• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.200-211
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze Korean middle school student achievement in environmental science based on the TIMSS 2003 (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), a student comparison of 46 participating nations. Korea ranked the fourth with a mean score of 554 in environmental science. However, all 3 environment science topics assessed in TIMSS are not included in the Korean science curriculum through 8th grade, even though they are included in most other participating nations' curricula. The average percent correct of items was analyzed according to the main topic, the item type and the cognitive domain. Items that showed differences between the average percent correct of Korea and the international average as well as differences between the average percent correct of boys and girls were further analyzed. Results revealed that Korean students performed better than the international average, especially in 'use and conservation of natural resources', multiple-choice items, and items requiring 'factual knowledge'. Also, male students demonstrated significantly higher achievement than female students. On the other hand, Korean students showed relatively lower achievement in constructed-response items, items that contained content they had not learned in science lessons and items requiring descriptions of the uses and effect of science and technology. Moreover, Korean student lacked understanding about acid rain, global warming, and ozone layer destruction. Korean female students showed relatively lower environmental conceptions and lower performance on items requiring data analysis than Korean male students. On the basis of these results, this study suggested that topics of environmental science be included in the science curriculum and taught in the science classroom to help middle school students more fully comprehend environmental issues.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.2
• /
• pp.121-145
• /
• 2008

The purposes of this study were to identify the misconceptions that students have on the magma and plate tectonics and to present the implications in developing textbooks as well as related curriculum of high school textbooks. Data were collected through questionnaire, consisting of some questions, short essays, and descriptive drawings, developed by the research team. A total of 140 high school students(9th graders) responded to those questionnaires and were interviewed for further information. It was reported that participants displayed various misconceptions related to magma and plate tectonics. The identified misconceptions are as follows: For the definition of magma, the 31% of participants misunderstood magma as lava. In respect to the generative mechanism of magma at subduction zone, over 90% of students responded that it is generated by frictional heat. The source of misconceptions were identified as a result from textbooks and related reference-books. For the concept of plates, 87% of students conceived 'crust or a lower part of the plates' as 'plates'. Most participants hold the right concept of oceanic ridge, whereas, 66% of them considered 'rift valley' as either 'divergence of continental plates' or 'converging boundary'. 63% of them defined 'collision boundary of continental plate' as either 'subduction zone' or 'diverging boundary'. For the definitions of the trench and Benioff zone, 86% of students responded them as the place of subduction or differing density between two converging plates. The students' misconceptions were resulted from the errors and insufficient explanation, inappropriate figures, and data presented in textbooks, reference-books, lecture, and web sites. The results of this study are implied to contribute the improvement of students' misconceptions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.471-483
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study is to explore how students' epistemological framing and positional framing affect the role of wonderment questions related to the activation of conceptual resources and to investigate what contexts affect students' framings during scientific model construction. Four students were selected as focus group and they participated in collaborative scientific model construction of mechanisms relating to urination. According to the results, one student whose framings were "understanding phenomena" and "facilitator" asked wonderment questions, but the others whose framings were "classroom game" and "non-respondent" were not able to activate their conceptual resources. However, they were able to activate their conceptual resources when they shared the epistemological framing of "understanding phenomena" and shifted between the positional framings of "facilitator" and "respondent." Although they were able to activate their conceptual resources, these activated resources were not able to contribute to their model when they shifted to the framings of "classroom game" and "receiver." In contrast, when students constantly shared an "understanding phenomena" framing and dynamically shifted between the framings of "facilitator" and "respondent," they were able to activate various conceptual resources and develop their group model. The students' framings were affected by the contexts. These included: when students were confronted with cognitive difficulties and were not provided proper scaffolding; when the teacher played the role of answer provider and guided the activity with correctness; when there were several possible explanatory models that students could choose from; and when the teacher played the role of thought facilitator. This study contributes to supporting teaching and learning environments for productive scientific model construction.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.11-27
• /
• 2024

This study aimed to investigate the role of scientific empathy in influencing students' productive disciplinary engagement in scientific activities and analyze the key factors of scientific empathy that manifest during this process. Twelve fifth-grade students were divided into three subgroups based on their general empathic abilities. Lessons promoting productive disciplinary engagement, integrating design thinking processes, were conducted. Subgroup discourse analysis during idea generation and prototype stages, two of five problem-solving steps, enabled observation of scientific empathy and practice aspects. The results showed that applying scientific empathy effectively through design thinking facilitated students' productive disciplinary engagement in science. In the idea generation stage, we observed an initial increase followed by a decrease in scientific empathy and practice utterances, while during the prototyping stage, utterance frequency increased, particularly in the later part. However, subgroups with lower empathic abilities displayed decreased discourse frequency in scientific empathy and practice during the prototype stage due to a lack of collaborative communication. Across all empathic ability levels, the students articulated all five key factors of scientific empathy through their utterances in situations involving productive science engagement. In the high empathic ability subgroup, empathic understanding and concern were emphasized, whereas in the low empathic ability subgroup, sensitivity, scientific imagination, and situational interest, factors of empathizing with the research object, were prominent. These results indicate that experiences of scientific empathy with research objects, beyond general empathetic abilities, serve as a distinct and crucial factor in stimulating diverse participation and sustaining students' productive engagement in scientific activities during science classes. By suggesting the potential multidimensional impact of scientific empathy on productive disciplinary engagement, this study contributes to discussions on the theoretical structure and stability of scientific empathy in science education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.259-267
• /
• 2005

This study was to investigate the elementary students' preconception on the brightness of electric bulb and degree of consistency on their preconceptions. Participants were 160 students of fifth graders in Seoul area. They had already teamed about the brightness of series circuit and parallel circuit of batteries. After they solved six problems in the same context, we provided them a pair of circuit which was an anomalous situation. And then they conducted CCLT (Cognitive Conflict Level Test). Elementary school students showed various preconceptions when they explained the light of bulb of two Simple electric Circuits. Many Students Consistently Showed the Scientific misconceptions like 'the light of bulb of two simple electric circuits was that the more batteries and the fewer bulbs were brighter.' The level of consistency that students presented scientific misconceptions was grouped all of four, such as 'high, middle, low, and nothing.' Therefore the higher scientific achievement they have, the higher consistency they have. As the students had high consistency level, they revealed high cognitive conflict level significantly. This high consistency will help them to change their preconception on the brightness of electric bulb and their cognitive conflict.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.39-50
• /
• 1999

In recent globalization era, Korean architectural education and profession are emerging as the fields with serious problems. There are two major reasons. One is an internal factor caused by Ministry of Education's full scale shift from department to faculty system. Due to the drastic change in this system, most of schools have serious difficulties to deliver the proper professional education. And the other is an external factor. In WTO era, Union of International Architects has adopted $\ulcorner$UIA Accord on Recommended International Standards of Professionalism In Architectural Practice$\lrcorner$. According to the education section of the Accord, it requires 5 years of professional education in the accredited school. So, if it is formally adopted in the Beijing Congress, which is scheduled to be held in June 1999, we may face very serious problems in architectural education. As mentioned above, with the present education system it is believed not easy to meet their new criteria. Within the present system, which does not have any mandatory relationship with professional licence, students might go on to diverse fields such as architectural design, structural engineering, construction management and building equipment engineering. However, if UIA Accord and Engineering Accreditation are required at the same time, it will not be easy to meet their new criteria with present architectural education system. The goal of this paper is to suggest the models to meet the standards of international community while keeping the strengths of existing systems.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.231-251
• /
• 2016

The goal of the study was to examine pre-service teachers' emotional experiences, especially during student teaching. The following questions guided this study. First, during student teaching, what are the characteristics of emotional experiences of pre-service science teachers? Second, what are used as the emotional rules and strategies by student teacher? In this study, we tracked nine pre-service science teachers over a four-week period of the student teaching. The data sources were lesson observations, interviews, emotional journals, and video-recorded classroom lessons. Results showed that student teachers experienced various 25 different types of emotions which were reported as the primary emotions of Koreans. The main subjects for interaction for positive emotions were students. For negative emotions, students, teachers and student teachers themselves all resulted in such negative emotional experiences. When the student teachers experienced negative emotions, they followed the emotional rule that their emotions should not be expressed in front of the students. Because of this, they tried various strategies for controlling emotions, such as 'understanding students', 'finding the positive side', 'seeing good students', 'ignoring', 'holding back', 'evading', and 'giving up'. Finally, suggestions for teacher education were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.491-504
• /
• 2000

Recent research has shown that students' interest in learning physics is not a simple one. In this study the dimensions of students' interest in learning physics have been identified. These are the topic being taught, the activity in which the students are involved, and the motive of the students for learning physics. A Likert-style pilot questionnaire was constructed for identifying these dimensions and given to 13 year-old 162 students. A factor analysis of the results indicates that there are meaningful sub-dimensions in interest. In other words, while there were no specific sub-dimensions in topic dimension, motive dimension could be divided into intrinsic motive and extrinsic motive, and activity dimension could also be divided into receptive, experiential, high cognitive, and interactive activity.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.497-512
• /
• 2023

While scientific explanation is a fundamental component of science, teachers often lack familiarity with the formal structure of scientific explanations and the criteria for assessing their quality. Consequently, this study aims to clarify the concept of scientific explanation and proposes a tool for constructing scientific explanations. The primary objective is to explore the tool's impact on enhancing the explanatory skills of pre-service teachers when it comes to the phenomenon of condensation. The research findings indicate that many pre-service teachers initially operated at a description level during the pre-test. However, the implementation of the tool enabled them to advance their explanatory skills beyond the associative level. Notably, the tool was analyzed for its ability to provide pre-service teachers with a conceptual framework for explaining phenomena and guiding logical explanations and micro-level interpretations. This study holds significance in demonstrating that pre-service teachers can comprehend the formalities and criteria of scientific explanations and apply them to enhance their own explanatory abilities. Moving forward, efforts should be made to enhance the scientific explanation level among pre-service teachers across various topics and subject areas. Furthermore, pre-service teachers need classroom experiences that foster the construction of scientific explanations in authentic contexts.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.47-62
• /
• 2016

Cultivating mathematical creativity is one of the aims in the recently revised mathematics curricular. However, there have been lack of researches on how to nurture mathematical creativity for ordinary students. Perspective of Realistic Mathematics Education(RME), which pursues education of creative person as the ultimate goal of mathematics education, could be useful for developing principles and methods for cultivating mathematical creativity. This study reanalyzes RME from the points of view in mathematical creativity education. Major findings are followed. First, students should have opportunities for mathematical creation through mathematization, while seeking and creating certainty. Second, it is vital to begin with realistic contexts to guarantee mathematical creation by students, in which students can imagine or think. Third, students can create mathematics in realistic contexts by modelling. Fourth, students create the meaning of 'model of(MO)', which models the given context, the meaning of 'model for(MF)', which models formal mathematics. Then, students create MOs and MFs that are equivalent to the intial MO and MF given by textbook or teacher. Flexibility, fluency, and novelty could be employed to evaluate the MOs and the MFs created by students. Fifth, cultivation of mathematical creativity can be supported from development of local instructional theories by thought experiment, its application, and reflection. In conclusion, to employ the education model of cultivating mathematical creativity by RME drawn in this study could be reasonable when design mathematics lessons as well as mathematics curriculum to include mathematical creativity as one of goals.