• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.75-88
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors affecting interactions as well as the students' learning process in small group activities. For this purpose, the changes and characteristics of students' interactions in scientific inquiry experiments were analyzed. This study focused on 2 homogeneous small groups of eighth graders. Students were involved in 13 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 on and listening to the data repeatedly. Changes in the interactions of the two homogeneous groups differ remarkably. In small group A, owing to the conflicts of students' emotions, learning through social interactions became to be impossible. On the other hand, the interactions in small group B became more active. It seems that this changes are affected largely by the existence of peers who are able to mediate different opinions or feelings among group members. In general, middle school students were poor at receiving peers' opinion, cared a lot about writing reports. The less able students tended to be placed at a disadvantageous position in experiment lessons emphasizing social interactions. Four factors that affected the change of interactions were identified: Is the aim of experiments the understanding or completion of report? Is there any attitude towards peers' suggestions? Is there a disposition to care about peers? Is there any peer to mediate on peers' opinions or feelings? Educational implications of the progression of activities emphasizing interactions and the organization of grouping were drawn.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.718-736
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• 2014

This study was intended to determine PCK of the middle school science teachers on Mendelian genetics and factors influenced to form their PCKs. Two science teachers with biology major with a teaching experience over 5 years were chosen as the subject. Data were collected by class observation, semi-structured interview, teacher questionnaire survey, Content Representation and Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoire. The collected data were analyzed based on Magnusson's PCK for science teaching consisting of five components: (a) the orientation toward teaching science, (b) the knowledge of science curriculum, (c) the knowledge of students' understanding, (d) the knowledge of assessment, and (e) the knowledge and belief in the instructional strategies to teach science. Teachers could have the orientation toward teaching science served as an assisting role to support students' abilities. Both subject teachers seemed to focus on giving lectures. Their efforts to improve students' exploration methods and abilities were not expressed enough in their real classes and they found that students struggled to understand Mendelian genetics. Therefore, they should have explained them in an easier way and worked harder to make their students understood accurately and applied basic and advanced concepts of Mendelian genetics. They found students' preconception and misconception regarding Mendelian genetics and wished to enhance their learning effects by various teaching strategies such as correcting misconception, adding the history of science and simply assessing students' affirmative domains. It was also found that factors influenced to form PCK regarding Mendelian genetics by both teachers were as follows: teacher's personality and endeavor, textbooks and guidance books, schools and their circumstances, teaching experience, experience as a learner, interaction with their colleagues, and university curriculum. Both teachers said that it was important for teachers to make every efforts to give better classes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.395-417
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• 2022

This study aims to analyze the correlation of creative personality, environment, process, and product as related to scientific creativity for different levels of elementary school students. We evaluated 105 fifth graders' responses to two tests: i) the scientific creativity test for creative process and product and ii) the self-report test for creative personality and environment. In the self-report test, creative personality comprises cognitive and affective personality, and creative environment constitutes home and school environments. To attain a deeper understanding of phenomena that cannot be explained by a quantitative analysis, interviews were conducted with four students who had the highest scores in creative product and four students who had the lowest scores in creative product while having higher-than-average scores in creative process. First, correlation of creative personality and environment were not significant. Second, in the interviews, students who had the highest scores in scientific creativity had common characteristics, namely, the ability to endure current difficulties to achieve future success and the propensity to listen to other people's ideas critically. Third, students who had the highest scores in creativity hailed from families that respected their opinions, whereas students with the lowest scores belonged to families that disregarded or neglected their opinions. Finally, this study specifies the criteria that should be considered for affective and environmental aspects of scientific creativity education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.256-270
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• 2011

This study was designed to explore how learners' participation develop if provided with opportunities for various scientific practices and experiences in writing science magazine articles as an extra-curricular club activity and what factors facilitate these participation development. Data from participant observations, in-depth interviews with students, and documents were used to extract the common characteristics of the practices. The learners' development was categorized into 3 stages in terms of participation in the community of practice: peripheral participation, transitional participation, and full participation. As participation develops, situational interest developed to individual interests and value attachment. Students sought to get ideas from every day life, and finally, in the stage of full participation, advances in writing showed the characteristics of knowledge transformation. Best of all, the participants enjoyed and valued their participation showing identities as journalists. The nature of science magazine article, external scaffolding, and internalization through enjoyment and value attachment appeared to be decisive factors that facilitate the development of participation. Student's enculturation of writing for learning offers a possibility that continue to do so, even after they have left formal schooling and make a basis for lifelong learning.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.82-92
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• 2023

In this study, we analyzed the perceptions of elementary school students about science learning and lab safety in the affective, behavioral, and cognitive domains. With respect to science learning, students indicated liking science classes more than average, being good at scientific inquiry more than average, and having more scientific knowledge than average. Compared with before the COVID-19 pandemic, student confidence in retaining scientific knowledge had decreased markedly. Of the eight student types in the students' awareness levels about affective·behavioral·cognitive domain, the HHH type-the most ideal-was also the most distributed. Students' preferred science class methods were experimental (72.7%) and nature inquiry classes (23.2%); science knowledge classes were ranked a distant third (4.1%). Preferred class locations were the science lab (58.1%) and different places from time to time (34.4%); the classroom was ranked last (7.5%). With respect to lab safety, most elementary school students did not have experimental classes, but more than half reported understanding how to use experimental equipment. Most students recognized the need to wear safety equipment in the lab. They were not only well aware of the associated physical protection functions, but also of the affective and psychological effects. Most students also recognized that first aid education is necessary, but only 31.5% reported understanding first aid methods. Based on those results, the implications for science learning and lab safety in school are discussed.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.71-86
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to apply After-school programs related to sub-chapter 'The Change of Weather', and thereby to investigate the effect of After-school program on science-related attitude and learning achievement of students, and interaction between treatment methods and students' learning ability. The subjects of study consisted of 2nd grade students of sixty four students in high school. Sixty four students were divided into two categories by experimental and control groups on the basis of midterm examination before teaching treatment. The experimental groups have received four After-school programs including making models of a weather front, measurement of wind, measurement of temperature and the dew point, making a three-dimensional weather chart which were developed by researcher for six times. The control groups have received the instruction through the conventional teaching methods. Seventy questions within seven frameworks of TOSRA have been used in this study as an evaluation instrument of science-related attitude. Learning achievement has been evaluated using an instrument developed by researcher. The scores of both pre-test and post-test were estimated by ANCOVA. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. (1) After-school programs were more effective in progressing the three categories of science related attitude of high school students i.e. pleasure of science class(p<.05), reception of scientific attitude(p<.01), attitude about a science research(p<.05) than conventional teaching methods. (2) Experimental groups showed statistically significant improvement on learning achievement than control groups(p<.05). (3) The effect of treatment methods on students' learning ability has been improved in experimental groups more positively than control groups(p<.05). High level students in experimental groups showed significant improvement on learning achievement than low level students according to the representing profile plot. But there were no significant interaction between treatment methods and students' learning ability(p>.05) In conclusion, the After-school programs have positive effect on the improvement of science related attitude and learning achievement.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.477-485
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• 2015

In this study, we tried to find the effects of carrying out infographics instruction based on visual thinking with the infographics materials presented in physics textbooks targeting specialized vocational high school students. Thus, 60 students were divided into the experimental group and the control group, the experimental group had 25 classes composed of 'infographics concept formation, infographics understanding activity, and infographics configuration activity', on the other hand, the control group were instructed by lecture-type class. The results of this study are as follows: First, features of the infographics created by the students include changes in types of presentation from 'simple arrangement' to 'simple reconfiguration' and from 'illustration' to 'comparative analysis', which were made by the visual thinking of the students activated in accordance with the increase of their configuration times. Second, instruction by using infographics, visual thinking significantly improved in the level of understanding, visibility, usability, and communicability. Third, after instruction using infographics, the mean score of the experimental group's achievement significantly improved. Fourth, there was a significant improvement in the area of 'normality of scientist, attitude on scientific inquiry, and scientific attitude' in the test of attitudes toward science. From the analysis results, we could conclude that instruction using infographics enhance students' understanding of scientific concepts and communication capability by improving visual thinking abilities, which have a positive impact on academic achievement and attitudes toward science.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.499-512
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• 2014

Architecture is usually seen as a product of art and technology. However, most historical buildings also exemplify various sophisticated principles of mathematics. Outstanding examples of architecture around the world such as Seokguram, Daewoongjun of Bulguksa, Muryangsujeon of Buseoksa, and the Parthenon provide students with a great opportunity to study their underlying mathematical properties and principles. The activity of identifying and investigating such mathematical principles in historical buildings enables students to realize that mathematics is a practical subject, and thus provides justification for the study and importance of mathematics. For the purpose of this study historical architecture was reviewed with this in mind in order to develop STEAM education materials focused on elementary school mathematics. The result of this study is as follows: first of all, appropriate examples of historical architecture were selected on the basis of the 2009 revised curriculum's content and teaching goals. These involved chapters on 'proportion', 'symmetry', 'movement of figures', 'building blocks', and 'triangles'. Secondly, a meta-analysis was performed on the historical buildings that clearly illustrate mathematical principles. Thirdly, STEAM education materials focused on elementary mathematics using architectural examples were developed which made actual application in classrooms possible. And lastly, surveys of professional groups were conducted to verify whether the produced materials were suitable teaching resources.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.495-504
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• 2018

This study was conducted to develop items to measure scientific core competency based on statements of scientific core competencies presented in the 2015 revised national science curriculum and to identify the validity and reliability of the newly developed items. Based on the explanations of scientific reasoning, scientific inquiry ability, scientific problem-solving ability, scientific communication ability, participation/lifelong learning in science presented in the 2015 revised national science curriculum, 25 items were developed by five science education experts. To explore the validity and reliability of the developed items, data were collected from 11,348 students in elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide. The content validity, substantive validity, the internal structure validity, and generalization validity proposed by Messick (1995) were examined by various statistical tests. The results of the MNSQ analysis showed that there were no nonconformity in the 25 items. The confirmatory factor analysis using the structural equation modeling revealed that the five-factor model was a suitable model. The differential item functioning analyses by gender and school level revealed that the nonconformity DIF value was found in only two out of 175 cases. The results of the multivariate analysis of variance by gender and school level showed significant differences of test scores between schools and genders, and the interaction effect was also significant. The assessment items of science core competency based on the 2015 revised national science curriculum are valid from a psychometric point of view and can be used in the science education field.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.371-389
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• 2018

This study focuses on the fact that students and teachers commonly have difficulty in 'selecting the topic' in many activities including student-led research that is conducted from topic selection to the drawing of conclusion. The purpose of this study is to develop a manual for science teaching research. The instructional manuals of 4 stages were developed based on practical knowledge that can be implemented in the actual class through previous research and literature. Each stage is composed of , , , and . In the third stage, students are expected to find scientific questions and develop them into research topics through detailed class research on newspaper articles, scientific magazines, traditional knowledge, proverbs, daily life, and textbook experiments. In the experimental group, the final research topic was selected through a variety of sources such as textbook experiments, proverbs, YouTube images, newspaper articles, individual WHY NOTEs, and understood the conditions of the scientific research topic and expressed the variables in the research title. However, in the control group, some students did not consider the research scope of the selected research subjects to be specific or not to be able to study at their level. As a result of giving the students as much autonomy as possible, many groups did not fully understand the previous research and submitted it. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that development and use of a 'topic selection stage' centered practice manual for general high school teachers would not only improve the students' abilities to discover solutions to scientific questions, but it will also help shift their attitudes towards science in a positive direction.