• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate the middle science teachers' perceptions on science lessons with experiments. The study conducted a survey for 110 science teachers participating in inservice program. The middle school science teachers taught classes with lectures rather than with experimental activities. They had an experiment one to three times a semester in their lessons. They did an experiment to follow to what the textbook said, or to confirm it, like a cookbook style. The most teachers answered that they had over average ability to teach both lecture and experiment. Through the experiment, they expected students had interests and curiosity on science. Despite the advantages of experiments, there were many constraints to conduct experiments, such as teachers' excessive work, laboratory conditions, education environment, and others. It was demanded on continuous interest and investment in the variation of educational environment so that teachers can experiment more often.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.421-431
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to identify instructional components supporting students' interest and creativity in American middle school science classrooms. Two 7th grade classrooms were selected, and observed for 11 class periods each. Results showed that hands-on and small group activities were the most effective ways to increase students' interest. The teachers' instructional approaches, such as individualized paced teaching, sufficient peer teaching, permissive atmosphere, various media, and purpose-focused summary game were found to influence students' interest. To enhance students' creativity, increasing interest, making hypothesis, and trying to various experimental method with sufficient time were identified as effective components.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.249-252
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• 2011

이 연구는 중학교 과학 수업의 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습에 대한 효과를 검증해 보고자 하였다. 연구의 목적을 달성하기 위해 먼저 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습과 관련된 문헌 고찰을 통해 연구의 수행에 필요한 이론적 기반을 마련하였다. 중학교 1학년 과학 내용 중에서 연구 단원을 선정하여 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습 모형을 제시하였다. 연구대상은 경기도 김포시에 위치한 'K'중학교 1학년 학생들 중에서 사전 학업성취도 검사와 학습태도 검사에 의해 동질집단으로 확인된 2개 학습 79명이다. 연구대상 중 1개 학습 40명을 실험대상으로 선정하여 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습의 실험을 실시하고 통제집단에는 기존의 면대면 협동학습을 실시하였으며 실험이 끝난 후 두 집단의 학업성취도 및 학습태도 변화 차이를 비교 분석하였다. 결과 분석은 SPSS Ver.12.0을 이용하였으며 학업성취도는 다변량 분산분석(MANOVA)을 하였고, 학습태도는 독립표본 t검정을 통해 분석하였다. 분석한 연구의 결과 첫째, 중학교 과학 수업에서 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습은 면대면 협동학습과 학업성취도에서 유의미한 차이가 나타났다. 또한 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습 실험집단이 면대면 협동학습 통제집단보다 학업성취도의 하위 영역 중 기억 영역에 그 효과성이 두드러짐을 확인하였다. 둘째, 중학교 과학 수업에서 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습은 면대면 협동학습과 학습태도에서 유의미한 차이가 나타나지 않았다. 연구 결과를 토대로 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습은 첫째, 학습자들로 하여금 자료 수집, 분석, 정리 단계에서 정보의 공유를 통해 적극적으로 학습을 유도하였다고 예측할 수 있다. 이는 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습이 면대면 협동학습보다 학업성취도 향상에 효과적인 교수학습 방안으로 제시될 수 있음을 의미한다. 둘째, 중학교 과학수업에서 온 오프라인 혼합 협동학습은 학습자의 학습태도에 효과적이라고 확신할 수 없다. 따라서 학습자의 교과에 대한 학습태도의 향상을 위해서는 교수 학습방법을 다각화하고 교과와 학습목표에 맞는 적절한 학습방법의 지속적 활용이 중요하다고 판단된다.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.269-277
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• 2016

Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of cases that have formed and operated teachers' learning communities through cross-curricular consulting at the school level. The purpose of this study is to explore cross-curricular instructional consulting as an activity of teachers' learning communities at the school level, and investigate the effect of cross-curricular instructional consulting on middle school science teaching. We analyzed features and limitations of cross-curricular instructional consulting revealed in three case studies in middle school, including open classes and instructional consulting sessions, and conducted additional instructional consulting on the same videotaped science classes with science experts from outside. According to the results, science inquiry experiments are often replaced with text reading and interpreting, students' misconceptions and exact scientific representations are ignored, and the goal setting as well as class coverage has been questionable and disputable in science classes resulted from cross-curricular instructional consulting. Discussed in the conclusion are the necessity of cross-curricular instructional consulting in middle school, and ways to overcome limitations of the method of cross-curricular instructional consulting, including alternatives to a praise-only policy in cross-curricular instructional consulting, ways to use cross-curricular instructional consulting without compromising the subject's essence, and ways to improve the undue authority of consultants.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2013

This study investigated how the unique educational contexts in the Republic of Korea (RK) impacted two science teachers' teaching practices in a public middle school and what the science teaching experience means to them. In particular, we explored how the middle school science teachers decide pedagogical approaches to use in their teaching based on classroom climate, students' attitude toward learning science, school curriculum and classroom culture. Using a phenomenological research approach, we analyzed classroom observation data and interview data to interpret the teachers' science teaching experience. Results of the study showed that the teachers' practice was dominantly affected by two external factors. First, the teachers' teaching practice was affected by the amount of science content knowledge they need to cover within a given class time. Second, the teachers' teaching practice was affected by students' attitudes toward science learning and their science preparedness in private tutoring centers. Implications of the study results are discussed in the paper.

• 대한지구과학교육학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.34-35
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• 2010

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.331-339
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• 2008

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) with the traditional laboratory experiment on science classes in middle school. MBL tools were developed and applied for five experiment subjects chosen from middle school science textbook for MBL experiment classes, while usual experiment methods suggested in the textbook were used in traditional experiment classes. In order to evaluate the effects of MBL experiment class, achievement, graphic ability, science process skills, affective aspect related to science were tested before and after applying the MBL experiment. The result revealed that MBL experiment class was more effective than traditional experiment class in improving student's science achievement, science process skills, and graphic ability. The result also indicated that there was a significant difference between experiment and control group with regards to the effect on affective aspect related to science. From the above result, we can find the positive implication of applicability of MBL experiment as a new experiment tool at the early stage of introduction in a real context.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.295-313
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the teaching strategies used in the teaching practice of teachers charged with science-gifted middle school students. For this study, 4 teachers belonging to a professional gifted education institute were selected. Data for the study were classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, report of students, and photographs. The data were analyzed through the constant comparison method. As results show, the four teachers used different teaching strategies, and the teaching strategies had a close connection with each other. According to the learning types they chose themselves - acceleration or deepening - they used different teaching strategies. The 4 teachers' teaching practice were clearly different in teaching strategies, classroom atmosphere, interaction style between teacher-student and student-student, and report draw-up style. The teaching strategies identified in this study may be helpful to the teachers short in teaching experience in organizing their lessons and promoting their specialty in teaching for science-gifted students.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.91-101
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• 2011

In this study, Jigsaw III cooperative learning strategy and traditional learning strategy have been applied to the 'electricity' chapter of grade 8 science textbooks to know the effects of learning strategy, gender, and GPA on the students' science achievement and science learning attitude of middle school female students in gender-separated classes. For this purpose, 143 students of 4 classes in separated classes were chosen from a middle school in Daegu. One female class and one male class were assigned to the experimental group and other female class and male class were assigned to the control group. Traditional learning strategy was applied to the control group and the Jigsaw III cooperative learning strategy was applied to the experimental group. Four worksheets for expert groups were used for 18 hours through 5 weeks. Both tests for science achievement and learning attitude were administered as pre and post test. The test results were analyzed through analysis of covariance(ANCOVA) as pre test score as covariant The overall conclusions of this study were as follows: The Jigsaw III cooperative learning has improved science achievement, especially on subjective-type questions, of female students and mid-lower level students. The Jigsaw III Cooperative Learning has also improved self-directed attitude toward science learning. Female students have expressed more positive opinion about the Jigsaw III cooperative learning.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.11-23
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• 2023

In this study, we examined the effect of socioscientific issue (SSI) based science lessons on underachieving 9th-grade students. A total of seven lessons centered on two SSIs related to the national science curriculum were developed and implemented during the first semester of 2021. Data were collected from 185 9th-grade students in one middle school in a mid-sized city of South Korea. Among them, 37 were identified as achieving far below the standards (underachieving students hereafter). Quantitative data were collected from pre- and post-tests on basic science content and attitudes and competency measures. To supplement quantitative data, lesson observation notes were recorded, and student interviews with a selected number of students were conducted. The analysis of quantitative data was conducted through the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test and paired t-tests. Qualitative data were analyzed to find reasons for changing attitudes. The findings showed that the SSI-based lessons were more effective on underachieving students than the others in enhancing basic academic achievement, while there was no significant effect on all in attitudes and competency. Lesson observation data showed that underachieving students were more engaged in SSI-based lessons than before. Student interviews demonstrated several reasons why they were engaged, suggesting the aspects of SSI-based lessons that facilitated underachieving students' learning. Further research topics are suggested.