• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.399-413
• /
• 2004

In this study, a survey was conducted of students of elementary through college on their conceptions of phenomenon related with dissolution, saturation, and extraction. The teaching strategies of elementary and secondary teachers related to dissolution phenomena were also investigated. Most of elementary and secondary school students thought of dissolution as a phenomenon in which particles broke into the spaces between other particles. This explanation called 'space conception' can be sought in elementary school science textbooks. Some of high school students also had this type of thought. A concept of dissolution phenomenon as 'hydration through attraction of solvent and solute' was held by most of students of 11th, 12th grade, and college. This explanation called 'attraction concept' can be sought in high school chemistry textbooks for 11th and 12th grade. But many students of elementary through college used analogies and models related to 'space conception' when they tried to explain the dissolution phenomena. This indicates that the 'attraction concept' was not firmly established in the students' cognition. 90% of elementary school teachers thought and taught dissolution as a phenomenon in which two different size particles were mixing together like as mixing beans and millets. The model does not represent the attractions among solvent-solvent particles, solvent-solute particles, and solute-solute particles. This model only represents the space size effect (smaller size particles fitting into the spaces of larger size particles). Half of the secondary school teachers also had 'space conception' and only 20% of the teachers had 'attraction concept' Many teachers who had 'attraction concept' used to represent explanation related to 'space conception' for teaching dissolution.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.8 no.6
• /
• pp.365-369
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate kindergarten teachers' perception and needs about radiation understanding education for young children's safety due to radiation exposure. This study analysed the 160 questionnaire forms out of 300 kindergarten teachers in the region of C and G city. The findings of this study were as follows: First, kindergarten teachers' understanding level about radiation was low, general harmfulness and the harmfulness of exposure to radiation is high. Second, kindergarten teachers' radiation understanding education was low, but kindergarten teachers' needs about radiation understanding education was high. In conclusion, this study suggested that kindergarten teacher education are required to improve the radiation understanding level of kindergarten teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.600-608
• /
• 2011

The ultimate goal of instruction is for learners to understand contents they have to learn in class. Therefore, shedding light is needed on the characteristics of understanding required by teachers and perceived by students when class is conducted for the purpose of understanding. To do this, 87 middle school teachers were requested to write down questions they asked to improve the understanding of learners in 'reproduction and genesis' unit. They were categorized according to Wiggins & McTighe's six aspects of understanding and a questionnaire was developed based on the data. A survey was conducted on 90 teachers and 370 ninth-grade students. The findings of this study were as follows: First, the teachers demanded explaining, interpreting and perspective a lot, but applying, empathy and self-knowledge were scarcely required. Second, the teachers demanded explaining the most, and the students as well. The next aspect of understanding in both groups was interpreting, followed by perspective, applying, empathy and self-knowledge. There were significant differences among the opinions of the students according to gender (p<0.05). Third, the students persevered explaining, applying and self-knowledge the same way as the teachers demanded, but not for interpreting, perspective and empathy. This study is expected to provide some information to achieve the instruction objectives of understanding successfully.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
• /
• v.16 no.3
• /
• pp.499-518
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the preservice secondary mathematics teachers understanding and dimensions of knowledge about definition of irrational numbers and irrational numbers and operations. I adopted a framework consisting of formal dimensions, intuitive numbers, algorithmic dimentions suggested by Tirosh et al.(1998) by adding instrumental dimension for his study. I surveyed 65 preservice secondary mathematics teachers who are in bachelor program and post-bachelor program for teacher certificate by using a questionnaire suggested by Sirotic and Zazkis(2007). The results of this study suggest that 83.1% of the participants gave correct answers in definitions of irrational numbers. 43% of the preservice secondary teachers gave correct answers in adding with irrational numbers. Also 91% of the preservice teachers gave correct answers in multiplying irrational numbers. The preservice teachers appeared to understand irrational numbers and operations at formal dimension. More than half of the preservice teachers gave incorrect answers in adding irrational numbers and a few participants gave incorrect in multiplying irrational numbers. The preservice teachers seemed to understand irrational numbers and operations at intuitive or instrumental dimension. The results also suggest that the preservice secondary mathematics teachers have incorrect understanding about irrational numbers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.6
• /
• pp.901-917
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to develop the questionnaire on pre-service elementary teachers' recognition of self-understanding and change capacity for science education and to investigate their recognitions with it. At the beginning of the study, we made a tool to investigate the self-understanding and change capacity of pre-service elementary teachers through literature review and discussions. The former half of the questionnaire was related to self-understanding with factors such as 'self-concept clarity,' 'career identity' and 'self-efficacy:' 'self-understanding as a pre-service elementary teacher' (12 items) and 'self-understanding as a pre-service elementary science teacher' (12 items). Its latter half was about the change capacity with factors such as 'change sensitivity,' 'goal consciousness,' 'collaboration,' 'reflection,' and 'mastery.' It consisted of three parts: 'general change capacity,' 'change capacity as a pre-service elementary teacher' and 'change capacity as a pre-service elementary science teacher' with 17 items, respectively. With this tool, we surveyed 153 pre-service elementary teachers. The results are as follows: First, pre-service elementary teachers have a positive recognition about self-understanding and change capacity, but the recognition of self-understanding and change capacity as pre-service elementary science teachers were relatively less positive. Second, factors of self-understanding and change capacity as pre-service elementary science teachers have a significant correlation with each other. Especially, there was a high correlation between 'self-efficacy' of self-understanding and 'goal consciousness' and 'mastery' of change capacity. Based on these results, some implications for self-understanding and change capacity related to science education were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.50 no.5
• /
• pp.374-384
• /
• 2006

this study, the teaching methods of three science teachers for lead-iodide precipitation reaction experiment were compared. The difference of 9th grade students' understanding was searched according to the science teachers teaching styles, also. Among the three teachers, Teacher A taught students based on the science textbook and allowed students to think themselves and to get out conclusion by the experiment. Teacher B and Teacher C gave students a lot of explanations related to interpretation of the experiment. The percentage of no response on the experiment report of Teacher A was higher than those of Teacher B and Teacher C. But the students of Teacher B and Teacher C tended to have limited thoughts because of the teachers explanations. In spite of the difference, it was common phenomenon that few students understood concepts through the experiment. A lot of students were interested in the experiment, but it was hard to understand Law of definite proportions according to the experiment.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.221-232
• /
• 2019

Despite the continuing emphasis on the importance of scientific inquiry, research studies have commented that authentic scientific inquiry is not implemented in school science classroom due to a lack of understanding of scientific inquiry by the teacher. The purpose of this study is to investigate understanding of scientific inquiry developed by beginning teachers through open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. They voluntarily set up the goal of inquiry-based classes, planned inquiry-based classes, shared and reflected their teaching experience in professional learning community for more than a year. It appeared that participant teachers understood scientific inquiry as 'what scientists do', 'process how students do science' and 'science teaching methods.' All teacher participants described scientific inquiry as 'what scientists do', and understood 'the process of doing scientific investigation to solve problems related to natural phenomenon' and 'the process of constructing scientific knowledge using scientific practice.' Two participant teachers seemed to understand scientific inquiry as a 'teaching method' based on the understanding of the process how scientists or students do science. Participant teachers had a limited understanding of scientific inquiry that it is the same as laboratory works or hands-on activities prior to engaging the professional learning community, but they developed an understanding of scientific inquiry that there are various ways to conduct scientific inquiry after engaging in professional learning community.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.5 no.2
• /
• pp.223-240
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of division through open-ended problems focused on the following perspectives in understanding division : connectedness between procedural and conceptual knowledge as well as the knowledge of units. Results indicates that the preservice elementary teachers showed low level of understanding of division such as the making word problem including division of fractions and the identification of the units in division operation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.1
• /
• pp.29-40
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore how a high school science teacher (Teacher E) shifted her understanding and facilitation of scientific modeling through participation in a professional learning community (PLC) for over a year. Based on socially situated theory of learning, I focused on examining Teacher E's frames about scientific modeling from her social interactions. Teacher E participated in her school-based PLC over a year and collaborated with other science teachers, coaches, and researchers to improve science instruction. I qualitatively explored her participation in 6 full-day professional learning opportunities-studios-where the PLC members collectively planned, implemented, and debriefed modeling-based lessons. Especially, I focused on two Studios (Studio 2, 6) where Teacher E became the host teacher and implemented the lessons. I also examined her classroom teaching in those Studios. To understand how the PLC inquiry affected the shifts observed in Teacher E's understanding and practice, I explored how the inquiry evolved over the 6 Studios. Findings suggest that in Studio 2, Teacher E viewed students' role in scientific modeling as to fill out the worksheet with "correct" answers. Meanwhile, in Studio 6, she focused on helping students collaborate to construct explanatory models of phenomena using evidence. The PLC inquiry, focused on supporting students' construction of evidence-based explanations and collaboration in scientific modeling, seemed to promote the shifts observed in Teacher E's understanding and facilitation of scientific modeling. These findings can inform educational researchers and practitioners who aim to promote teachers' professional learning to support students' epistemic practices.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.147-162
• /
• 2007

This paper reports an analysis of 19 Chinese and Korean middles school mathematics teachers' understanding of division by fractions. The study analyzes the teachers' responses to the teaching task of generating a real-world situation representing the meaning of division by fractions. The findings of this study suggests that the teachers' conceptual models of division are dominated by the partitive model of division with whole numbers as equal sharing. The dominance of partitive model of division constraints the teachers' ability to generate real-world representations of the meaning of division by fractions, such that they are able to teach only the rule-based algorithm (invert-and-multiply) for handling division by fractions.