• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.509-517
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• 2016

Previous studies have investigated the similarity between the development of evolutionary explanations and students' conceptual developments on evolution. However, the validity and reliability of the assessment method reflecting the similarity have not been quantitatively examined yet. In addition, no study has examined the conceptual progressions of evolution concept based on contexts although literature has addressed the contextual difference of evolutionary explanation in the history of science. This study examined the validity and reliability of history-of-science-based evolution concept assessment using ordered multiple choice (OMC) methods and Rasch analysis and explored conceptual progression by three contexts (e.g., human, animal, and plant). The evolution concept assessment developed by Ha (2007) was used to examine 1711 elementary, middle, and high school students, and pre- and in-service science teachers' (biology majors and non-majors) evolution concepts. Internal consistency reliability and item response fitness of the OMC method that provide 0- to 4-point scores to creationism, teleology, intentionality, use/disuse, and natural selection respectively met the benchmark based on the Cronbach alpha and MNSQ indices of Rasch analysis. The level of elementary and middle school students' evolution concepts were located between intentionality and use/disuse while the level of high school and non-biology science teachers' evolution concepts were located between use/disuse and natural selection. The conceptual progressions of evolution concepts were differentiated according to three contexts. This study provided the quantitative evidence for the similarity between the development of evolutionary explanations and students' conceptual developments on evolution and suggest new analysis methods (i.e., OMC) of evolution concept assessment.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.659-668
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• 2017

This study was conducted to identify whether there is a significant difference in the developmental stages of the evolution concept depending on the major and the country. For this study, college students (both biology major and non-biology major) in Korea and the United States answered evolution concept assessment developed by Ha (2007). The data were analyzed based on the method of developed by Ha (2016). As a result of this study, Cronbach alpha for internal consistency reliability and MNSQ indices for item response fitness of the ordered multiple choice method providing 0 to 4 point scores to creationism, teleology, intentionality, use/disuse, and natural selection respectively, satisfied the benchmark. The level of Korean college students' evolution concepts was located in use/disuse and the level of USA college students' evolution concepts was located in teleology. No interaction effect was found between the difference of conceptual progressions of evolution concept by major and country and evolution contexts (human, animal, and plant). There was a significant relationship between developmental stages of evolution concept and their religiosity. Based on the results of this study, we discuss developmental characteristics of evolutionary concepts.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.299-304
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• 2018

An improved genetic algorithm was proposed for pattern synthesis of an adaptive beam forming system using phased array antennas. The proposed genetic algorithm is an algorithm that adds acquired characteristics procedure to solve local optimization using the diversity. The performance of the proposed genetic algorithm is verified through the problem of finding a suitable chromosome for a picture composed of binary. And it is confirmed that it is suitable for the adaptive beam forming system based on the performance problem of combining main beam and two pattern nulls.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.352-362
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• 2006

Many misconceptions regarding biology and evolution have been reported by students prior to being exposed to a formal education program of evolution which challenged them. This study sought to investigate and to analyze the misconception formation process of evolution originating from TV animation and science books for children. Firstly, to identify TV animation's influence on students' misconceptions of evolution, a questionnaire including TV animation characters was constructed and administered to 146 elementary school students, 161 middle school students, and 156 high school students. The data collected was analyzed. Secondly, 17 science books for children were sampled and the contents related to evolution were selected and analyzed in terms of five evolutionary explanations: creationism internal will explanation, teleological explanations, explanations of use and disuse, mutation and finally, natural selection. Children have understood 'growth' and 'metamorphosis' on TV animation as 'evolution'. The processes by which characters on TV animation undergo some forms of change, which are in fact a kind of metamorphosis has often been understood as 'evolution'. Many respondents have defined evolution incorrectly as the process of growing and changing shape. On the other hand, some science books fur children contained descriptions of evolution including' mutation and finally natural selection explanation'; however, most of the science books fur children sampled in this study were written through the perspectives of alternative evolutionary views such as 'teleology view', 'internal will view', and 'use and disuse view'. It is apparent that TV animation and science books fur children influence the formation of various misconceptions regarding evolution by children.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.505-516
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• 2003

The concept of evolution is one of the most important concepts in the learning biology. However lots of students have difficulties in understanding its mechanism because their preexisted alternative concepts interrupt in gaining the correct idea of evolution. Students usually have the Larmarkian or teleological ideas of evolution. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of an activity-centered instruction on the learner's conceptual change from misconception into the scientific concept, Darwinian one, and achievement. For the study, 162 students were sampled from a high school: 81 students for the activity-centered instruction and 81 students for traditional instruction. The result is as follows; 1) The activity-centered instruction is more effective than the traditional one in understanding the concept of Darwinian natural selection(p<.05) and in changing the students' various misconceptions of evolution into Darwinian one. 2) The activity-centered instruction concerning natural selection is more effective in their achievement(p<.01). 3) However, after both of the instructions, some students still kept the Lamarkian thoughts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.15-25
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• 2015

This study examined pre-service secondary physics teachers' epistemological beliefs about scientific knowledge, science learning, and science teaching in two different science content topics, Lamarckism and the impetus theory. Two sets of open-ended questionnaires, for each of the topics respectively, were developed in the same format. The pre-service teachers completed the questionnaires at one month intervals. The beliefs were analyzed in two dimensions, knowledge justification and knowledge change for each belief area. The findings show that the majority of pre-service teachers held sophisticated epistemological beliefs about scientific knowledge regardless of content topics. On the other hand, more pre-service teachers exhibited sophisticated beliefs about science learning in the context impetus theory than Lamarckism. In the area of science teaching, the majority of pre-service teachers demonstrated a sophisticated view in knowledge justification but a naive view in knowledge change. When consistency across science topics and belief areas were examined, few pre-service teachers held consistent epistemological beliefs across all topics and areas. The difference in the levels of sophistication in belief areas showed that the pre-service teachers did not connect their epistemological beliefs about science knowledge to their ideas about science teaching and learning. This disconnection seems to make the consistency across topics and areas complicated. The difference in epistemological beliefs about science learning and teaching between two science topics need further inquiry. Implications for teacher education are offered.