• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.1175-1188
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• 2015

The Ministry of Education of Korea announced the university structural reform plans which reduces 160,000 of the university entrance quota during 10 years from January 2014. Because the reduction plans of entrance quota influence regional economy as well as students and universities, naive evidence of the Ministry of Education of Korea is disappointed. In this research, we forecast the total number of the university entrance exam candidate by 2032 including not only third grade high school students but also repeaters according to the 16 metropolises and provinces in Korea. We also forecast the regional university recruiting rate using the forecasts of the total number of the university entrance exam candidates. However, we can not make more realistic results because we can not apply the inter-regional movement of students to the forecast. In order to handle this limitation, we first estimated the rank of the whole 7,277 departments of all universities in Korea and assigned the quotas according to the estimated rank for each departments and then we calculated the local university recruiting rate. The estimated the university recruiting rates of 16 metropolises and provinces can provide more noticeable results of characteristics and problems than that of nationwide.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.374-388
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service physics teachers' perceptions on the physics education major curriculum. We surveyed 15 junior, and 13 senior college students of physics education major in an university in southern part of Korea. Among them, 24 participants(86 %) took the physics 1 course in high school and 22 participants(79 %) chose the physics 1 in their Korea Scholastic Aptitude Test. The responses showed that the most necessary part in pre-service students' learning was the understanding of high school level physics(36 %), and the understanding of introductory level physics(29 %). In the wish list of courses to be open, high school level physics course was ranked first among seven options by 61 % of respondents. Also, there was some concurrence among respondents in opinion of the necessity for understanding introductory physics. Students felt difficulties in understanding it especially owing to the lack of problem solving skill and comprehension. They added that the sufficient explanation of core concepts should be the first action in the innovative plan. Most participants of pre-service physics teachers hoped to have the revised major curriculum which could help their understanding of high school level or introductory level of physics. However, there was a gap of opinions between the group of students with completion of the high school physics 1 & 2 course and those with non-completion of them. The approach of changing major curriculum with consideration of learners' needs was recommended because the number of students with completion of the high school physics course would probably be decreasing rapidly under these circumstances such as the application of new national curriculum, the reduction of the number of the elective courses in Korea Scholastic Aptitude Test and so on.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2004

This study attempted to survey the present status of the eight students who, 17 years from now, had participated in a special program for 170 days preparing for early entrance to the KAIST. With six students who responded to the questionnaire previously sent, the study focused on each participant's achievement at present, his evaluation on Accelerated Education, his personal opinions on early entrance to university and Gifted Science Education. From the survey, we could find out that three participants had received a doctorate and they are currently working as researchers at research center or professors at university. The other three participants are working as researchers at research center after receiving the M. S. Academic achievements vary according to each participant, but three of them, who ranked high in research achievement, had their articles published in international journals of the SCI level even when they were between 25 and 28 of age. Two of them in particular showed outstanding engineering and developing the commercial modem for IMT 2000 for the first time in Korea. One participant entered Harvard University to major in physics and afterwards studied the law in UCLA. He is now a professor in the law department. Concerning the evaluations on Accelerated Education and early entrance system, four participants answered positively while two participants expressed negative attitudes. When asked their opinions on the Gifted Education in Korea, such problems were pointed out as too much pressure of entering the first-class universities, the tendency to avoid choosing science-related major at universities, the lack of education system that encourages creative thinking, etc. It is necessary that the accelerated education play an important role to maximize their hidden potentials. It remains to be seen in what places these six participants will find themselves and of what ideas they will come up within the next 17 years. It will be worthwhile to wait until then for another survey.