• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-89
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• 2004

The article attempts to suggest s a direction of science education in terms of development of creative human resources based on discussion about scientific literacy and scientific creativity. Students are supposed to develop scientific attitude, inquiry skills, problem solving ability through science learning, and be prepared for the 21st century of rapidly developing age. The paper introduces definitions of scientific literacy and scientific creativity and discuss their meanings within science education in general as well as for the gifted. To enhance students' scientific creativity, science education should strengthen content of science related to technology, integrated science content, personal and social views, social inquiry for problem solving. In particular, science education for the gifted should emphasize students' holistic views in interpreting data, ability to connect artistic aspects to science process, intuitions to explain scientific phenomena and pursue of personal satisfaction. It may be said that science education and science education for the gifted is realized when students have opportunities to experience such elements in their science learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.407-417
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the roles of classroom activities in science lessons and student learning motivation in achieving students' scientific competencies, and to suggest implications for science lessons to develop scientific competencies. For this, based on the PISA 2015 data of Korean high school students, we analyzed how classroom activities in science influenced students' scientific competencies through learning motivation variables. As a result of the path analysis, the activities emphasizing interaction and a link to real life predicted intrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation, and science efficacy significantly. On the other hand, the activities that emphasize the student-led inquiry process did not show any effect on learning motivation. In addition, the higher the motivation to learn the science, the higher their scores in three scientific competencies: explaining phenomenon scientifically, evaluating and designing scientific inquiry, and interpreting data and evidence scientifically. The practices of school science lessons indirectly influenced the achievement of scientific competence through learning motivation. Specifically, the activities emphasizing interaction influenced achieving scientific competencies through intrinsic motivation, and the activities emphasizing linkage to real life influenced it through all learning motivation variables. Finally, we discussed some implications for the roles and practices of school science class for enhancing students' scientific competencies.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.591-604
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• 2023

This study investigated the impact of elementary science classes using metaverse on the academic achievement, positive experience in science, and digital literacy of elementary school students. In addition, we examined their perceptions. The respondents were derived from two classes in the sixth grade at an elementary school in Gyeonggi-do, who were selected designated as the experimental (n=29 students) and comparative (n=29) groups, respectively. Across five lessons under the "Plant Structure and Function" unit, the experimental group conducted science classes using the metaverse, whereas the comparative group conducted general textbook-based classes. To investigate instructional effects, the study performed ANCOVA using the pre-test score as a covariate, a survey on the perception of students about science classes using metaverse, and conducted interviews with a number of subjects. The result demonstrated that science classes using metaverse exerted no significant effect on scientific academic achievement and digital literacy. However, the study observed a statistically significant effect on science learning emotion which is a sub-element of positive experiences in science. The students were positively aware of science classes using metaverse in terms of interesting and diverse activities, and free expression of inquiry results and perceived the instability of smart devices and network connections as regrettable. Finally, the study posed the implications of the use of metaverse in science classes.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.92-111
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• 2020

The 2015 revised science curriculum and NGSS (Next Generation Science Standard) suggest computational thinking as an inquiry skill or competency. Particularly, concern in computational thinking has increased since the Ministry of Education has required software education since 2014. However, there is still insufficient discussion on how to integrate computational thinking in science education. Therefore, this study aims to prepare a way to integrate computational thinking elements into scientific inquiry by analyzing the related literature. In order to achieve this goal, we summarized various definitions of the elements of computational thinking and analyzed general problem solving process and scientific inquiry process to develop and suggest the model. We also considered integrated problem solving cases from the computer science field and summarized the elements of the Computational Thinking-Scientific Inquiry (CT-SI) model. We asked scientists to explain their research process based on the elements. Based on these explanations from the scientists, we developed 'Problem-finding' CT-SI model and 'Problem solving' CT-SI model. These two models were reviewed by scientists. 'Problem-finding' model is relevant for selecting information and analyzing problems in the theoretical research. 'Problem solving' is suitable for engineering problem solving process using a general research process and engineering design. In addition, two teachers evaluated whether these models could be used in the secondary school curriculum. The models we developed in this study linked with the scientific inquiry and this will help enhance the practices of 'collecting, analyzing and interpreting data,' 'use of mathematical thinking and computer' suggested in the 2015 revised curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.198-209
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• 2011

In this study, pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking in their journal writing was investigated. To do this, the authors used pre-service science teachers' journal writing abilities, wherein they not only reported data and result formally, but also wrote their feelings and reflections about an inquiry-based physics experiment they performed. Pre-service science teachers' writings were decomposed into sentences and each sentence was analyzed into a framework with 4 dimensions: knowledge, procedure, orientation and attitude. Reflective thinking in knowledge dimension included reflection on what they know before the experiment, what they still do not know and what they learned from the experiment. Reflective thinking in procedure dimension included recalls of experiences about general experimental procedures and specific experimental skill. Reflective thinking in orientation dimension included their views about the nature of science and science teaching and learning, and reflective thinking in attitude dimension consisted of interests, motives and values about the experiment they performed. While there were some variations in frequency distribution of reflective thinking by the topic of experiments, pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking in journal writings revealed their metacognition on their knowledge and learning, epistemological belief about science and science learning, and affective domain related to experiment. This study can infer that such kind of writing with 'their own language' in an informal way followed by formal 'scientific' reports in a scientific experiment has a significance not only as a mediator representing reflective thinking but also as an instructional activity to facilitate reflective thinking in science learning and teaching.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.135-145
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• 2018

In this study, we investigated the argumentations of group and classroom discussions in socioscientific issues (SSI) discussion classes. Twenty-seven high school students participated in the SSI discussion classes on nuclear power generation. We observed and recorded the classes and also conducted semi-structured interviews. For the analyses, we revised a previous framework that was developed to analyze dialogic argumentations in the context of SSI. The analyses of the results indicated that there were more discourse schemes in the classroom discussions than the group discussions which are related to awareness and openness to multiple perspectives, evidence based reasoning, and on-going inquiry and skepticism. And there were few discourse schemes related to moral and ethical sensitivity in the group and classroom discussions. Various grounds, data, and information were presented in the classroom discussions. Students concentrated on carrying their claims and were not able to sympathize with and accept other opinions. Therefore, there were few discourse schemes to reach consensus. In addition, they perceived classroom discussions as competitive and actively rebutted other claims or grounds. The levels of argumentation were also high in the classroom discussions. The group discussions were held in relaxed atmosphere, and they asked the opponents more for clarification or additional information and evidences. However, classroom discussions were held in serious atmosphere, and they actively queried the validity of the claims or grounds. Based on the results, some suggestions to implement SSI discussion classes were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.79-92
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to develop an inquiry-based argumentation task for use in science teachers' professional development by providing them with the substantial experience of argumentation. To do so, the study has developed an argumentation task by utilizing the experiment on the Charles' Law of gas and revised by applying to eight teachers three times. We have revised the questions by analyzing three issues that have been revealed throughout this process in ways that facilitated teachers' argumentation. The effects of revision have been confirmed by the improvements in teachers' argumentation pattern. Three issues have been identified in developing argumentation tasks for science teachers' professional development and they are as follows: determining the openness of the structure of a question, achieving cognitive conflict and convergence of opinions at the same time, and ways of utilizing various evidence. As the task has been revised in ways that enabled scientific approach to the inquiry topic and facilitated the convergence of various opinions, the participants' argumentation patterns have improved both quantitatively and qualitatively. Meanwhile, the inclusion of an actual experiment has not influence their argumentation, while the observation of experimental data has been used as the core evidence according to the character of the problem. Based on the study's result, we suggest practical implications for developing argumentation tasks for science teachers in more varying contexts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.847-857
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• 2017

This study examined the effect of the Collaborative Problem-Solving for Character Competence (CoProC) instruction model within the context of secondary science education. The participants of this study were comprised of 143 Korean students, each of whom was in the 10th grade spread across four class cohorts. These cohorts were further divided into an experimental group (comprised of 73 students from two different classes), which received the CoProC program; and a control group (70 students from two other classes), which did not. In order to assess the effect of CoProC instruction model upon participants' character competence, we designed and administered a Character Competence Test for participants. The CoProC instruction model consists of 3 fundamental steps: Preparation, Problem-solving, and Evaluation. Key character competence targeted in the CoProC program include caring, collaboration, communication, responsibility, respect, honesty, self-regulation, and the development of positive self-image. Thus, these same qualities were targeted and analyzed in the Character Competence Test, which was administered before and after the CoProC activities. The results show a significant increase in the experimental group's competency for caring, collaboration, responsibility, respect, and self-regulation when compared to the control group. Based on these results, we have found that CoProC instruction model to be an effective teaching intervention toward cultivating character competence in a secondary science education setting.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.45-61
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to explore students' epistemic goals and considerations in designing an experiment task and to investigate how a shift in the students' epistemology affected their argumentation. Four 7th grade students were selected as a focus group. According to the results, when they designed their own experiment, their epistemic goal was 'scientific sense-making' and their epistemic considerations - the perception of the nature of the knowledge product was 'this experiment should explain how something happened', the perception of the justification was 'we need to use our interpretation of the data' and the perception of the audience was 'constructor' - contributed to designing their experiment actively. When students tried to select one argument, their epistemic goal shifted to 'winning a debate', showing 'my experiment is better than the others' with the perception of the audience, 'competitor'. Consequently, students only deprecated the limits of different experiment so that they did not explore the meaning of each experiment design deeply. Eventually, student A's experiment design was selected due to time restrictions. When they elaborated upon their result, their epistemic goal shifted to 'scientific sensemaking', reviewing 'how this experiment design is scientifically valid' through scientific justification - we need justification to make members accept it - acting as 'cooperator'. Consequently, all members engaged in a productive argumentation that led to the development of the group result. This study lays the foundation for future work on understanding students' epistemic goals and considerations to prompt productive argumentation in science classrooms.