• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.256-266
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to use DARTs (Directed Activities Related to text) to foster inquiry problems while actively engaging accelerated gifted elementary students in the field of earth sciences. This study is continually evolving in the classroom on the proposition that accelerate the scientific thought whether inquiry problems show any change according to the extent of prior background knowledge through DARTs. Researchers appointed the accelerated gifted elementary students with 14 investigation problems and it was their duty to not only classify the inquiry problems, but to analyze using interviewing methods according to type classification framework. Many scientific terms were used concretely in the inquiry problems that were propose after DART. The students gave a direct effect to the inquiry problem to be proposed according to the level of the content that it is presented in the DARTs worksheet. As a result, the NP-IP type and the EC-IP, NC-IP inquiry problem type proposed above much as a whole in DARTs former and prior. Particularly, the EMC-IP type and etc. was variously proposed after the DARTs. And the students proposing the inquiry problem of above average proposed the inquiry problem of the EP-IP type much unlike the general average student after the DARTs. The EC-IP, NC-IP and NF-IP type were changed much after DARTs used. Particularly, the EC-IP and NC-IP type were changed much.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.359-370
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to explore the changes caused by using smart technology in school science inquiry. For this, we investigated 12 elementary school teachers' perceptions by using an open-ended questionnaire, group discussions, classroom discussions, and participant interviews. The results of this study indicate that the introduction of technology into classroom inquiry can open up the various possibilities and can cause additional burdens as well. First, teachers explained that smart technology can expand the opportunities to observe natural phenomena such as constellations and changing phases of the moon. However, some teachers insisted that, sometimes, learning how to use new devices disrupts students' concentration on the inquiry process itself. Second, teachers introduced the way of digital measurement using smart phone sensors in inquiry activities. They said that digital measurement is useful in terms of the reduction of errors and of the simplicity to measure. However, other teachers insisted that using new devices in classroom inquiry can entail additional variables and confuse the students' focus of inquiry. Communication about inquiry process can also be improved by using digital media. However, some teachers emphasized that they always talked about both the purpose of using SNS and online etiquettes with their students before using SNS. Based on these results, we discussed the necessity of additional analysis on the various ways of using digital devices depending on teachers' perceptions, the types of digital competency required in science inquiry using smart technology, and the features of norms shaped in inquiry activities using smart technology.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2010

Large Midwest university faculty members proposed the Science and Technology Enhancement Program Project (STEP) to improve students' learning in the secondary mathematics classroom using modules of inquiry-based teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of the STEP Project on students' attitude toward mathematics. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) were used to evaluate the impact of the STEP Project. The sample group for the study was 130 ninth grade students enrolled in Integrated Algebra I in a large urban school district. The school was one of eight secondary schools that participated in the STEP Project. The classes in the treatment group were three of five classes ordered in terms of the highest, middle, and lowest mean GPA. The control group consisted of two other middle GPA classes. The classes had an average of 25 students. Teachers who previously had been involved in the STEP Project taught all treatment and control classes. The inquiry-based teaching activities provided by the project were confined to the treatment classes. The survey measuring students' attitudes toward mathematics were obtained for both groups of students. The inquiry-based teaching affected students' attitudes toward mathematics (p < 0.07, ES = 3.07). Especially, students who had preexisting low attitudes toward mathematics were significantly affected by treatment (p < 0.02, ES = 0.02), while the treatment positively affected African American students overall at p < 0.08 (ES = 0.58).

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.421-431
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of portfolio instruction on the creativity and scientific inquiry ability of 6th-grade students in science classroom. Four classes were sampled from an urban elementary school in southern part of Seoul. Two classes were assigned to experimental group and the other two classes to control group. Portfolio instruction was administered to the experimental group for 10 weeks, and traditional instruction to the control group. Data on students' creativity and scientific inquiry ability were collected prior to and after the treatment for both groups. Students' perception on portfolio instruction was investigated with experimental group after the treatment. The results of this study are as follows: (1) Portfolio instruction had a significant positive effect on creativity; (2) Students' originality, one of sub-domain of creativity, showed marked increase after portfolio instruction; (3) Portfolio instruction had a significant positive effect on scientific inquiry ability; (4) Integrated inquiry ability, a sub-domain of inquiry ability, improved meaningfully after portfolio instruction; and (4) Students' perception on portfolio instruction is very positive.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.88-106
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• 2023

This study aims to investigate the disparity between the teacher's perception of student-centered inquiry classes and the actual implementation of such practices. Specifically, we compared an elementary science teacher's self-perception of her science lessons with the observers' evaluation using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP) of the "Temperature and Heat" unit. Research data were collected through classroom teaching survey, interview, and science lessons video which were analyzed using the RTOP. As a result of the study, the teacher recognized that she was practicing inquiry-oriented/student-centered classes, but the results judged by the RTOP score were found to be transitional/student-affected classes by a slight difference. Teacher H planned and practiced classes based on a high understanding and content knowledge of the curriculum and created a science classroom culture that promotes active interaction among students as well as students and teachers. However, teacher-led aspects were still emphasized in teaching design and implementation, and the project theme and content were inappropriate to improve the quality of students' science inquiry experience. In the end, the slight difference between teacher's perception of inquiry-oriented/student-centered classes and actual implementation is related to how student-centered "lesson design" is and how to plan and implement classes supported by "procedural knowledge" for students' experience in the science inquiry process. These results indicate that the teacher's self-evaluation alone is not enough to determine whether the teacher's intentions and efforts are actually being implemented, and that it is necessary to conduct objective analysis, evaluation, and discuss the results of science classes by the external observers.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 2013

The previously developed practical inquiry activity supporting tools, deduced from the design principles and implementation principles based on the study of precedent researches and theories, applicable to conceptual learning in engineering education were implemented to an on-line learning community, a web-based Windows application, to find out its effectiveness in actual classroom situation through experimental research. The On-line learning community includes the inquiry activity menu to implement learning procedure of inquiry based conceptual learning, the functions supporting the communication among participants, the information sharing function, the scheduling function of class and inquiry activity, the mentoring function, and the evaluation of on-line activities of learners. Experimental study were also conducted in order to analyze the effects of inquiry activity supporting tools on inquiry based conceptual learning in engineering education.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.160-175
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• 2004

This study examined the knowledge and practices of scientific inquiry displayed by three student teachers and two beginning teachers at secondary levels. Observations using the instrument of OTOP designed by the research team of OCEPT (Oregon Collaborative for Excellent in the Preparation of Teachers) generalized similar teaching strategies of scientific inquiry between student and beginning teachers, such as using group work for students' first hand experience, using concrete materials for experimentation or visual tools for demonstration, using questions for factual knowledge mainly without opportunities to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed. Those scientific inquiry activities were very confirmative ones to follow the steps without opportunities of understanding nature of science or nature of scientific inquiry. However, all participants in this study hold knowledge of scientific inquiry envisioned by the National Science Education Standards [NSES] (NRC, 1996), where students identify their hypothesis, use critical and logical thinking, and consider alternative explanations through argumentation as well as experimentation. An inconsistent relationship between participating teachers knowledge and practices about scientific inquiry resulted from their lack of pedagogy skills of implementing it in the classroom. Providing opportunities for these teachers to reflect on their beliefs and practices about scientific inquiry was recommended for the future study. Furthermore, increasing college faculty interest in new teaching approaches for upgrading the content knowledge of student teachers and beginning teachers was recommended as a solution, since those teachers showed evidence of influence by college faculties at universities in their pedagogy skills.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.209-229
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• 2005

This study investigated kindergarten teachers'experience and perception of the practice of mainstreaming for young children with disabilities. Ethnographic research methodology included participant observation and in-depth interviews. Participants were 8 teachers of classrooms mainstreaming young children with disabilities. Results were that: most mainstreaming classroom teachers perceived the necessity of the practice of mainstreaming for young children with disabilities in the kindergarten. They felt the necessity of whole mainstreaming in the kindergarten. Most mainstreaming classroom teachers recognized that mainstreaming classroom teachers need to have professional knowledge for the successful practice of mainstreaming young children with disabilities in kindergarten.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.620-636
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze one science teacher's understanding of student argumentation and his explicit teaching strategies for implementing it in the classroom. One middle school science teacher, Mr. Field, and his students of 54 participated in this study. Data were collected through three semi-structured interviews, 60 hours of classroom observations, and two times of students' lab reports for eight weeks. Coding categories were developed describing the teacher's understanding of scientific argumentation and a description of the main teaching strategy, the Claim-Evidence Approach, was introduced. Toulmin's approach was employed to analyze student discourse as responses to see how much of this discourse was argumentative. The results indicated that Mr. Field defined scientific inquiry as the abilities of procedural skills through experimentation and of reasoning skills through argumentation. The Claim-Evidence Approach provided students with opportunities to develop their own claims based on their readings, design the investigation for evidence, and differentiate pieces of evidence from data to support their claims and refute others. During this approach, the teacher's role of scaffolding was critical to shift students' less extensive argumentation to more extensive argumentation through his prompts and questions. The different level of teacher's involvement, his explicit teaching strategy, and the students' scientific knowledge influenced the students' ability to develop and improve argumentation.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.45-57
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to guide and apply gettable and accessible materials around everyday life into classroom instruction, and to find out their effects on student academic achievement. In order to achieve it, this study was tried to develop and guide available materials around life in teaming activities, to provide a preliminary assignment that could apply the available materials, and to compare its academic achievement to one from field trip loaming. For the hypothesis testing, first, the experimental and comparing classes were selected based on the results of basic learning diagnostic evaluation, which conducted by the researcher being served as a full-time science teacher of the third and sixth grade of K elementary school in Kwangju for 2 years. Secondly, the instructional use of the available materials around life was applied to the experimental class. Also, the instructional use of the existing materials was applied to the comparing class. Finally, for the testing of the effects on academic achievement, the posterio test was implemented after conducting the experimental instruction in knowledge·understanding, inquiry process, and attitude domains classified by the unit characteristics. Using SPSS/WIN program the t-test was performed in order to compare the differences between the two groups. Major findings were as follows: 1) In the achievement test of knowledge·understanding domain, there were no significant differences at the 5％ level between the experimental and comparing classes. It could be difficult to say, therefore, that the instructional use of the available materials around life was more effective than the instructional use of the existing materials. However, it had some effects on differences between the third grade final achievement test and sixth grade experimental class. 2) In the achievement test of inquiry process domain, there were some significant differences in that the sixth grade experimental class was higher than the third grade out-of classroom experience unit. It was indicated that the instructional use of the available materials around life had some effects on improving the students' inquiry ability 3) In achievement test of attitude domain, there were some significant differences. It was shown that the self-evaluation test of the sixth grade experimental class unit was higher than that of the third grade out-of classroom experience unit; Especially, the learning activities in the experimental class were more active, and the experimental practice ability was improved. It was presented that the instructional use of the available materials around life had some effects on the students' academic achievement in attitude domain. It was concluded from this study that the instructional use of the available materials around life was less effective on Knowledge understanding domain, but was effective on improving their scientific inquiry ability and interest on science education.