• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.64-81
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to analyse middle school students' images and perceptions about scientist, technician and engineer and to compare the images of male students with those of female students. Fralick et al.(2009)'s "Draw a scientist at work and draw an engineer at work" was modified and administered to 110 middle school 3rd grade students (43 male students, 67 female students) from 5 middle schools. They drew the figures at work and took explanation of what the person was doing in a drawing. The results of this study were as follows; First, the representative image of scientist was the man with glasses and lab gown performing the chemical experiment. There were no significant differences between the male students and female students in terms of the scientist images. Second, the representative image of technician was the man who was fixing a car and working with his hands. The technicians were illustrated as working with tools such as wrench, hammer and so on. There were no significant differences between the male students and female students in terms of the technician images. Third, the students involved in this study frequently perceived male engineers as working indoors. But perceptions about performance of engineers were significantly different between male students and female students. A majority of male students recognized that engineers should design, invent and create the products, however many female students perceived the engineers as car mechanics. Fourth, the students perceived differently the scientists' task compared with the technicians', but they had difficulty in distinguishing the scientists' task from the engineers' task.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.309-317
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• 2007

The purpose of the study is to investigate the effects of problem solving models and middle school students' recognition inproblem solving activities and to get implications of problem solving activities in science education. We took the position of problem solving as consisting of four sequential stages: search of problems, performance of the plan, presentation of results, and evaluation of the presentation. Taking into account thechosen activity factors for each stage of problem solving, we developed detailed activity tools that are supposed to guide the stage. Recognition of problem solving activities in 7th grade middle school students were positive. Students felt that problem solvingactivities made them engage more and interested in science classes, and that they were helpful in solving problems in everyday life. Even though they found real problems in everyday life, they preferred problem solving activities to deal with real problems rather than simple minded ones.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.337-348
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to examine epistemic thinking in middle school students in an argument-based inquiry science class. Participants of the study were 93 9th grade students from four classes of a middle school in a metropolitan city. Observations were made over one semester during which argument-based inquiry lessons on five subjects were conducted. Data was collected from argument-based inquiry activity worksheets and student questionnaires. After analysis of epistemic thinking in the written reflections, students were found to have the highest frequency of epistemic metacognitive skills, followed by epistemic cognition, epistemic metacognitive experience, and epistemic metacognitive knowledge. While investigating the effects of an argument-based inquiry science class on student epistemic thinking and after analysis of the reflections written for the first ABI activity and the fifth ABI activity, we found that all of the sub-elements of epistemic thinking have increased. The rate of growth for epistemic cognition is greatest, followed by epistemic metacognitive knowledge and epistemic metacognitive skills. Assessed for epistemic thinking, the level of epistemic thinking improved over the course of the argument-based inquiry science class. The results of the survey show that students actively participating and being recognized for their active participation in the argument-based inquiry science class are helpful in understanding scientific knowledge. Therefore, an argument-based inquiry science class is a teaching and learning program that allows students to understand and experience the epistemic nature of scientific knowledge and its construction through collaboration and agreement.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.274-282
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary and middle school (grade 5 and 7) students' perceptions of global warming and climate change. A total of 239 students completed opened-form questionnaire consisting of cartoons regarding global warming and climate change. The results showed that are as follows. Elementary and middle school students had low level of perception of global warming and climate change. A majority of students rightly believed that the global warming is related to greenhouse gases, glacier, environmental pollution, etc. Also, Many students had scientific concepts about the cause of global warming while some of the students had misconceptions that destruction of the ozone layer will cause an global warming. We have found that some of the students of elementary and middle school had confused between the cause of global warming and ozone depletions.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.63-86
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• 2013

This study aimed to explore how middle school students perceive constructed-response items and how they solve those items and the patterns of the processes. For this purpose, data were collected from middle school students through survey, written responses on those items that were developed for this particular purpose, and interviews. The survey data were analyzed by using Excel and the written responses and interview data qualitatively. The findings about the students' perceptions about the constructed-response items suggested that the middle school students perceive the items primarily as involving writing solutions logically(17%) and being capable of explaining while solving them(7%). The most difficulties they encounter when solving the items were understanding(26%), applying(12%), mathematical writing(25%), computing(23%), and reasoning(14%). The findings about the students' mathematical proficiencies showed that they made an error most in reasoning (35%), then in understanding(31%), in applying(9%), and least in computing(3%).

• 한국과학교육학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.02a
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• pp.70.2-70.2
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• 2009

• 한국지구과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.46-47
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• 2002

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.259-279
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• 2015

In this paper, we study the recognition and fallacy of middle school students about the concepts of liner equations and liner functions. We chose 163 8th grade students and 103 9th grade students in M city and investigate their recognition and fallacy about the concepts of liner equations and liner functions. We found following facts. First, middle school students recognize an equation with respect to x as an equation, but do not recognize an equation with respect to y as an equation. Second, middle school students tend to recognize a linear function as a constant function y=p. Third, middle school students tend to distinguish an equation and a function according to the form of an algebraic expression. Finally, middle school students discern the difference between an equation and a function using their concepts in textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.492-500
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate middle school students' and teachers' perception of psychological learning environments as well as the differences between them. This study sampled 503 middle school students and the 16 teachers who taught them. 'Psychological Learning Environment Instrument by Science Teacher' was implemented to collect data. Frequency analysis and descriptive statistics, as well as t-test, ANOVA were used for basic analysis of data. There were statistically meaningful differences in students' perception of psychological learning environments by gender, science achievement, science preference and self-efficacy in science. However, there are no differences in teachers' perceptions of psychological learning environments by gender, age, career year and major. The difference between teachers' and students' perception of psychological learning environments was not large, showing no statistical significance. However, teachers' perceptions of psychological learning environments was a little higher than that of students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.254-264
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• 2003

Researches on laboratory work show that students often achieve little meaningful learning through laboratory work. One reason for this failure is that students often do not know the different types of laboratory work and the 'purposes' of them. Therefore, this study investigated middle school student' ideas about the purposes of laboratory work. To seventh grade students(n=147) of middle school in Seoul, Korea, we asked (Question 1) "Why do scientists do laboratory work?" and (Question 2) "Why do you do laboratory work in science classes?" It was required a short essay including the reasons and examples of them. From the results, it was found that 56.8% of the students had ideas that scientists do laboratory work for discovering new facts or inventing something, and 82.9% of the students responded that they do laboratory work for understanding and memorizing the contents of science textbook. In addition, the differences according to gender and to school achievement level, and the relationship between the ideas about scientists' laboratory work and about school science laboratory work were examined. The results showed that boys responded 'social usefulness' more frequently than girl, while girls mentioned 'personal pleasure' more frequently than boys in relation to the purposes of scientists' laboratory work(p<.05). According to the achievement level, it was founded that 'middle' level students replied 'to remember' more frequently than high and low levels in relation to school science laboratory work. Finally, students who had ideas that scientists do laboratory work for verifying a theory had the similar ideas about school science laboratory work. In conclusion, students are lack of diverse and proper views about laboratory work. It is recommended that teacher need to make clear the purpose of laboratory work and help students to understand of it.