has no meaningful difference statistically. However, science tasks applied educational science magic program had valuable significance to ability of measure(p<.05). 3. the scientific attitude score also was improved, but it has no meaningful difference statistically. However, science tasks applied educational science magic program had valuable significance to endurance(p<.05). 4. the results of survey showed that educational science magic program influence students' interests and concerns in science, class participation, pleasure in class, and comprehension of what is said in class positively. Therefore, a educational science magic program applied in this study might be useful to improve the creative problem solving ability, interests and concerns in science, class participation, pleasure in class, and comprehension of what is said in class.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.379-392
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• 2018

This study aims to explore science inquiry teaching efficacy that middle school science teachers implementing science practice-based teaching for one year recognized as necessary for teaching science through science practice. Examining interview data in this study, science inquiry teaching efficacy was identified in both planning and implementing in the areas of managing efficacy, instructional strategy efficacy, and content knowledge efficacy. In planning science inquiry instruction, there is science curriculum management efficacy under managing efficacy. There are the efficacy of outlining science inquiry lesson, efficacy of organizing science practice, efficacy of questioning for science practice, and efficacy of understanding student science practice under instructional strategy efficacy. Under the content knowledge efficacy are contents and science practice understanding efficacy and core ideas efficacy. In implementing science inquiry instruction, managing efficacy includes science practice time management efficacy and science practice classroom culture efficacy. Instructional strategy efficacy includes efficacy of motivating student science practice, efficacy of responding to student science practice, efficacy of stimulating student active thinking, efficacy of student active engagement in argumentation, efficacy of evaluating student participation. No content knowledge efficacy have been identified in implementing science inquiry instruction.

• 한국지구과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.02a
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• pp.193-200
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• 2005

I conducted a pretest on the students' preference before I incorporated Cooperative learning in five classes of second grade students, at a girl's middle school which is located in Gimje city. After ten weeks of Cooperative school work, the students took a post test with the same questions as the pretest. The result of this method greatly impacted on the change of students' scientific preference. It means that the students showed their positive awareness of and the participation in the science class in comparison with the classes before they were taught this new style of education. However it is difficult to distinguish the differences of their scientific attitude on the recognition about the scientists and the habit which they think scientifically. This resulted from a short period of ten weeks of learning which is not sufficient to carry out the study strategy effectively. Surveys of the students on Cooperative learning indicates that the middle level students prefer this method unlike the higher or lower level. I am convinced that they can learn from the students of higher level and are able to help the lower level with the interaction through Cooperative learning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.279-288
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• 2006

We incorporated cooperative learning focusing on the 'Crustal Deformation' in five classes of second grade students, at an all-girls' middle school of Gimje city. The groups of cooperative learning were composed of four members of students each, according to the heterogeneous level. We conducted a pretest on the students' preference before incorporating the cooperative learning. After ten weeks of cooperative school work, the students took a post test with the same questions as the pretest. The result of this method greatly impacted the change on the students' scientific preference. It means that the students showed a positive change in their awareness of and participation in science classes, compared to before. However it is difficult to distinguish the differences in their scientific attitude on the recognition about scientists and habits which make them think scientifically. This resulted from the short period of ten weeks which is not sufficient to carry out the study strategy effectively. Surveys of the students on cooperative learning indicates that the middle level students prefer this method unlike the higher or lower level students. we are convinced that they can learn from the students of higher level and are able to help the lower level with the interaction through cooperative learning. According to the result of the survey, the method has some weaknesses; it arouses the high noise levels and consequent disturbance due to verbal interaction and of conflicts due to disagreements when they discuss the process. On the contrary, advantages are developing the students's interest in science class, helping them to learn, creating positive participation in class, and fostering mutual collaboration with other students through cooperative learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.555-562
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• 2005

This study investigated the effects of cooperative learning environments in conceptual change instruction upon students' conception, achievement, learning motivation, attitude toward science instruction, and perception of involvement. Two classes of 8th graders at a co-ed middle school were assigned to the treatment and the comparison groups. They were taught about density, boiling point, freezing point, and solubility for 11 class hours. The treatment group's learning environment involved cooperative conceptual change instructions while the comparison group's environment incorporated individual conceptual change instructions. Mann-Whitney test results revealed that the scores of the conception and achievement test for the treatment group were significantly higher than those for the comparison group. The perceptions of involvement for the treatment group were more positive than those for the comparison group. The scores of the learning motivation test for the treatment group were found to be significantly higher than those for the comparison group based on a two-way ANCOVA analysis. However, attitudes toward science instruction were not found to be significantly different between the two groups.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.854-869
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated secondary science teachers' internalization of constructivistic science teaching who participated in a collaborative program between teachers and researchers designed by researchers according to constructivist views. The program consisted of lecture, workshop, and small group activities. New trends in science education and framework for science teaching were introduced during lectures, and understanding about the framework were deepened by analyzing school science classes recorded during workshops. In small group activities, participating teachers and researchers cooperated to design science lesson plans using science teaching frameworks. Five secondary science teachers participated in collaborative workshops. Collaborative programs were video-taped. Semi-structured interviews were conducted before and after workshops. All data recorded were transcribed and analyzed. In the process of internalization, participating teachers attended on different parts. Various and discernable factors such as there own background, beliefs, values, and school context produced tensions with or facilitated internalization of constructivistic science teaching. Teaching experiences and student understanding affected teachers' lesson planning activities. Teachers also showed different understandings on inquiry, application, and model from the framework, and they interpret those concepts in the framework based on their prior understanding. They perceived that too much content should be dealt within relatively limited time. Therefore, they tended to separate science class into two parts when developing science lessons: explaining science content by lecture and science laboratory as a constructivistic activity. The results of the study provide meaningful implications to the constructivist teacher education and professional development.