• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.111-125
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the effects of the ENACT project on promoting pre-service science teachers (PSTs)' views on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. The ENACT project was designed to cultivate the social responsibility by integrating the theoretical framework of socioscientific issues (SSIs) education with problem-based inquiry approaches for the resolution of the issues. Thirty-two PSTs voluntarily participated in the project and completed the five stages over three months. Data was collected through a questionnaire to measure PSTs' view of the social responsibility of scientists and engineers (VSRoSE) and focus-group interviews. Results indicate that the PSTs presented statistically significant changes in their views of the social responsibility after the ENACT project. The mean scores of the five sub-dimensions of VSRoSE significantly increased. The interviews also supported that the PSTs had opportunities to seriously consider the social responsibility of scientists and engineers through epistemological exploration of science and technology (Cycle I), and problem-solving and action-taking (Cycle II). In particular, they agreed more on such responsibilities as consideration of societal needs and demands, pursuit of the common good, civic engagement and services using their expertise, communications with the public regarding potential risks, and participation in policy decision-making related to science and technology advances. Educational implications for SSI education and teacher education were suggested.

• 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.37 no.4
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• pp.637-650
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• 2017

It is necessary for undergraduate students whose citizenship reaches a maturity stage to recognize the importance of citizen participation in social issues related to science and technology and to be able to make meaningful use of citizens' rights and responsibilities. Therefore, in order to understand the actual status of undergraduate students' perceptions and practice capacity for citizen participation in science and technology, university students were selected from the department of arts physical studies (33 cases), humanities social studies (62 cases), and science engineering studies (67 cases) at D university in Gyeonggi province. Then, we investigated the scientific technology and society's interaction oriented by citizen participation, responsible decision-making ability, and the effectiveness of the social issue by scientific technology. Analyses of the results reveal that the overall perception level of the students about the interaction between scientific technology and society was high according to department of the arts physical studies, humanities social studies, science engineering studies, in that order, but the scores were not all in average. Therefore, it was found that the current undergraduate students lacked a deep understanding of the interaction between scientific technology and society regardless of the major field. In addition, the students' perception on citizen participation in the interaction between scientific technology and society was found to be problematic regardless of the major field. In responsible decision-making ability, undergraduate students were found to have difficulties in selecting the best alternative in terms of individual beliefs and welfare of others and formulating the action strategies. In addition, the self-confidence of the students about knowledge, skill, and capacity for action related science and technology in the effectiveness of the social issue by scientific technology was very low regardless of major field. We discussed educational implications of these findings.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.121-126
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• 2022

This study purports to achieve three different yet related tasks. First of all, this study reviews thoroughly social economy as an academic subject which have been drawing much attentions in social science. Secondly, this study examines developmental trajectory of social economy in Korea and reviews categories and types of social economy in current Korean society. Lastly, this study introduces several arguments around social economy. For these tasks, brief summary of the definitions of social economy from foreign and domestic scholars will be provided. Then five controversial subjects on social economy will be introduced. Those are the effect of social economy on employment, the future of social economy in the context of welfare state, the sustainability of social economy, the relationship of social economy with civil society, and the relationship between social economy and basic income. The author hopes that this study could provide thorough pirctire of social economy conceptually as well as practically for those who are interested in social economy both in academia and civil society organizations.

• 한국과학기술학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.13-27
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.137-147
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to analysis total number of 123 SSI programs by SSI criteria. The criteria was consisted of subject, school level, starting point, scientific evidence, social content, use of scientific knowledge, level of conflict of interest, and evaluation and reflection. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, elementary school programs were the most and middle school programs were relatively few. Second, starting point was mainly in the actual situation, the fiction and nonfiction situation, and the situation including the controversy and conflict was less than 10%. Third, it was based on scientific evidence but mainly influenced by individual values and perceptions. Fourth, social contents were developed mainly in ethics/morality/value, political/social life/economy, environment contents. Fifth, the use of scientific knowledge mainly consisted of scientific decision making, scientific critical thinking, and information search. However, science inquiry, risk assessment, and cost effectiveness were less than 10%. Scientific inquiry is the essential factor of science education, and one of core competencies of national science curriculum. SSI program should be able to experience various kinds of conflicts, and to evaluate and reflect through reflection.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.791-804
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• 2015

This study aims to investigate the definition of and factors in decision on socio-scientific issues and to analyze the standards for the quality of decision-making, based on the review of studies in socio-scientific issues. This study analyzed 147 articles published in journals of the social science citation index, and the research method was followed by taxonomy analysis and analytic induction. The results showed that many of the studies did not explicitly articulate the decision-making and only dealt with a specific element of the process, not as a whole. Decision-making was categorized into the steps of identification, option, criteria, information, survey, choice, and review. In terms of the factors, the literature tackled diverse things: science knowledge, nature of science, type of issue, discussion type, belief & values, and culture. This study examined the relationship between the factors and each element of decision-making. Among the relationships, only six kinds were shown as relevant and most of factors were connected to survey. With regard to the standards, the literature relied upon balance, justification and multiplicity since many of the studies made use of Toulmin-based argumentation. This study gives some implications for standards for decision-making regarding the nature of risk and uncertainty.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.395-405
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• 2017

This study aims to investigate the effects of socioscientific issues (SSI) instruction on promoting college students' character and values as citizens, and to compare the effects based on the psychological factor - idiocentrism and allocentrism. Thirty-one college students who enrolled in the SSI course participated in this study. The SSI course provided the students with opportunities to explore various aspects of five topics, to express and share their own opinions, and to identify reasonable alternatives. The students with distinct tendencies were classified into two groups (i.e. idiocentric and allocentric groups) based on the personal value orientation scores before the instruction, and they responded to the questionnaire to examine their character and values as citizens before and after the instruction. The results showed that the students' social and moral compassion and socioscientific accountability improved significantly after the SSI course. The overall effects of the SSI program on students' character and values were not significantly different between two groups. However, the post-mean score of the allocentric group in socioscientific accountability was higher than the one of the idiocentric group. This study shows that SSI instruction could positively affect character development regardless of psychological tendencies, and could be implemented in the science classroom as a good instructional approach to integrating science education and character education.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.4 no.1 s.7
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• pp.59-82
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• 2004

Nanotechnology is a rapidly expanding field, focused on the creation of functional materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter on the nanometer scale. Recently many countries including Korea are rushing into promoting research and development of nanotechnology. Because the nanoscale is not just other step toward miniaturization, but a qualitatively new scale, progress in nanotechnology will have very far-reaching social, ethical, and environmental impacts. This paper aims to examine social issues and implications of nanotechnology development. To do so, this paper divides the issues around nanotechnology into several sub-issues: environmental, health-related, and societal issues. And then this paper reviews the debates and disputes around those sub-issues. Based on this review, this paper proposes some policy recommendation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.933-952
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• 2010

This study aims to characterize debate on a socio-scientific issue in the Internet and to provide implications from a postmodernist perspective. This study concentrates on disentanglement of the complex relationship among society, economy, politics and science in an issue and characterization of the given text centering on its originality, the relationship between writer and reader, and the purpose of utterance. Sixty-six most read articles on a web message board were chosen and analyzed as a typical case of a socio-scientific issue in the internet. In them, five scientific disputes were identified: the cause of mad cow disease (MCD), specified risk material and the incubation period, the cause of new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD), vulnerability of vCJD and the relation of Alzheimer and vCJD in American patients. Each argument is intertwined with social, economic and political problems such as its impact on the domestic beef market, feeding environment of imported cattle and the retaliation against denial of importation. With regard to originality, it is found that the originality of an author is weakened but communal through repetitive quotation of 'Peom', cutting and pasting, and engagement of readers with their comments. Furthermore, in order to close the gap between writer and reader, identity and personal narrative of the writers are often introduced into their writing. In terms of purpose of utterance, these are intended to deliver one's feelings or facilitate human behavior rather than inform through verification of a principle.