• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.167-180
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• 2019

This study analyzed the effects of the educational contextual variables on fourth grade students' mathematics achievement in five East Asian countries(Singapore, Hong Kong Taiwan, Japan and Korea) using TIMSS 2015 data. There are four findings of this study. The first is that the common student-home-level variables that give significant influence on the mathematics achievement in all 5 countries are 'Home resources for learning' and 'Parents' educational expectations'. But 'Literacy and numeracy activities before entering a school' and 'Parents' attitude for mathematics and science' are not common variables. The second is that 'Students' interest in math learning' gave significant influence on the mathematics achievement of in all 5 countries. The third is that 'Teaching limited by student needs' does not give significant influence on the math achievement in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan but in Singapore and Hong Kong. The fourth is that 'Student economic background' gave more significant influence in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan than Singapore and Hong Kong. Suggestions to improve elementary school mathematics teaching and learning are discussed in the conclusion.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.113-122
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the educational context variables on students' science achievement and interest in TIMSS 2015. TIMSS 2015 science data and questionnaire results were used to fit the Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) in this study. According to the results, books at home, parents' level of education, and students' views on science lessons have significant influence on science achievement of above-high level 4th-grade students, and books at home on below-intermediate level 4th-grade students. Books at home, students' views on science lessons, and school composition by student economic background have significant influence on science achievement of above-high level 8th-grade students, and books at home and students' views on science lessons on science achievement of below-Intermediate level 8th-grade students. In all grade levels, books at home, and students' views on science lessons have significant influence on science achievement and interest. Discussed in the conclusion are ways to improve science teaching and learning including offering systematic reading programs for all students, reinforcement of student-participation in science classes, connecting science hands-on activities with science concepts for below-Intermediate level elementary students, and so on.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.66-79
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the effects of the educational context variables on 8th-grade science achievement of 5 top performing countries(Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan) in TIMSS 2015. TIMSS 2015 science data and questionnaire results were used for fitting Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) in this study. According to the results, such student-level variables as home resources for learning, students' interest in science learning, valuing science, Students' Educational Expectations gave significant influence on the science achievement of Korean students. School-level variables including Student Economic Background, and School Emphasis on Academic Success gave significant influence on the science achievement of Korean students. Comparing 5 countries, home resources for learning, students' interest in science learning, Students' Educational Expectations gave significant influence on the science achievement in all 5 countries. At the school level, Student Economic Background is statistically significant in explaining students' science achievement gap in all countries except Japan, and Teaching Limited by Student Needs gave significant influence on the science achievement in all countries except Korea. Discussed in the conclusion are ways to improve middle-school science teaching and learning including reducing the education divide among socioeconomic status, teaching innovation for competency education, inquiry and reinforcement of lab activities in science classes, and so on.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.137-161
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• 2009

In an effort to identify predictors of job performance, research studies in social work administration has been so far on the individual practitioners' levels of knowledge and skills, which could be used in a workplace. As the theoretical concept of organizational environment was fully introduced into social work administration research, however, studies on practitioners' job performance began to have interest in the team or the organizational level variables as well as individual level variables. Along the course of this tendency, this study attempted to test the effect of individual, team, and organizational level variables on the job performance of human service workers. The individual level variables consisted of knowledge, skills, job satisfaction, personality, and counter-productive work behaviors of workers. The team or the organizational level variables included situational constraint, organizational justice, job characteristics, government-dependency, and inter-organizational cooperation. Multi-level complex survey data collected by cluster sampling method from 314 practitioners in 23 organizations were analyzed using Hierarchial Linear Model. Results showed that both task and contextual performance were affected by individual, team, and organizational level variables in various ways.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.165-181
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• 2018

This study compares and analyzes the characteristics and effects of various educational contextual variables according to students' achievement level and gender groups based on the results of PISA 2015 science domain. PISA 2015 included additional variables about teaching-learning and affective characteristics in the field of science, because science was the main domain of PISA 2015. The results of the mediation analysis using a multiple group structural equation model showed that the environment and strategy for the teaching and learning had a positive effect on the affective characteristics, and also positively affected science achievement through the mediator of the affective characteristics. Particularly, the environment and strategy for the teaching and learning was the most effective in improving the affective characteristics for the low achievement group. It was found that the difference of the mediated effect between achievement level groups was statistically significant, but that between male and female students was not. Therefore, the appropriate the environment and strategy for the teaching and learning will need to be emphasized consistently to improve students' cognitive and affective achievement. The implications and suggestions of these results were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 2019

The TIMSS assessment is conducted every four years, and Korean fourth grade cohort in TIMSS 2011 participated in TIMSS 2015 again as eighth graders, which produced the first achievement data of the cohort group of elementary and middle schools. In this study, in order to investigate the causes of the decline in Korean students' science achievement with grade changes from the fourth to the eighth grade, we analyzed educational context variables such as characteristics of students, teachers, and classroom instructions of the top 5 achievement countries participated in both TIMSS 2011 and TIMSS 2015. According to the results, students' sense of school belonging increased, whereas students' positive attitudes toward science teaching decreased with the grade change from the fourth to the eighth. As for the teacher characteristics, the teacher's professional development activity increased, and the teacher's confidence in science teaching showed similar tendency to the international average. Regarding classroom instruction characteristics, the frequency of inquiry-related science activities was highest at the fourth grade, and lower than the international average at the eighth grade. Based the results, we suggested implications for science teaching and learning as well as further studies including development of differentiated strategy by the school level to improve students' achievement, the necessity of converting into more student-engaging science classes, and the necessity of in-depth study on the teacher related educational contextual variables.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.755-768
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• 2016

According to TIMSS, secondary math teachers in Korea has lower confidence compare to other countries, despite the fact that teachers' confidence of teaching is an important variable. This not only influences the student's improvement but, also the quality improvement of teachers' career. Therefore, this study explores the effect of secondary math teachers' confidence according to the context variables such as teaching years, teaching preparation, collaboration with other teachers, and teaching limitation. Additionally, these context variables' $R^2$ toward the change of teaching confidence is also included. Results indicate that teaching preparation, collaboration with other teachers, and teaching limitation contribute in the confidence of teaching. $R^2$ of the change of teaching confidence shows large contribution to teaching preparation which does not accomplish with other variables.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.163-182
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of educational context variables on achievement and interest in mathematics in high and low achieving students in Korea. Students participated in TIMSS 2015 in Korea were divided into two groups according to their achievement in mathematics. And the effects of educational context variables on achievement and interest in mathematics were analyzed in each group using the Hierarchical Linear Model(HLM). Main findings of this study are as follows. First, variables which influence achievement also influence interest but any variables which influence interest don't influence achievement in upper-group students. Number of Books and Students' Perceived Mathematics Lessons have strong influence on achievement and interest in both fourth and eighth grade students. Second, variables which influence achievement or interest in mathematics in lower-group also influence achievement or interest in mathematics in upper-group students. But any variables which influence achievement or interest in upper-group students don't influence achievement or interest in lower-group students. For examples, Parents' Education, Students' Perceived Mathematics Lessons have effects on upper-group students' achievement. Number of Books, Home Learning Environment, and Numeracy Activities Before School have significant effects on the achievement of fourth grade students. Students' Perceived Mathematics Lessons is the variable that influence on the interest of both fourth grade and eighth grade students. This study suggests the ways to improve mathematics teaching and learning based on these results.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.243-274
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• 2009

The association, word frequency and imagery have been considered as the main factors that affect the word recognition. The present study aimed to examine the imagery effect and the interaction of the association effect while controlling the frequency effect. To explain the imagery effect, we compared the two theories (dual-coding theory, context availability model). The lexical decision task using priming paradigm was administered. The duration of prime words was manipulated as 20ms, 50ms, and 450ms in experiments 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The association and imagery of prime words were manipulated as the main factors in each of the three experiments. In experiment 1, the duration of prime words (20ms) which is expected to not activate the semantic context enough to affects the word recognition was used. As a result, only imagery effect was statically significant. In experiment 2, the duration of prime word was 50ms, which we expected to activate the semantic context without perceptual awareness. The result showed both the association and imagery effects. The interaction between the two effects was also significant. In experiment 3, to activate the semantic context with perceptual awareness, the prime words were presented for 450ms. Only association effect was statically significant in this experimental condition. The results of the three experiments suggest that the influence of the imagery was at the early stages of word recognition, while the association effect appeared rather later than the imagery. These results implied that the two theories are not contrary to each other. The dual-coding theory just concerned imagery effect which affects the early stage of word recognition, and context-availability model is more for the semantic context effect which affects rather later stage of word recognition. To explain the word recognition process more completely, some integrated model need to be developed considering not only the main 3 effects but also the stages which extends along the time course of the process.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.189-204
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• 2016

As compared with the gender differences in the achievement of mathematics of the PISA 2009, the results of this study on the PISA 2012 show that the achievement of male students sharply increased, while that of female students maintained the status quo. Based on the premise that this result is derived from the ratio differences between male and female students of high level, this study analyzed the educational context variable effects on the achievements of gender differences observed between male and female students of high level. In particular, this study inquired into the factors which influence the gender difference, by analyzing the identical variables regarding Singapore and Finland of which the achievement of female students registers high among other top high-ranking countries of the PISA 2012. Hence, the binominal logistic multi-level analysis was conducted in order to consider the characteristics of hierarchical structure of PISA, and to compare the features of the educational context variable effects between the high level (above level 5) by country and the highest level (above level 6) by group. The analysis results are as follows: in terms of after-school learning time realized either in private lessons and private institutes, no significant effects were shown in any of the students of these three countries. In terms of after-school homework time, the students of Korea and Singapore gave significant influences on the probability which would be included in the group of high level or the highest level. In particular, regarding the variables which influence the probability of inclusion of Korean female students in the group of high level or the highest level, they correspond to "Homework set by teacher", "Attitude toward school: learning activities", "ESCS of School" and "Teacher-student relations". And "Cultural possessions at home" gave main influences on the probability of inclusion of the female students of Korea, Singapore and Finland in the group of the highest level.