• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.499-508
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• 2015

The purposes of this study are to investigate elementary students' perception of science classroom through an analysis of students' answer to an open-ended question and to suggest a framework for the analysis of science classroom culture, as the first step to develop an analysis tool for qualitative exploration of science classroom culture. We analyzed 571 responses and developed an analysis framework with six categories (i.e. major factors; power structure of a classroom community; focused domains of the science classroom; student concerns; atmosphere of science classroom; participation form). The details of the six categories can be summarized as follows: (1) major factors were revealed to be practical work, fun, teacher, community and others; (2) the power structure of classroom community was in the order of peer students, teacher, and individual student himself/herself; (3) the focused domains of the science classroom perceived by students were more about affective and behavioral domains than cognitive one; (4) major student concerns were teachers' teaching, having practical work, and the understanding of and the sharing of knowledge and opinions (5) science classroom atmosphere was noisy and pranky but fun and interesting; (6) the students participation forms were to be total participation or voluntary participation or cooperative practice. Through this study, not only suggesting the framework, but we could also get implications for the cultural aspects of science classroom based on the results of data analysis in this study.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.100-116
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction of science PCK between two elementary school teachers by the teacher collaboration within the school. We chose the case that two teachers collaborated spontaneously in the 5th-grade science classes. Even though they had similar teaching experiences, one of them had the science PCK while the other did not. As a result of this study, two teachers began to collaborate to avoid comparisons of science classes between them. They shared the same teaching plan but practiced science teaching individually. During they taught science, they usually collaborated on the instructional sequences, student's activities, and the content of assessments. They had an in-depth collaboration when the teacher who lacked the science PCK asked help to teach problem-centered learning by science inquiry. During the collaboration, their science PCK components, especially the knowledge of instructional strategies for teaching science, shared and it affected the teacher's science practices who lacked the science PCK. However, they did not usually share the knowledge of teaching for their everyday science classes because two teachers had the perception of noninterference about their science classes. This case has the limitation that it is hard to generalize the results but teacher collaboration shows the possibility to develop the elementary school teachers' science professionalism by having peers in the school who can help them in science classes.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.109-120
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• 2022

Fraction division is the content that is important but difficult to learn because it includes the process of finding a numerical expression in the real-world context, the process of making a context that matches a numerical expression, how to solve division, and the justification of standard algorithm. This study analyzes the word problems and problem solving methods about fraction division which elementary pre-service teachers represented. Pre-service teachers have more difficulty in making word problem where the dividend is less than the divisor and they also show typical errors in making the word problems. There were differences in the methods presented according to the contexts of division in problem solving. Through this study, it is necessary to rethink the teaching methods for fraction division instruction in the curriculum for pre-service teachers and analyze the formation process of 'knowledge for content and teaching' because of the differences in responses between grades.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.254-261
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• 2017

This study is to investigate preconception of elementary school students and Belizean elementary school teachers and to devise experiment to understand a cause of seasonal change. An open-ended questionnaire and interviews were conducted for 91 6th grade students who didn't learn seasonal change and 10 Belizean teachers to find out preconception of seasonal change and they were categorized by using inductive analysis. They thought that the Earth's rotation, the distance between the Sun and the Earth, the Earth's revolution, pollution and climate change cause seasonal change. And it found out that these misconceptions come from difficulty in awareness of space and impreciseness of textbooks and books and so on. The experiment was designed to correct inaccurate preconception and to improve lessons of seasonal change. It is to measure a meridian altitude and a length of daytime and nighttime and to compare them. This experiment can help to understand the cause of seasonal change by measuring natural phenomenons like the meridian altitude and the change of length of daytime by model.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.297-304
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• 2020

This study is to find out experiments of Earth's revolution and which experiment is effective by school level. Researcher investigated and developed eight experiments for students to learn Earth's revolution. Twenty six pre-service teachers did these experiments, discuss about them, chose an effective experiment of Earth's revolution and wrote the reason why. As a result, they thought that an experiment of seasonal constellations is effective for elementary school students, an experiment of seasonal star's spectrum is effective for secondary school students and an experiment of the superior planets' retrograde motion is effective for university students. Pre-service teachers gave reasons such as hands-on experience, connection with textbooks, background knowledge and higher-level thinking.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.396-404
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• 2010

This study aimed to investigate a perception of teachers engaged in special education for scientifically gifted regarding nature of science and identify attitudes toward teaching nature of science. The sample of this study consists of 122 science teachers who are teaching or taught students attending gifted classes of any primary school in Korea and any gifted education center of every District Office of Education. We made a partial amendment of a VOSE that was developed by Chen(2006) and then used. We tested their perception and attitudes in regard to nature of science. In terms of nature of science, we devide it into 7 sub-areas to analyse. For attitudes toward teaching nature of science, we investigate and analyse following 5 sub-areas; tentativeness of scientific knowledge, nature of observation, scientific methods, theories and laws and subjectivity and objectivity. The result showed that the generally teachers have a desirable recognitions about a nature of science. For attitudes toward teaching nature of science, the teachers showed that they have positive attitudes. However between degrees of teachers' recognition about a nature of science and attitudes toward teaching nature of science showed a low correlation. To increase their understanding of nature of science and develop attitudes toward teaching nature of science, there should be more training time for the teachers and training contents also should be changed. In addition, we hope that this study contribute to develop contents and direction of training for the teachers as a basic reference.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.122-135
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• 2024

The purpose of this study was to analyze the examples presented in the "Separation of Mixtures" section of the 2015 revised science authorized textbook introduced in elementary schools in 2022 and to see how the teachers and students understand the concept. To do that, 96 keywords were extracted through three cleansing processes to separate the elements of the mixture presented in the textbook. In order to analyze the teachers' perceptions, 32 teachers at elementary schools in Gyeonggi-do received responses to a survey, and a survey of 92 fourth graders who learned the separation of the mixture with an authorized textbook in 2022 was used for the analysis. As a result, as for the solids, 54 out of 96 separations (56.3%) showed the highest ratio, and the largest number of cases were presented according to the characteristics of the development stage of students. It was followed by living things, liquids, other objects and substances, and gasses. By analyzing the mixture, the structure and the interrelationships between the 96 extracted keywords were systematized through the network analysis, and the connection between the keywords, which were a part of the mixture was analyzed. The teachers partially responded to the separation of the complex mixture presented in the textbook, but most of the students did not recognize it. Because the analysis of the teachers' and students' perceptions of the seven separate categories presented in the survey was not based on a clear conceptual perception of the separation of the mixture, but rather they tended to respond differently for each characteristic of each individual category, it was decided that it was necessary to present clearer examples of the separation of the mixture, so that the students could better understand the concept of separation of mixtures that could be somewhat abstract.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.932-951
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• 2013

This study was initiated to address multicultural students' science learning, which is expected to be our assets for the next generation. By understanding their ideas of science learning and cultural context, we intend to encourage them and urge our science education communities to be interested in multicultural science education in Korea. We interviewed elementary and secondary school multicultural students, their parents, and teachers who have ever taught them. The interview revealed that they needed language-based support to improve their science learning. It seemed to be a serious problem that teachers' and students' expectancy toward multicultural students were low. We should put into practice scientific literacy for all students through the multicultural science education in our own context with school-based systematic support.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.901-921
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary teachers' views on the barriers in implementing inquiry-based instruction in science education. For this, semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with 22 elementary school teachers who have served for more than five years in the Gyeonggi province. The interview questions were developed through triangulation of Seidman's phase to achieve reliability in the interview data, then interview questions were modified and completed through an analytic induction method in pre-interviews. In-depth interviews were performed individually and all the interviews were recorded. The data of teachers' views on the barriers were categorized and analyzed into external and internal factors of teachers. The study found that the external factors referred by teachers included the following; the lack of a unit time, lack of materials and equipments, too many students in a class, problems in science curriculum management, difficulty in the assessment of students' inquiry activities, the students' learning, lack of opportunities for teaching inquiry activities, harmfulness of accidents, and so on. Internal factors included the following; lack of preparation for inquiry activities, lack of self-confidence, lack of patience, and so on. The various barriers presented and their causes were analyzed in detail, and possible efforts in activating inquiry activities in elementary science education were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.319-327
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• 2023

This study involved 22 students in one class of 4th year science intensive course at B College of Education. We investigated the changes in the acquisition of knowledge in the field of geology and the perception of geological exploration among pre-service teachers. For this study, a period of four weeks was designated for a semester to a geological field trip. For the geological exploration, the Geoparks of City B (Geumjeongsan Mountain, Amnam Park, Igidae, Dusong Peninsula, Jangsan, Taejongdae, and Hwangnyeongsan Mountain) were designated. The concept of geology and rocks has been extracted from the concepts that can be found in the Geopark. The composition of the group was composed of one group of four members autonomously. The other two of the pre-service teachers joined a group of friends with whom they had an affinity. After the geological field trip, the materials were organized by group and PPT presentations were made during the lecture time where all the members could listen. The extent to which the pre-service teachers acquired the concepts of geology and rocks after conducting the geological field trip was interpreted as the result of pre- and post-statistical processing. In addition, we interpreted what kind of perception the pre-service teachers had after the geological field trip as a result of the statistical processing before and after. Based on the results of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: First, it was effective for the pre-service teachers to acquire the concepts of strata and rocks after the geological field trip. The reason for this is that the experience of the pre-service teachers in conducting geological field trips has changed their perception of geological field trips. In addition, it is interpreted that these results were obtained because the pre-service teachers had a high level of interest in geology and rocks. Second, the pre-service teachers were able to gain confidence after the geological field trip. This reason is interpreted as the fact that they were able to gain confidence in geological exploration by exploring and experiencing the sites of the Geopark for each group.