• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.895-905
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• 2015

Citizens should be sensitive to the complex and controversial SSIs (Socioscientific Issues), be able to make a responsible decision with evidence and empathy, and furthermore take political action for the larger welfare. The premise of this research is that understanding the nature of science (NOS) takes an important role when students and adults participate in the discourse on SSIs because SSI reasoning requires individuals to examine information and counter-information with skepticism. We therefore designed SSI programs that were incorporated with NOS by adapting a contextualized-reflective approach. The leading research question was to what extent SSI contexts contributed to promoting students' understanding of NOS. A total of 71 11th grade students participated in this program. The school was located in an urban city near the capital city of Seoul, South Korea. We designed SSI programs to cover the issues of genetically modified organisms, climate change, and nuclear energy. Each issue required four to six class periods to complete. We conducted pre- and post-program tests using the revised VNOS-C, recorded group discussions or debates and collected student worksheets to observe the increase of student NOS understanding. As a result of this program, students showed moderate improvement in their understanding of NOS.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.303-315
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• 2016

Socioscientific issues (SSI), by their nature, are conceptually embedded in technology. Previous research reported that nature of technology (NOT), unlike nature of science, was quite explicitly manifested in SSI decision-making, and NOT could be a promising construct for promoting SSI reasoning. In this study, authors introduced an integrated conceptual framework for NOT, which consisted of four dimensions (i.e., artifacts, knowledge, practice and system) as diverse modes of technology. We adapted the framework to investigate students' conceptualizations of NOT in the context of various SSIs. Data was collected from 45 college students enrolled in a liberal arts course on science and technology. The students participated in a team project, where they prepared and led discussions for SSI topics in class. Seven topics concerning SSIs were selected by students themselves. The preparation and class discussion of each student group were audio-recorded, and final reports were also analyzed. As a result, NOT sub-components in the dimensions of artifacts and system were explicitly represented in most contexts of SSI with various ranges of understanding. Other sub-components under the dimensions of knowledge and practice were rarely or implicitly shown in the discussion. The depth of students' understanding on NOT varied. Implications for science education were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• no.126
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• pp.85-115
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• 2019

With the dramatic development of science and technology since the twentieth century, attempts to overcome human's natural and physical limitations through technology have actually reached a peak. Transhumanism is a movement that strongly affirms these human technological attempts. However, this optimistic belief of transhumanism in technology meets the strong resistance of opponents contending that transhumanism might destroy human nature and severely undermine human values and rights. The focus of the transhumanism debate lies in what technology means to humans. However, in order to exactly grasp the essence of transhumanism, we should first consider our 'life-world', where technology and humans are closely intertwined. The word 'life-world(Lebenswelt)' which originally comes from Husserl, is an open and universal world as a horizon that is the basis of all human practical activities and at the same time encompasses its products in itself. According to Husserl, the process of incorporating human products into the life-world is a kind of 'familiarization' process through which specific theories and techniques are harmonized with our lives in the life-world. Such harmonization and familiarization of technology could be also considered a humanization of technology. It is a process in which technology is assimilated and corresponds to the finiteness of human and the life-world. In this sense, we could say that the transhumanistic attempts are just a natural expression of human desire to be perfect in the life-world and that they should not be overly concerned or overestimated.