• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.274-281
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• 2020

N-gram analysis casts a new look at the n-word cluster in use different from the previously known idioms. It analyzes a corpus of English textbooks for frequently occurring n consecutive words mechanically using a concordance software, which is different from the previously known idioms. The current paper aims at extracting and comparing 4-gram words clusters between South Korean high school English textbooks and its North Korean counterpart. The classification criteria includes number of tokens and types between the two across oral and written languages in the textbooks. The criteria also use the grammatical categories and functional categories to classify and compare the 4-gram words clusters. The grammatical categories include noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, partial clauses and others. The functional categories include deictic function, text organizers, stance and others. The findings are: South Korean high school English textbook contains more tokens and types in both oral and written languages. Verb phrase and partial clause 4-grams are grammatically most frequently encountered categories across both South and North Korean high school English textbooks. Stance is most dominant functional category in both South and North Korean English textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.479-486
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• 2010

The purposes of this study are to investigate the description of scientifically debatable carbonic acid in the Korean high school textbooks, characterize the physical properties of 'carbonic acid solutions' by using an MBL set-up and compare the properties with textual ones. Four different aqueous solutions of carbon dioxide have been prepared and analyzed: naturally aerated aqueous solution, dry ice-dissolving solution, $CO_2$-bubbling solution and commercial carbonic acid water. Experimental findings showed that pH and conductivity of these 4 solutions ranged from 3.85 to 5.66 and from 0.21 ${\mu}S$/cm to 272.1 ${\mu}S$/cm, respectively. Out of these solutions, the dissociation constant($K_{a1}$) of the bubbling solution at room temperature could be calculated to $5.7{\times}10^{-7}$ which value is comparable to the textual $4.3{\times}10^{-7}$ within experimental errors, which means that textual compound is not pure carbonic acid but the equilibrated mixture of carbonic acid and the aqueous solution of carbon dioxide. On the other hand, textual analysis showed that most of high school textbooks used carbonic acid as an example of weak acid and buffer solution of the blood but none of them distinguished the carbonic acid from the aqueous solution of carbon dioxide. Only one textbook, however, tiered two species in the chemical equation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.165-175
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of analogies in high school science textbooks in explaining abstract science concepts. For this study, the analogies used in high school science textbooks of the 7th science curriculum were analyzed. The analogies were classified into the six following types: the nature of shared attributes, representation, analogy/target abstraction, number of analogies, with and without specified use of analogy, and casual relations. A total of 189 analogies were found in the 7th science textbooks. This means that 16.9 analogies were used for each book. In analyzing the analogies, we found some analogies were appropriate, while others were ambiguous and inadequate in explaining the various science concepts. The number of analogies used varied considerably according to the publishing company and the science domain. For more effective understanding of various science concepts, it is necessary to develop more analogies and research the application of analogy.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1175-1185
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• 2011

Language skills in science education seem to have a great impact on student achievement. Most of the language skills affecting students' science learning can be accounted for an understanding of scientific terms. The ultimate goal of this study is selecting and grading the scientific terms for science education. As a basic research, we investigated scientific terms contained in science textbooks, because they are the most basic and selected terminologies. As a result of investigation of scientific terms in physics units of middle school science textbooks, we made a list of 556 scientific terms by grade level. This includes 249 words for grade 7, 170 words for grade 8, and 137 words for grade 9.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.411-420
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to investigate how many students understood the analogies for physics concepts used in middle school science textbooks, and which types of analogies they understood better than others. We classified the analogies into the following 4 types: verbal and simple analogy, verbal and enriched analogy, pictorial and simple analogy, and pictorial and enriched analogy. For the study, 46 students were sampled from a middle school in Ulsan city in Korea, and a tool for testing their understanding of analogies were developed. The tool is composed of 8 items, and its face validity about contents and difficulty was verified by 5 experts. It was found that in average only about 50% of the students understood the analogies in the middle school science textbooks averagely, and that the students understood pictorial and simple analogies better than the other types of analogies.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.547-558
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to compare inquiry activities in science textbooks' physics contents for Korean secondary schools with those of Singapore in order to provide a reference for further improvement of inquiry activities in Korean science textbooks. We analyzed inquiry activities using the framework of Millar et al.(1998) and Chinn & Malhotra (2002). The results of this study are as follows: There are differences between Korean and Singaporean inquiry activities in the area of 'learning objectives', 'students' thinking activities' and 'degree of openness'. In the area of 'learning objectives', the Korean textbooks have more activities associated with the learning of science content than those in Singaporean, whereas the Singaporean textbooks have more activities associated with the processes of scientific inquiry than in Korean textbooks. In the area of 'students' thinking activities', the Singaporean textbooks have activities like 'test a prediction', which Korean textbooks lack. The 'degree of openness' is higher in Singaporean textbooks than in Korean textbooks. And some differences in the area of 'authentic scientific inquiry' between Korean and Singaporean textbooks were also found. While the Korean textbooks do not have any activities associated with 'generating research questions', the Singaporean ones feature such activities. In the area of 'designing studies', the Singaporean textbooks have activities corresponding to 'selecting variables' and 'controlling variables', while the Korean ones never have such activities. The results of this study imply that it is necessary to balance inquiry activities in the area of 'learning objectives', 'students' thinking activities' and 'degree of openness', and to present activities close to authentic scientific inquiry in inquiry activities in textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.478-489
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• 2002

In this study, we identified the conceptions of heat and temperature on a basis of the science history, and analyzed the explanation types in elementary, and secondary school science textbooks. From these data, we tried to discover the cause of students' misconceptions. The results revealed that the explanation types of the textbooks don't include modem sight. Different conceptions developed in different era mixed in the textbooks. We can infer that students who learn heat and temperature concept by the textbooks could have misconceptions because of the above problems.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.93-108
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• 1998

This study investigated science textbooks used from 1906 to 1915 in Korea, which is often neglected in previous researches. By doing so, more practical and specific understanding of the science education during that period can be made. It was based on the historical achieves "School Textbook List"(Vol. $4{\sim}9$) which was published by the Ministry of Education and the Government General of Chosen and other sources. The results and conclusions of the research are as follow; (1) The science textbooks which have been used from 1906 to 1915 in Korea can be categorized into three different tapes of books, either written in Chinese, or in Japanese, or in Korean. The names of science textbooks were Nature Study, Physics, Chemistry, Natural History, Hygienics, Physiology, Zoology, Botany, Astronomy, Physiography, Mineralogy, Geology. These names were much broader than those in curriculum settled by the government and rather correspond to the names of science textbooks in curriculum which settled by private schools. Therefore those science textbooks had been mainly used in private schools. Moreover almost all of the science textbooks published in Korea have started to appear after 1906. Since then many schools were newly opened and the number of students increased. It is possible to say that substantial science education in Korea established after 1906. (2) Science textbooks from 1906 to 1915 printed in Korea were controlled in their use by the Ministry of Education and the Government General of Chosen. They were the main means of government regulations, supported by Private School Ordinance, Regulations for Official Examination of textbooks in 1908 and Law of Publication in 1909. According to the result of official examination, as the time went by under the Japanese ruling of Korea, the increasing number of science textbooks were getting banned. While the science textbooks had enjoyed more freedom than the other textbooks from the control by inspection of the Government General of Chosen, the situation has been significantly changed as Japan started to intensity the control of all kinds of textbooks in Korea. Although there were a lot of copied science textbooks, 62 science textbooks printed in Korea, 72 Japanese science textbooks were used in Korea, and 40 Korean were to be engaged in science education compiling and copying science textbooks. There developments in science textbooks alone suggest that there were enormous amount of potentials in Korean science education at that time. However, all of these effects and progresses were destroyed when the sovereign authority of Korea was lost to Japan in 1910.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.432-442
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• 2000

In this study, the contents of 'electric current' and 'battery' units in elementary and middle school science textbooks were analyzed on the basis of particle and energy concepts. Many problems, reported previously on students' misconceptions about those area, were found in science textbooks. Electric current and battery were covered in both physics and chemistry parts of science textbooks. However, the lack of particle concept in physics units and the lack of energy concept in chemistry units seemed to make it difficult for students to learn those concepts. The descriptions about the two concepts were also not consistent even in the same discipline units. In order to solve these problems, the integration of the views on the particulate nature of matter and energy in the science curriculum and reconstruction of science textbooks were needed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.848-863
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to explore how high school physics teachers perceive and understand fundamental physical constants as well as how they explain them and what methods they currently use in class. This study developed a questionnaire survey to recognize physics teachers' level of understanding of fundamental physical constants, which were measured by many scientists and contributed the to generation and improvement of scientific theories. Those questionnaire surveys were conducted among 130 high school physics teachers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. Among them, 124 participated in the survey and six were interviewed. The content of the survey consists of three parts: (i) basic questions about teachers, (ii) questions to measure the teachers' understanding of fundamental physical constants, and (iii) questions about the educational use of fundamental physical constants. The survey was distributed via e-mail, and respondents submitted their responses via e-mail as well. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for 30 minutes each, and all interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed twice.