• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.253-268
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the elementary pre-service teachers' conceptions of 'color of gases' focusing on the survey from freshmen at a National University of Education. For the study, the views about 'color of gases' were surveyed from the pre-service teachers. And the responses were analyzed based on the patterns. The results from the study are as follows: First, the conceptions about 'color of gases' were divided into 2 top-level, 5 mid-level and 7 sub-level categories. Second, the number of students who answered 'certain gas has color' was significantly greater than those who answered 'every gas has no color'. However, only a small number of students who answered former understand the scientific meaning of color and the color of gases correctly. Third, out of 5 misconception categories, greater number of students answered with 'inaccurate scientific knowledge (Ma1)', so the category was classified again into five detailed sub-categories. Fourth, most of the students, who answered 'every gas has no color', stated "they have not seen any color gases through their lives" based on their own experience. Fifth, the distribution percentage for scientific conceptions vs misconceptions was not related with the students' gender but highly related with students' academic area and their science courses taken at high school. Sixth, the pre-service teachers have various types of misconceptions regarding the 'color of gases' and when they have to explain visibility of gases to other people they tend to pass on their misconceptions. Based on the results from the study, some educational guidelines were suggested.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.458-475
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the responses of pre-service elementary teachers to the plant learning using plant-observation activities and observation journal writings. Thirty pre-service teachers participated in this study. Before and after practicing plant observation and observation journal writing for 11 weeks, pre-service teachers' interest to plants, attitude to plant-observation teaching, and plant-observation teaching efficacy were examined using a questionnaire. Also, the observation journals, reflective journal writings, and interviews were analyzed to investigate their qualitative change. In addition, the pre-service teachers were classified by multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analysis with respect to attitude to plant-observation teaching and observation journal writing, and teaching efficacy. While the pre-service teachers showed significant increase of the interest to plants and plant-observation teaching efficacy, and positive change of the attitude to plant-observation teaching, there was a little difference between gender with more positive effects on females. The positive attitude changes of pre-service teachers included positive recognition about plants and the diversity, increased interest and curiosity about plants, careful observation about nearby plants, and independent learning and positive inquiry with plants. In terms of teaching efficacy, they showed positive change such as enjoyment and satisfaction with plant-observation, confidence as elementary teachers in the future, and recognition about the importance of elementary teachers for plant education. However, the changes were different among the groups classified by attitude to plant-observation teaching and observation journal writings, and plant-observation teaching efficacy.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.226-241
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to elucidate elementary school teachers' pedagogical content knowledge regarding the subject of "weight and pressure in water". 6 elementary teachers in charge of the 6th grade were selected for this study. The 7 hour lessons were observed over $15{\sim}20$ days, and a variety of data including scenarios, questionnaires for teachers, interviews of teachers were analyzed. As a result of this study, teachers who had long career histories thought that the purpose of teaching science was to teach the use of science principles, and teachers who had only taught for a relatively short time thought the purpose was satisfying students' curiosity. Most of the teachers felt that the science content knowledge related to buoyancy was insufficient. They had acquired most of the science content knowledge from teaming experiences in middle and high schools. The pre-service teacher education programs didn't help them to satisfactorily acquire the science content knowledge under analysis here. Most of the teachers taught the science lessons according to the order of sequence as shown in the science textbook. They didn't teach the contents that they thought were needed if they were not already included in the science textbook. Only one teacher who had taken science courses in high school managed the science classes freely according to his own thoughts and opinions. From the results of this research, it could be concluded that most elementary school teachers did not have enough pedagogical content knowledge to teach their students effectively.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.306-321
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• 2014

This study aims to analyze difficulties that pre-service elementary teachers experience in investigating the life cycle of a common cabbage butterfly in person. As difficulties they face during the process of this research, they pointed out collecting eggs, observing molting, creating environments for a breeding cage, feeding, building a breeding cage, and making butterfly specimens. Out of all the environmental difficulties related to their school fields, they pointed out a difficulty of time management most of all, followed by placing a breeding cage in the classroom and the lack of microscopes for observation. In regard to difficulties related to their evaluations on students' activities, they found it difficult to evaluate students' activity with the life cycle of an insect in the aspect of knowledge and even to set evaluation criteria. Besides, many of them responded that it would be appropriate to evaluate a research on the life cycle of an insect through a portfolio or an observation journal. In regard to difficulties in terms of teachers' knowledge, they found it difficult to understand insect molting, metamorphoses, complete metamorphoses, incomplete metamorphoses, the structure of an insect body, and how to distinguish a female insect from a male one. In regard to the application of class models, they knew it is important for students to have various experiences through direct observation, so the experience-based learning model was proper for the process of observing the life cycle of a common cabbage butterfly. However, they found it difficult for students to observe each stage of the life cycle in person.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.273-285
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• 2014

Purpose of this study is to analyze eye movements of pre-service teachers and elementary students about a visual material of the change on the lunar phases. Eye-Tracker was used for analysis for eye-fixation time and eye movement at the structure, behavior, function question on the visual material. The Results were as follows. First, the pre-service teacher checked the visual materials from a holistic perspective depending on the function questions and fixed eye-fixation on the moon of the behavior question concerned. On the contrary, elementary school student only checked function of the moon located in the upper part and eye-fixation focus was spread here and there regardless of the questions. Second, the pre-service teacher gazed at the sun, earth and moon in a consecutive order depending on the questions to identify their spatial relations and checked location of the moon related to the question. On the contrary, the elementary school student did not view relations between earth, sun and moon from a spatial perspective. These findings indicate that the pre-service teacher conjures up the mechanism of the change on the lunar phases and confirms it in visual materials by visualizing change on the lunar phase model from earth's point of view while the elementary school student fails to take advantage of visual materials to visualize it from earth's point of view.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.401-414
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the elementary preservice teachers' conceptions about 'plastics' focusing on non-polar property from a National University of Education. For the study, the views about plastics, relative shapes of a water droplet on plastic or glass material, and relative shapes of water surface in the plastic or glass measuring cylinder were surveyed from the preservice teachers. And the responses were analyzed based on the patterns. The results from the study are as follows: First, most preservice teachers were well aware of the plastic products which are used in daily life. Second, the responses concerning the reason why plastics can be used commonly were divided into 2 categories with 14 sub-level groups. However relatively few preservice teachers mentioned regarding 'chemical stability' and 'conductivity', which are associated with the plastics' non-polar property. Third, it was found that 50 participants (30.1%) had 'Scientific conception (Sc)', 38 (22.9%) had 'Partial-scientific conception (Ps)', 66 (39.8%) had 'Misconception (Mc)', and 12 (7.2%) had 'No conception (Nc)' on the subject of the relative shapes of a water droplet. Fourth, the distribution patterns and the ratio of the preservice teachers' conception on the survey question 3 concerning the relative shapes of water surface were quite similar to those of the survey question 2. So it was concluded that overall understanding level of the preservice teachers was pretty low on the subjects of the relative polarities of the plastic, glass, and water as well as their interactions. Fifth, the distribution percentile of 'Sc'/'Ps'/'Mc'/'Nc' was not related with the gender but highly correlated with preservice teachers' academic field and their science subjects taken in high school. Based on the results from the study, some educational guidelines were suggested.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.335-351
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• 2014

The 96 elementary school teachers' the degrees of understandings about the characteristics of the currents according to the connection methods of batteries in simple electric circuits were investigated. In this study, the concepts on the characteristics of currents according to the connection methods of batteries were divided 'the learned concepts' and 'the differentiated concepts'. The characteristics of the currents in the region of the larger resistance of load than the internal resistance of a battery were called the learned concepts, they are taught in the science curriculum. While the characteristics of the currents in the region of the smaller resistance of load than the internal resistance of a battery were called the differentiated concepts, they are not exposed clearly in the science curriculum. The results obtained in this study are as follows: The average score related to the learned concepts was relatively high, while the degree of the teachers' cognitions of the internal resistance of a battery and the resistance of wires were low. Also the average score related to the differentiated concepts was very low because it seems so new to the elementary school teachers. It strongly suggests that the elementary school teachers did not understand meaningfully the characteristics of the currents related to the connections of batteries on the ground of the cognitions of the internal resistances of batteries and the resistances of loads in simple electric circuits. Hence, they might experience difficulties due to the problems occurred in relation to the connections of batteries in the elementary school science lessons.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.172-180
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• 2014

The first purpose of this study is to distinguish difficult chapters in 'Speed of objects' chapter and find the factors which give difficulty to the teachers and students. Also, it attempts to compare the students' assessment scores with the degree of difficulty in teaching and also with the degree of difficulty in learning. This report is expected to help science teachers develop their PCK(Pedagogical Content Knowledge) for teaching the chapter professionally. 15 teachers who had taught the 'Speed of Objects' chapter and their 386 students took part in the survey to acquire information about the difficulties in teaching and learning. 386 students also received a test to examine their understandings of the chapter. The results of this study are as follow; First, the degree of teachers' and students' difficulty is only affected by the contents, and the degree of onerousness felt by teachers is higher than that of students. Second, The topics caused higher difficulty to teachers were 'Understanding the meaning of motion(2nd lesson)', 'Understanding the meaning and unit of speed(5th lesson)', 'Changing unit of speed(6th lesson)', 'Drawing a distance-time graph(7th lesson)', and 'Understanding the relative motion(10th). The topics that led higher difficulty to students were the contents of 5th, 6th, and 7th lessons. Third, the 'Speed of Objects' chapter can be divided into 4 types of difficulty according to the degree of teaching and learning; 'Strong difficulty', 'Learning difficulty', 'Weak difficulty', and 'Teaching difficulty'. Last, students showed low achievement to the tasks that were related with 'Strong difficulty' and 'Teaching difficulty'.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.484-495
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in geological contents knowledge and self-confidence before and after the geological field trips. Fifty seven undergraduate students at a national university of education participated in this study. The questionnaires were developed by the researcher to serve the purpose. Findings were as follows. First, before and after the geological field trip, there was no significant difference in changes of geological content knowledge (p<.05). However, participants' self-confidence about the geological field trip changed significantly (p<.01). Second, there were no significant differences in changes of both variables in terms of gender (p<.05). And in this study, participants were grouped into two: science track that selected science areas and non-science track with social study selected in the college scholastic ability test. There were also no significant differences in changes of geological contents knowledge and self-confidence in terms of science or non-science track (p<.05). Third, in terms of the geological content knowledge, 24 pre-service teachers showed an increase, 12 students unchanged, and the 21 participants decreased. In contrast, per participants' self-confidence about the geological field trip, fifty three students indicated an increase with only one participant unchanged, and three preservice teachers decreased on the score. Finally, after the geological field trip, participants' comments indicated that they could feel the mystery of nature with the mind of a great experience. As a result, data showed that pre-service teachers became interested in geology, and motivated more in learning geological area than ever.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.524-534
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• 2011

This study is to ascertain pre-service teachers' conceptions for the causes of season change, to verify their conceptional mistakes, and to analyze how their conceptions are changed while presenting Disproof-Experiment Model where they cannot explain it with their current conceptions. 32 junior students of Education universities, pre-service elementary teachers, located at the middle of Korea participated in this research including two interviews and one experiment activity. As a result of analyzing of the data, the pre-service teachers held diverse conceptions for the causes of season change such as to mistake the phenomena, the distance between the earth and the sun, the tilting of the rotation axis and the revolving around the sun while changing the tilting direction of the rotation axis as the cause. After applying Disproof-Experiment Model designed by the researchers in order to change the current conception above, the conception changes of the pre-service teachers were investigated. Diverse Disproof-Experiment Models were used differently depending on the pre-service teachers' conceptions. As a result of the application of Disproof-Experiment Model, 26 out of 28 pre-service teachers were changed to scientific conceptions. It was determined that in order to modify pre-service teachers' conceptions, designing and presenting the Disproof-Experiment Model appropriate to their conceptions are effective after analyzing their conceptions. In case of conceptions that pre-service teachers feel difficult, it was established that unraveling experiment models prescribed after investigating the preconceptions and identifying the misconceptions are important.