• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.245-262
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• 2009

This research was to examine the understandings of elementary school teachers on the phenomena related to light and image, and to survey their perception change related to learning contents of optics. The subjects were selected from the elementary teachers who were enrolled in a graduate course, 'Science education seminar' at an education college located in Chungchungbuk-Do, South Korea. Among the five students who exposed their perceptions clearly in the class, the three of them were selected who agreed to the proposal of the case study. To achieve the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews following the conception test with the 3 elementary teachers were conducted. During the analysis of the data, additional interviews by phone, e-mail, and internet messenger were conducted if necessary. According to the results, all of the elementary school teachers lacked the scientific conceptions of the phenomena related to light and image. Unfortunately, their learning experiences did not help them to understand the scientific concepts. During the interviews, the teachers recognized the importance of the viewpoints of seeing, image, cognition of light, point light source to understand the phenomena related to light and image.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.108-116
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of elementary students and teachers in relation to life phenomenon. Students seemed to strongly agree with the notion of vitalism as well as with organicism. However they clearly disagreed with the notion of mechanism. Contrary to our supposition, their viewpoints on lift phenomenon were highly affected by their relative levels of academic achievement in science subject areas, rather than by their religious affiliations. One possible explanation for this outcome is that elementary schoolers have not firmly established religious views, though they might indeed have a religious affiliation. High-achieving children in science subject areas seemed to agree with both vitalism and organicism (p<.01), and it is suggested that those students must have had more opportunities to encounter related cases in modem science or life ethics. Teachers agreed with all three views, showing the highest rate of approval in organicism. Though they appeared to agree with mechanism, they were strongly opposed to radical mechanism generally arguing that 'organism and machines were essentially the same'. Student responses indicated that TV had a bigger influence on their viewpoint on life phenomenon than teachers did. This means that children held certain views about the relative significance and influences of teachers vis-a-vis TV in daily life, and is also reflective of a perception amongst students that teachers do not how the significance of viewpoints on lift phenomenon.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.468-474
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the elementary pre-service teachers' interest in biological topics and activities. The instrument to survey the interest of them consists of 8 domains containing 27 topic items and 7 domains containing 12 activity items(three-point from 0 to 2 Likert scale). Data were collected from 108 pre-service teachers. The interest level in the topics was high, but the interest level in the activities was average. There was not different between interest levels of females and males in both topic and activity components (p > .05). Among the topics, the 'genetics' domain correlated strongly with the domains of 'nutrition and digestion', 'circulation', 'respiration' and 'nervous system', and the 'respiration' domain correlated with the 'circulation' domain(r >.450, p<.01). The correlation between the domains of 'out-of class experience activity' and 'visual information activity', and 'experimental performance following procedure' and 'discussing and debating'(r >.450, p<.01). This results suggested that the educational contents including learning materials and experiential activities be developed to activate the interest of elementary pre-service teachers in biology.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.418-427
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to describe the elementary teachers' teaching behavior procedure in verification-type laboratory instructions. In order to do this, we should know first what constituted the teaching behavior elements in the teachers' instructions, before the teaching behavior can be analyzed. Thirty sets of instructions were recorded and their transcripts were used in this study. The results of this study indicated that the number of teaching behaviors numbered twenty four in total, and that the teaching behaviors could be classified into nine categories, and finally the procedure used in verification-type laboratory instructions generally followed seven steps. These steps can be described as follows; reminding subjects of the preliminary learned concept, presenting inquiry type questions or introducing the main concept, explaining the method used or presenting the predictable outcome/matter for verification, performing lab-based activities, presenting the outcomes, applying the main concept, and finally closing the instruction. For the purpose of promoting more authentic scientific inquiries using these types of instructions, the authors's claims were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.404-414
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• 2009

The revised curriculum in 2007 includes open inquiry approach to increase students' interest in science and to build up creativity. So teachers and pre-service teachers should be equipped with the ability of open inquiry performance. In order to investigate pre-service teachers' readiness to perform open inquiry tasks, we analyzed reports written as homework by a group of 71 juniors in a national university of education. The investigation tool was composed of four domains: topic selection, the inquiry process, the conclusion, and reporting. Each domain had three or four sub-domains. By using the framework, four raters scored the students' inquiry reports. The findings reveal that the pre-service elementary school teachers have difficulty in the domain of 'topic selection' and the 'conclusion' compared with the other domains. Under the topic selection domain, they showed weaknesses in 'creativity' and 'scientific topic' and under the conclusion domain, they had difficulty in 'recognizing limits' and 'value of conclusion'. The finding suggests that pre-service teaching program should provide with opportunities to perform open inquiry continually.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-31
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary student teachers' conceptions about the mechanism of the greenhouse effect, the greenhouse gases, the global warming, and their learning experiences of the greenhouse effect and the global warming. Participants were 82 student teachers in their second year of studies (science education: n=28, not science education: n=27) and in their fourth year of studies (science education: n=27). The open-ended questionnaire was used to examine the teachers' spontaneous ideas depicted by their drawings and/or writings. The results of this study are as follows: First, the student teachers' scientific response rate about key concepts related to the mechanism of the greenhouse effect was low (6.1%~28.0%); Second, although there are various greenhouse gases, it was only carbon dioxide that the student teacher's response rate was more than 80%; Third, only 17.1% of the student teachers clearly distinguished the greenhouse effect and the global warming; Fourth, there was a tendency that the student teacher group in the fourth year of studies and science education showed higher scientific response rate about the concepts than the other two groups.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.47-59
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception about STEAM education of primary teachers who have developed and applied STEAM education to their students through teacher training program. For this study, 101 among 172 attendance are responded to questionnaire of three categories consisting of development and application teaching material for STEAM instruction, and spreading STEAM education. The major findings are as follows: First, when primary teachers develop materials for STEAM education, they consider applicabilities in real classes. Second, they feel the burden of time when they develop STEAM material. Third, they think that their own program has significant educational effectiveness and that students enjoyed the program. Especially, they think that STEAM education program can raise students' interest about learning. Fourth, primary teachers point out the constraints for application of STEAM education program, which are lack of expertise and difficulty acquiring class time. Fifth, primary teachers evaluate the effect of STEAM education program on primary education is positive, and they answer that we need many teaching materials for STEAM education, operating as a regular curriculum, and securing budget. In order to spread STEAM education in field of primary education successfully, administrators have to consider and reflect the voice of teachers.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.447-460
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• 2017

This study asked preservice elementary teachers to conduct an inquiry of observing the moon, and analyzed the phenomena observed, difficulties experienced, and pedagogical suggestions by the preservice teachers. Participants were 31 undergraduate students enrolled in a science course in a university of education. As a part of the course, the preservice teachers observed the moon for about a month and completed personal journals which described the phenomena they observed, difficulties they experienced, and the pedagogical suggestions to help elementary students conduct the same inquiry activity. The analysis of the journals revealed that the preservice teachers observed the moon mostly during the evening or night and that they noticed lunar phases, directions, altitudes, and color and brightness more frequently than other phenomena. The preservice teachers experienced difficulties related to the observation time, lunar phases, directions, and altitudes, and, reflecting on their own experiences, suggested a variety of pedagogical ideas about these difficulties. The pedagogical suggestions by the preservice teachers also included how to help elementary students keep their interest and perform the moon observation for a rather long period of time. Implications for moon investigations in the elementary school science classroom and relevant research were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.405-427
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• 2017

This study aims to describe various teaching cases about 'earth revolution' in terms of PCK; knowledge of curriculum, knowledge of teaching strategies and knowledge of assessment. Based on these various cases we suggested PCK progressions about 'earth revolution'. For these, we recorded 'solar system and star' classes of nine elementary school teachers' in Kangwon, Gyeonggi, Gwangju, and Seoul. We adopted Lee & Lee (2016)'s topic-specific PCK framework to analyze the classes. As results, we suggested topic-specific PCK progression about 'earth revolution'. The results showed the upper anchor of the earth revolution class were exploring the reason of the change of constellation, finding the tendency of constellation change. These teachings were carried by the teachers' adaptive strategies. The upper anchor of the assessment was monitoring students' understanding during the whole class. The PCK progression about 'earth revolution' could help the teachers plan the earth revolution class, and reflect their own teachings.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.89-95
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to examine elementary teachers' perception on birds and problems on teaching it. For this study, the science textbooks from 3rd grade to 6th grade according to the 7th national curriculum were analyzed. Results revealed that, firstly, there were 34 bird species recorded and these were described 55 times in the surveyed textbooks. Secondly, the survey showed that $20\%$ of the teachers were interested in birds despite the fact that $98\%$ of them had no special knowledge about birds nor had studied them in college. Additionally, it was revealed that $41\%$ of the teachers felt lacking in specialist knowledge about birds and this lead to difficulties in teaching on this subject. Thirdly, academic backgrounds had an affect teachers' perceptions on teaching this area. The teachers' levels of interest in birds and the teachers' ratio of teaching on this topic tended to increase as their academic careers developed, and the proportion of male teachers in this category were higher than female teachers. To overcome difficulty in teaching on this area, it is suggested that a reconstitution of subject materials, as well as a revision of the teachers' guidebooks be undertaken.