• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.56-71
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to explore the role and effectiveness of argumentation structure and the developmental characteristics of science PCK with Earth science preservice teachers who used argumentation structure as a pedagogical reasoning tool. Since teachers demonstrate PCK in a series of pedagogical reasoning processes using argumentation structures, we explored the characteristics of future-oriented family resemblance-PCK shown by preservice science teachers using argumentation structures. At the end of the semester, we conducted in-depth interviews with 15 earth science preservice teachers who had experienced lesson design and teaching practice using the argumentation structure. Qualitative analysis including a semantic network analysis was conducted based on the in-depth interview to analyze the characteristics of preservice teachers' family resemblance-PCK. Results include that preservice teachers organized their classes systematically by applying the argumentation structure, and structured classes by differentiating argumentation elements from facts to conclusions. Regarding the characteristics of each component of the argumentation structure, preservice teachers had difficulty finding warrant, rebuttal, and qualifier. The area of PCK most affected by the argumentation structure is the science teaching practice, and preservice teachers emphasized the selection of a instructional model suitable for lesson content, the use of various teaching methods and inquiry activities to persuade lesson content, and developing of data literacy and digital competency. Discussed in the conclusion are the potential and usability of argument structure as a pedagogical reasoning tool, the possibility of developing science inquiry and reasoning competency of secondary school students who experience science classes using argumentation structure, and the need for developing a teacher education protocol using argumentation structure as a pedagogical reasoning tool.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.66-79
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the effects of the educational context variables on 8th-grade science achievement of 5 top performing countries(Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan) in TIMSS 2015. TIMSS 2015 science data and questionnaire results were used for fitting Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) in this study. According to the results, such student-level variables as home resources for learning, students' interest in science learning, valuing science, Students' Educational Expectations gave significant influence on the science achievement of Korean students. School-level variables including Student Economic Background, and School Emphasis on Academic Success gave significant influence on the science achievement of Korean students. Comparing 5 countries, home resources for learning, students' interest in science learning, Students' Educational Expectations gave significant influence on the science achievement in all 5 countries. At the school level, Student Economic Background is statistically significant in explaining students' science achievement gap in all countries except Japan, and Teaching Limited by Student Needs gave significant influence on the science achievement in all countries except Korea. Discussed in the conclusion are ways to improve middle-school science teaching and learning including reducing the education divide among socioeconomic status, teaching innovation for competency education, inquiry and reinforcement of lab activities in science classes, and so on.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.183-192
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• 2021

As part of the second-year monitoring study on the implementation of the 2015 revised science curriculum, this study investigated high school science teachers' perception and realization of instruction and assessment of elective courses to derive measures to settle and improve the science curriculum. A total of 244 high school science teachers responded to the survey questionnaire, and 9 teachers participated in interviews. In survey results, science teachers are contemplating ways to increase students' science competencies and their participation in classes, but still, lecture-oriented classes are most often used in their teaching. Regarding assessment, teachers responded that there were positive changes in all of the questions related to process-based assessment (PBA). Regarding the difficulty of managing science elective courses, teachers most often selected increased numbers of subjects being covered, overload of work, and the burden of restructuring classes considering various ways of teaching and assessment. Through in-depth interviews, teachers argued the difficulty for Science I courses to emphasize student participatory classes compared to integrated science, and the difficulty to implement student participatory classes for Science II courses, which are mainly placed in the third grade. Teachers also argue that it is necessary to secure time to implement PBA in science elective courses, and that there is no need to implement PBA for the science experiment since there are no tests on the SAT. Based on the results of the study, discussed in the conclusion are support plans for the settlement of PBA in elective courses, and the need for in-depth analysis of the direction and cause of student participatory classes and PBA at the school.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.625-635
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• 2019

Students are exposed to many visual representations in various visual cultures. Infographics combining visual representations and writing can effectively convey information. Also it can be efficient ways for teachers to focus on important contents. Students can use infographics as a method directly to organize information. Therefore, the infographics that students use both writings and images directly and visually will be more effective on elementary school science classes than the workbook. Classes are guided with the same scientific inquiry and experiment written on the science textbook. The experimental group students organized scientific inquiry by infographics, while the comparison group students still used the workbook. First, the types of infographics are determined by what students want to explain. Based on learning objectives, students used the right type of infographics to effectively convey their focus on information. Second, the infographics organizing activities used in the classes had a significant effect on students' academic achievement. Also, the infographics organizing classes are positively associated to science-related attitudes, including such+ as 'Leisure Interest in Science', 'Adoption of Scientific Attitudes', and 'Attitude to Scientific Inquiry'. Third, visual tendency and classroom treatments had no interactions, but the experimental group had a positive impact regardless of student's characteristics. Fourth, experimental group showed positive attitudes toward to students' perception of infographics. Since some of students had difficulties organizing information in infographics, further research is required to enable students to reduce their burden in application of infographics.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.460-479
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• 2021

The crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in education systems worldwide, including in Korea. Due to COVID-19's social distancing policies, the education system was suddenly switched to distance learning, resulting in many problems in primary schools without preparation. The purpose of this study was to investigate a teacher's awareness of science education techniques, responses to issues in science classes, including inquiry activities, advantages and disadvantages, and roles after experiencing distance learning. Survey and focus interviews were conducted for primary school teachers who had previously participated in distance learning, such as online content classes and real-time interactive classes. The study findings showed three conclusions: 1) Primary school teachers conducted one-way and interactive lectures in online classes. It is vital to improve a teacher's digital literacy to improve other teaching methods such as investigation and discussion in online classes. 2) Primary school teachers acknowledged the challenges of field feedback, inquiry item preparations, and safety in inquiry activities of science classes, by providing individual experimental packages and videos and using online discussion and feedback among teacher - student and student - student interactions. 3) Primary school teachers recognized that various types of classes using IT devices and individualized learning were possible as advantages of distance learning. As for disadvantages, it was acknowledged that inquiry activities, cooperative learning, immediate feedback, and interaction among students were challenging. Furthermore, learning gaps were wider in distance learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.49-61
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• 1985

In this study, I compared and analyzed the new and old secondary school science textbooks to find the charateristics of them and the differences between them. The results of the study are the following. Major concepts in the new textbook are almost similar to those in the old one. The-new textbook reinforces the functions of the introudction and checking the result of learning, and presents more and diverse learning materials and reduces the degree of learning difficulty by omitting the several abstract knowledges and mathematical formulas which can be understood through formal operational thinking. The results show that the new textbook is more effective in arousing student's interest and curiosity there fore it increases the efficiency of learning. But the new textbook is less suitable for inquiry because it is mainly composed of explanation and fact rather than experiment and observation. I think that this is the result from the actual approach to the real conditions of school when the curriculum was reformed and the new textbook was written.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.20-28
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• 2000

We examined how science teachers in academic high schools perceived the 6th science curriculum and how they practiced under the curriculum. A nationwide survey was administered to obtain the responses from 402 teachers of 135 high schools. Most thought that the main themes of curriculum revision were well-embedded in the 'objectives', and that the 'content and content structure' were proper. However, they thought that the 'objectives' were not stated explicitly enough to develop teaching materials and to improve actual teaching and evaluation, and that some statements in the sections of 'method' and 'evaluation' were not proper if considered actual teachers' ability to teach inquiry and educational facilities. Many teachers also felt that the information about the curriculum was not sufficiently included at in-service teacher training programs, and that students' knowledge, attitude, and problem solving ability were not enhanced. Only few teachers were found to apply the STS approaches, reconstruct lessons, vary the structure of learning group, and develop evaluation tools with their colleagues. The lack of the practices was explained by entrance-examination-centered instruction and assessment, poor educational facilities, and lack of innovative teaching materials.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.328-337
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• 2006

purpose of this study was to find out problems in experiments for electrolysis of an aqueous CuCl2 solution in high school science textbooks and to suggest an improved experiment considering students' capability of experimenting and laboratory safety in high schools. For this study, the experiments for electrolysis of an aqueous CuCl2 solution presented in 11 high school science textbooks were classified by their experimental methods. After high school chemistry teachers performed the experiments as presented in the high school science textbooks, an analysis was performed on problems of the experiments, and an improved experiment was devised. According to the results of this study, in the experiments for electrolysis of an aqueous CuCl2 solution using a U type tube and a U type tube with branch, reaction velocity of the electrolysis was slow, therefore, a side reaction was generated. In the experiment using a beaker, reaction of each electrode could not be observed separately. And in the experiment using an electrolysis instrument, it was difficult to identify property of the reaction product. In the improved experiment using a reaction vessel of ㅂshape, reaction velocity of the electrolysis was fast, reaction of each electrode could be observed separately, and the side reaction decreased. From these results, it was suggested that the improved experiment would help high school students understand scientific conception regarding electrolysis.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.368-376
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• 2016

Kimchi is a traditional food in Korea and its function in health is globally recognized. However, as the westernization and simplification of dietary habits, kimchi consumption has decreased. In order to promote Kimchi consumption in children, the kimchi educational contents, "Exploring Kimchi", which employs the scientific experimental activity, was developed. This contents was evaluated on its educational effect through a test trial in an elementary school. A total of 137 5th grade students in one elementary school located in Gwangju Metropolitan City, participated in 3 programs that were carried out for 3 weeks and performed a pre-post survey. As a result, the Kimchi Experience Contents employing the scientific experimental activity showed statistically significant positive effects regarding the benefits of Kimchi consumption, the recognition behavior for expressing the familiarity to Kimchi and Kimchi eating intention. In addition, the amount of Kimchi consumption after applying the contents showed a significant increase compared to before applying the contents.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.870-880
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to understand the change and characteristics of interactions in a heterogeneous group in scientific inquiry experiments. For this purpose, the process of students' interactions in small group activities were analyzed. This study focused on two, small heterogeneous groups of eighth graders. Students were involved in 13 scientific inquiry experiments for one year and students' interactions in each experiments were observed and recorded using video/audio and the data recorded were transcribed. The analysis of data was based on the method of making a note by looking and listening to the data repeatedly. Students' interactions in heterogeneous group changed toward that 3A (early formal operation student solved the problems by oneself and other students only listened to 3A student's explanation or copied the answer. The least able student was alienated from peers' interactions. In the meantime, new interactions of two middle level students were shaped. Educational implications of the progression of activities emphasizing interactions and the organization of grouping were drawn.