• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.509-541
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• 2014

There was a great need to consider a core competency-based approach as a new direction of the science education for gifted students according to the value and vision of the 21st century knowledge-based societies. Therefore we developed a core competency model of scientist and examined its validity as a prerequisite for a core competency-based education of science gifted students. In order to this, the survey was conducted after developing questionnaire through the theoretical review of the various resources such as paper, book, and newspaper articles and the qualitative analysis of the behavioral event interview, and then an exploratory factor analysis was performed to validate the factor structure based on the results of the survey. The results revealed that the core competency model with the 5 cluster units of competency and the 15 core competencies was potentially constituted. And the reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the core competency model were verified through the confirmatory factor analysis. The cognitive cluster consisted of 5 competencies and they were as follows: creative, comprehensive, exploratory, analytical, and conceptual thinking competency. The achievement-orientation cluster consisted of 3 competencies and they were as follows: initiative, preparation & problem solving, and strategic influence competency. The scientific attitude cluster consisted of 3 competencies and they were as follows: flexible thinking & attitude, passion for research, and views about science competency. The personal effectiveness cluster consisted of 2 competencies and they were as follows: diverse experiences and global attitude competency. Finally, the networking cluster consisted of 2 competencies and they were as follows: personal understanding and communication competency. Findings were expected to provide the basic data for developing programs and establishing strategies based on the core competency as well as introducing the core competency model of scientist to science education for gifted students effectively.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.221-235
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• 2007

Open problems can provide experiences for students to yield originative and various products in their level, because it is open with respect to its departure situation, goal situation, or solving method. Teachers need to pose and utilize open problems in forms of solution-finding or proving problems. For this we first have to specify which resource and method to use by concrete examples. In this article, we exemplify a method and procedure of posing an open problem by the two cases in which we pose open problems by reorganizing given closed problems. And we analyze students' responses for the two posed open problems. On the basis of these, we reflect implications for mathematical education of open problems.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.506-521
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• 2020

This study aims to develop a scientific creativity task which science-gifted elementary students can conduct on a field trip to a botanical garden, and to analyze the results from conducting the task. For this, 38 science-gifted fifth-graders from the Science-Gifted Education Center, located at the Office of Education, participated in a field trip to a botanical garden, as a part of their program. Prior to the program, researchers developed a scientific creativity task for outdoor education program, along with science education specialists and teachers. The tasks were to observe plants, and to create something new and useful, or, in other words, scientifically creative, based on the plants' characteristics. The students could submit at most three ideas. Also, they assessed their own ideas, and selected an idea that they thought was the most creative. The results were analyzed by using the scientific creativity formula. The main findings from this study are as follows. First, it was found that the scientific creativity formula had an upward bias in assessing originality. Second, the students tended to assess the usefulness of their own ideas more generously. Third, the correlation between self-assessment results and scores from the scientific creativity formula for originality was r=.43. Fourth, in formula-based assessments, the correlation between originality scores and usefulness scores was relatively high, at r=.56. Fifth, the correlation between a student's scientific creativity score and the number of his or her ideas was very low, at r=.23. Sixth, when the ideas chosen as the most creative by students were compared with the ideas that had the highest scores in formula-based assessments, it was shown that 8 out of 19 students (42.1%) did not choose the idea that appeared to be the most creative when graded by the formula. This study is concluded by discussing the lessons from the scientific creativity task analysis for primary science education and gifted education.

• School Mathematics
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.315-330
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• 2012

Mathematics educators have tried to teach mathematics to all students who are at any mathematical level by differentiated math instruction from late 1990s in Korea. The common differentiated math instruction separates students into two or three groups according to their mathematical ability and then different activities and tasks are given to each group. This kind of instruction fosters negative attitudes to mathematics to low level students and fix them at low level. So I investigated new mathematics instruction considering able students and low attainers at the same time. This new method is based on using open problems in math class. All students can respond to an open problem in different ways. If teachers could relate all varieties of answers got from students at every level to build good understanding the concept which the problem target at, low attainers could move to their potential developmental levels. This kind of instruction can change low math attainers' negative attitudes to good ones to mathematics and foster their confidence in performing mathematics.

• Journal of Creative Information Culture
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.57-64
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• 2020

As the information society gradually advances, various opinions overflow and their complexity increases. As the results, it was made more difficult to derive important issues and properly respond to those problems. Accordingly, it is necessary to get a handle on emerging problems in education in addition to existing discourses and issues. This study aimed at examining the issues of education by analyzing the petitions posted under 'parenting and education' category on National Petition board. In order to offer objective and detailed results, we employed the topic modeling based LDA algorithm, which is an effective method to extract topics in multiple documents. Nine topics were derived as the result of the analysis and the relationship among those topics was visualized. The values of this study exist in that the derived topics represent important issues that reflect the public opinions.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-32
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• 2000

Although it is widely acknowledged that enhancing creativity is an important educational theme on which schools should depend and embody their educational goal and activities, how to do it can be characterized as 'piecemeal' without a whole picture of it. Thus, school practices of creativity education has been disoriented, discontinuous, short-term, and peripheral in nature. In this practical context, a theoretical model of creativity education was developed in ways in which several theoretical concepts based on research findings on a variety of aspects of creativity education were compiled and organized. The core of the model was creative problem solving process to which the goals and the mediating variables of creativity education were connected in relational fashion. By giving repetitive opportunities for creative problem solving geared to producing the results that are novel and useful for the individual as well as the socity, it was conceptualized that two educational goals could be achieved: a short-term goal of developing creative potential of the individual and the long-term goals of self-actualization of the individual and contribution to the society. It is also conceptualized that creative problem solving can be influenced in positive manner by several mediating variables: content knowledge and skills, creative cognition, creative motivation and attitudes, and creative environment. The creative environment is composed of psychological and physical conditions and provides a basis for creativity education. The former three variables are conceptualized as necessary conditions for the effectiveness and efficiency of creative problem solving, when provided appropriately. The four mediating variables ware conceptualized as mutually affecting so that the development of one variable influences positively that of the other, and vice versa. In terms of practical perspective of teaching creativity, developing creative potential, self-actualization, and contribution to society are the goals; creative problem solving process is the methodology; content knowledge and skills, creative cognition, and creative motivation and attitudes are the content; and creative environment is the condition of creativity education. The model is not yet perfect but needs further explorations to make it more detailed in clarifying various relationships. For instance, how the creative problem solving process can be differentiated in teaching various subject matters is yet to be explored. Thus, the model proposed in this study should be regarded as a general model of creativity education, and is relatively sound to be adopted in school practices since it is based on the theoretical as well as empirical study findings on creativity. However, the proposed model needs to be validated through empirical researches in real teaching settings.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.631-658
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• 2011

The impact of the academic achievements of science high school graduates during the science high school period on their creative productivity, higher education, occupation, and income were investigated with 244 science high school graduates who belonged either to top 30% or bottom 30% in terms of their high school GPA. The factors contributed to the choice of current occupations and life were also investigated through retrospective approach. Survey questionnaire was administered to 244 adults who graduated from 18 science high schools before 2001. Thirteen graduates who completed questionnaire were interviewed face-to-face. Their ages ranged from 28.00 to 42.84. The high achievers were belonged to top 30% and the low achievers were belonged to the bottom 30% and the two groups demonstrated significant differences in their higher education and creative productivity. More doctoral degree holders and more number of creative products were found in the high achievers than the low achievers. 58.1% of the high achievers and 42.7% of the low achievers were working as professional scientists. Significantly more high achievers were working on tasks which require creative problem solving abilities and their income was significantly higher than the low achievers. For both groups, parents were the most significant individuals and then teachers were the second most important persons who impacted to their life and the choice of their occupation. Interviews with 13 graduates confirmed the survey results especially in their choice of life style and occupation. They were also influenced the most by parents, then teachers, and their friends who were more interacting with the socioeconomic environment when they selected university, major, and occupation. The results implies that high school achievement has significant influence on their future achievement to some extent and schools need to provide guide on the career choice not only to the students but also to their parents, since students' career choices are much influenced by their parents.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.256-271
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• 2018

The study aimed to investigate how the science gifted connect and integrate science concepts in the process of problem finding. Research subject was sampled from 228 applicants for a science gifted education center affiliated with a university in 2015. A creative problem solving test (CPST) in science, which administered as an admission process, was utilized as a reference to sample two groups. Sixty-seven students from top 30% in test scores were selected for the upper group and 64 students from bottom 30% in test scores were selected for the lower group. The CPST, which was developed by researchers, included one item about how to connect two science concepts among eight science concepts, sound, electricity, weight, temperature, respiration, photosynthesis, weather, and earthquake extracted from elementary science curriculum. As results, there were differences in choosing two concepts among four science major areas. The ways of connecting science concepts were characterized by three categories, relation-based, similarity-based, and dissimilarity-based. In addition, relation-based was characterized by attributes, means, influences, predictions, and causes; similarity-based was by attributes, objects, scientific principles, and phenomena, and dissimilarity-based was by parallel, resource, and deletion. There were significant (p<.000) differences in ways of connecting science concepts between the upper and the lower groups. The upper group students preferred connecting science concepts of inter-science subjects while the lower group students preferred connecting science concepts of intra-science subject. The upper group students showed a tendency to connect the science concepts based on similarity. In contrast, the lower group students frequently showed ways of connecting the science concepts based on dissimilarity. In particular, they simply parallelled science concepts.

• Proceedings of the Korea Information Processing Society Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.1502-1504
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• 2011

최근 소셜 네트워크를 이용한 학습 방법이 활발하게 연구되고 있다. 동일한 영역에 지식을 공유하고 새로운 정보를 웹에서 생성하는 등 집단지성 학습자들이 계속적으로 늘어가고 있으며, 특히 IT 학습을 위한 온라인기반 교육은 관심도와 직군에 따른 집단지성을 통한 효과적인 학습 성취도를 높일 수 있다. 따라서 본 연구는 웹 기반을 중심으로 한 IT집단지성 학습자들의 개인차를 파악하고, 각 특성에 따른 다양성을 적용하여 학습과정 중 자신에게 적합한 학습경로를 파악하여 학습의 지속적인 진행에 있어 정확한 자료를 제공하고 효율적인 학습의 진행이 이루어져 성취도를 높일 수 있도록 학습 성취도 예측 시스템을 연구 개발하는 데 그 목적이 있다. 이를 위해 먼저 IT습자들이 자신의 개인차를 파악하기 위해 학습의 유형, 학습몰입, 인지적 능력, 개인적 성향, 창의적 성향 등을 활용한 검사도구의 개발이 선행되어야 한다. 다음으로, IT 전공자 혹은 비전공자를 대상으로 예비조사를 실시하고 그 결과를 바탕으로 학습 성취도 예측을 가능하게 하기위한 시스템을 설계하고자 한다. 향후 본 연구의 결과로 학습자의 학습 성취도를 향상시키고, 예측 결과에 의한 집단지성 그룹을 좀 더 효과적으로 운영 할 수 있는 시스템을 구축할 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.159-219
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• 2016

Mathematical ability is important for academic achievement and technological renovations in the STEM disciplines. This study concentrated on the relationship between neural basis of mathematical cognition and its mechanisms. These cognitive functions include domain specific abilities such as numerical skills and visuospatial abilities, as well as domain general abilities which include language, long term memory, and working memory capacity. Individuals can perform higher cognitive functions such as abstract thinking and reasoning based on these basic cognitive functions. The next topic covered in this study is about individual differences in mathematical abilities. Neural efficiency theory was incorporated in this study to view mathematical talent. According to the theory, a person with mathematical talent uses his or her brain more efficiently than the effortful endeavour of the average human being. Mathematically gifted students show different brain activities when compared to average students. Interhemispheric and intrahemispheric connectivities are enhanced in those students, particularly in the right brain along fronto-parietal longitudinal fasciculus. The third topic deals with growth and development in mathematical capacity. As individuals mature, practice mathematical skills, and gain knowledge, such changes are reflected in cortical activation, which include changes in the activation level, redistribution, and reorganization in the supporting cortex. Among these, reorganization can be related to neural plasticity. Neural plasticity was observed in professional mathematicians and children with mathematical learning disabilities. Last topic is about mathematical creativity viewed from Neural Darwinism. When the brain is faced with a novel problem, it needs to collect all of the necessary concepts(knowledge) from long term memory, make multitudes of connections, and test which ones have the highest probability in helping solve the unusual problem. Having followed the above brain modifying steps, once the brain finally finds the correct response to the novel problem, the final response comes as a form of inspiration. For a novice, the first step of acquisition of knowledge structure is the most important. However, as expertise increases, the latter two stages of making connections and selection become more important.