• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.103-112
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate secondary science teacher's concepts of good science teaching. To do these, I have developed a questionnaire composed of 32 good teachings on education content, instructional method, instructional environment and atmosphere and assessment categories. 136 secondary science teachers have participated in the questionnaire and were requested to show agreement. Additionally, they were requested to describe the best science teachings that they have experienced. Results are as follows: First, the best science teaching that science teachers thought is a teaching that is in full accord with students' level in education content category, a teaching with an energetic interaction in instructional method category, a teaching in a trustful atmosphere in instructional environment and atmosphere category, a teaching in which students could learn something through a teaching-related assessment in assessment category. Second, secondary science teachers thought that a self-directed learning, a differentiated instruction and a teaching with diverse materials are not important factors in good science teaching. Third, there is a difference between good teaching that secondary science teachers have conceived and good teaching that they have experienced. It shows that science teachers did not precisely understand what good science teaching is. Additionally, I discussed the need of finding a case on good science teachings and a support of an interaction-focused teaching.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.199-213
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to find out what pre-service teachers' views of as a good science class in evaluating class demonstrations. The study was conducted on 32 students in the second year of college who are attending teacher training schools located in central region, Korea. 32 pre-service teachers demonstrated the class with a group of 2 students, and a total of 16 lessons were demonstrated. They also evaluated the class by participating in 15 lessons except ones own class. Therefore all the collected evaluation papers were 480 sheets. This study analyze this evaluation paper and find out the good science class that earth science pre-service teachers think. As a result, the pre-service teachers' views of good science class analyzed by 3 categories. The three categories were 'Highly Engaged Instruction', 'Well-structured class design', and 'Qualitatively superior class materials'. In other words, the pre-service teachers' views that well-structured class design and active interaction were the requirements of good science class. This study confirmed that pre-service teachers can draw images of good science class through experience of class demonstration and class evaluation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2014

This study compares the perceptions of elementary gifted child and science teacher in a science class for the gifted. In order to explore the research problem, students and teachers answered a written semi-structured questionnaire and participated in interviews regarding the gifted science class. The data was collected and analyzed. Science teachers recognized the characteristics of a good science class, especially in terms of educational content and teaching methodology. First, they suggested promoting inquiry skills, presenting a challenging task in atypical topic selection, student-centered curriculum, and controlling the pace of learning to recognize individual differences. Second, in terms of the science class skills and attitudes category, teachers recommended raising mutual satisfaction through vigorous interaction within a permissible atmosphere. Finally, science teachers need to strive for continued professional growth. Gifted children, meanwhile, want to investigate a wide range of topics without time constraints. Additionally, they may have to explore challenging topics further. They prefer to act like scientists in that they enjoy group activities, communication and cooperation. In particular, they want to be evaluated by others in a totally embedded assessment. Gifted children also expect teachers to understand the life circumstances and needs of the students. In addition, they asked for teachers to respect individual experiments and to show them how to safely use new equipment or research methods. As a result, gifted children and science teachers have to recognize the differences of opinion concerning a good science class for the gifted. This study can help formulate strategies to establish quality management of materials in gifted science classes.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1002-1016
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate beginner and experienced Korean science teachers' perceptions about the science teacher preparation courses from which they graduated, and to compare them. The study was conducted as a qualitative study using in-depth interviews. For the study, interview questions were developed by the authors based on the questionnaire of 'The IMPPACT project' that was being conducted in America. The interview tool includes questions about their experience of science subject matter content knowledge, science pedagogical content knowledge, and general pedagogical content knowledge in their preparation courses. For the interview, seven beginning science teachers, less than five years of teaching experience, and five experienced science teachers, more than five years of teaching experience, were sampled from secondary schools in Korea. The research results are as follows: First, most of the beginner and experienced science teachers perceived that the teaching methods in the classes of science subject matter were not good model for teaching science in their secondary school, because they were not diverse enough and entailed mostly knowledge transfer just through lecture without teacher-student interaction. Second, most of the beginner science teachers perceived that they were affected positively by the teaching strategies and evaluation methods in the classes for science pedagogical subject matter and they could apply those strategies and methods in their current science teaching. Lastly, most of the beginner and experienced science teachers perceived that general pedagogical subject matter is important and prerequisite for science teaching in their schools, but the courses that they experienced at their university were not appropriate for their current teaching.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.180-208
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary students' perception of a good secondary science classes. Subjects were 18 secondary students who enrolled in alternative school located in Korea. The instruments of this study was a questionnaire which consisted of 18 items on 4 domains. Also data were collected from in-deep interviews and students' drawing. The results of the study were summarized as follows; First, students explained that good schools have the characteristics of the interesting and respectful atmosphere. Also there are good relationships between teachers and students. Second, they emphasized that good teachers are humanistic teachers. Third, good science classes are based on the constructivism in terms of the education methods. The results suggest that it may be necessary to remodel the merits of the alternative schools to solve the problem of public school. It is important to develop expertise of the science teachers in alternative school through teacher education programs based on the constructivism. Also it is necessary to provide appropriate learning space and various media for effective science teaching and learning in alternative school.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.144-154
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• 2003

This study investigated the common features of the best practices in the science classroom, which is the core of school education. The underlying assumption of this research is that the fulfillment of school education is possible with substantial instruction of school curricular areas. The substantial learning of any curricular area depends on each classroom lesson. Data from classroom observations in-depth interviews with teachers and a group of students, a collection of instructional materials were used to extract common characteristics of best practices implemented by 10 exemplary secondary-school science teachers. Common features of best science practices were analyzed in terms of (1)reorganization of science content, (2)pedagogical skills, (3)evaluation, and (4)teachers' efforts for professional development. Results indicated that exemplary science teachers adapted curriculum and textbook content according to students' level and learning context, were able to use a variety of instructional methods and strategies, provided cooperative and intellectually challenging learning environment, and improved their instruction based on assessment results. Also, these exemplary teachers not only improved their own classroom practices, but also participated actively in various professional community of science teachers to share their practical knowledge with their colleagues. They took an active role in teachers' in-service education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.271-294
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the meanings of science classes to elementary school teachers from a phenomenological perspective. Participants were twenty-eight elementary teachers who majored in elementary science education in a graduate school of education. The study revealed that meanings of science classes were not consistent but rather varied with what the teachers experienced. In their early career years, when the teachers were filled with enthusiasm, they devoted themselves to doing science-related school works as well as science lessons. But, the teachers were gradually concerned about good science teaching, and this concern became more severe as they realized the characteristics of science experiments and elementary school students. The teachers' concern did not actually develop into good science teaching practices because of such constraints as lots of school works, accidents in science labs, and household affairs. Despite these difficulties, the teachers revitalized their interest in science and resumed their effort for good science teaching. However, for "unfillable cups" to the elementary school teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.111-124
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to explore science teachers' perceptions of good science teaching. To this end, the Korean Teaching Observation Protocol (KTOP), which was developed for the purpose of observing and improving science teaching, was utilized. In the first survey, teachers were asked whether they thought each item in the KTOP was important for good science teaching, the extent to which they implemented these items, and the level of difficulty in implementing them. The second survey asked teachers what they believed to be the reasons and solutions for the KTOP items that they had responded as difficult to implement. The responses obtained from 63 teachers in the first survey and 35 teachers in the second survey were categorized based on the characteristics of the responses. The categorized contents were then summarized and discussed for their features. As a result, science teachers responded that all items in KTOP, except for one, are important for good science teaching. However, it was also shown that the level of execution was low in cases where implementation was difficult. For the 13 KTOP items that were considered important but difficult to implement and showed relatively low implementation level, many respondents (69%) attributed the reason to both students and teachers. However, the most common response (60%) was that the teacher should solve those difficulties. From this, it was found that understanding and supporting teachers, as well as enhancing their competencies, are more important for good science teaching than external factors. We hope that this research findings will help to better understand the specific difficulties that science teachers face in their classes and contribute to practical efforts that aim to address these challenges.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.451-465
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the challenges of pre-service teachers for good science teaching with focus on the process of imparting meaning of teaching subject. We have detailed research questions such as, 'What the pre-service teachers thought about teaching subject? How they grasped the meaning of the teaching subject? and What kinds of methods they have used to expose the meaning in their classes?'. We had four pre-service teachers who took the class 'Teaching methods in physics teaching' as voluntary participants in the first semester of 2017. The results show that there are common features in the process of imparting meaning of the teaching subject. The participants started to think about fundamental/existential answer to the question, 'Why should we teach science to students?'. In addition, they grasped the meaning of the teaching subject by using the specific key words. And they tried to link the teaching components with the teaching subject as the center. This challenging process led pre-service teachers to form teachers' identity and to enhance teacher professionalism.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.565-574
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the features of science classes of Science Core Schools (SCSs) perceived by students. 654 students from 14 SCSs were surveyed with two open-ended questions on the features of science classes. The students' responses were analyzed with NetMiner 4.5, in terms of the centrality (of betweenness and of degree) analysis and the community analysis. The results of the research are as follows: (1) the science classes of SCSs were perceived by students to be of the environment of free questioning, active participation and communication, caring teacher, more science experiments and advanced contents, and knowledge sharing; (2) science classes in SCSs were perceived to be different from those of ordinary high schools because SCSs provide more opportunities for science-related special courses (like project work, advanced science subjects), extra-curricular activities, inquiry and research activities, school supports, hard-working classroom environment, longer studying hours, R&E and club activities. The students' perceptions of SCS science classes appear to be in line with the characteristics of 'good' science lessons from previous studies. The SCS project itself and the features of SCS science classes would help us to see how we introduce educational innovations into actual schools.