• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.82-92
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• 2003

This qualitative research describes unique features of seven exemplary science teachers' professional development activities. Description of excellence in effective teachers' professional development efforts will provide some insights into required inservice initiatives and support systems for teachers' professional learning. Exemplary science teachers' professional development activities can be classified into four types: (1) practicing classroom supervision, (2) participating in voluntary communities of teachers, (3) playing instructional leader roles in teacher training programs, and (4) continuing one's studies at a graduate school. One of the common features of these exemplary teachers was that they can both articulate what makes teachers professionals and practice in accordance with their perspectives. These exemplary teachers not only improved their own classroom practices, but also participated actively in various professional communities to share their practical knowledge with their colleagues. The teachers have formed special-interest groups to investigate better ways of science teaching. They also took an active role in teachers' in-service education. Teachers' quality practices lie at the heart of classroom change. However, it's important to remember that there must be a support system that sustains and encourages teachers' initiatives. The implications for the support system to encourage teachers' professional development efforts are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.675-686
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• 2004

The enhancement of the quality of the teaching practice is a major factor in securing better schooling opportunities for students. In this article, initial teacher preparation of secondary school Earth science teachers, in-service science teacher education, and improving teacher policy are discussed. Data from in-depth interviews with exemplary science teachers were used to explore how to improve the quality of science teacher education in Korea. In terms of preservice teacher education, most exemplary teachers contended that teacher education programs should provide preservice teachers with practical knowledge by translating theory into practice. Their suggestions for how to improve in-service education are also discussed. Regarding directions of improving teacher policy in Korea, the teachers proposed an alternative teacher-promotion structure that incorporates the master-teacher position. Implications for introducing action research courses into teacher (re)education programs are also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.117-127
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• 2003

This qualitative research investigated how to improve preservice and in-service teacher education programs through in-depth interviews with 10 exemplary science teachers. Data from interviews were used to analyze how the teachers perceived current situations of teacher education and what they suggested as an improvement plan. In terms of preservice teacher education, exemplary teachers argued that teacher education programs should (1) ensure the teacher education program's identity and goals, (2) provide preservice teachers with practical knowledge by translating theory into practice, and (3) secure faculty members who majored in science education. In light of in-service education, the teachers contended that (1) teachers should acknowledge the continuing processes of their own professional development, (2) the content and method of in-service training should incorporate teachers' practical needs in the classroom, and (3) the teaching community should implement a clinical supervision to improve their classroom practices. The central role of teacher (re)education in a successful classroom reform is also discussed.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.433-452
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• 2009

This study investigated the teaching strategies of two exemplary American teachers regarding word problems and their impact on students' ability to both understanding and solving word problems. The teachers commonly explained the background details of the background of the word problems. The explanation motivated the students' mathematical problem solving, helped students understand the word problems clearly, and helped students use various solving strategies. Emphasizing communication, the teachers also provided comfortable atmosphere for students to discuss mathematical ideas with another. The teachers' continuous questions became the energy for students to plan various problem solving strategies and reflect the solutions. Also, this research suggested a complementary model for Polya's problem solving strategies.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.144-154
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• 2003

This study investigated the common features of the best practices in the science classroom, which is the core of school education. The underlying assumption of this research is that the fulfillment of school education is possible with substantial instruction of school curricular areas. The substantial learning of any curricular area depends on each classroom lesson. Data from classroom observations in-depth interviews with teachers and a group of students, a collection of instructional materials were used to extract common characteristics of best practices implemented by 10 exemplary secondary-school science teachers. Common features of best science practices were analyzed in terms of (1)reorganization of science content, (2)pedagogical skills, (3)evaluation, and (4)teachers' efforts for professional development. Results indicated that exemplary science teachers adapted curriculum and textbook content according to students' level and learning context, were able to use a variety of instructional methods and strategies, provided cooperative and intellectually challenging learning environment, and improved their instruction based on assessment results. Also, these exemplary teachers not only improved their own classroom practices, but also participated actively in various professional community of science teachers to share their practical knowledge with their colleagues. They took an active role in teachers' in-service education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.1071-1081
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• 2002

This article describes the status of science teacher education in Taiwan. The pre-service and in-service science teacher training system, institutes, curricula, programs, and evaluation on the institutes were briefly introduced. The differences before and after the 1996 reform of science teacher training system were compared. Finally, the attempts and efforts that have been done through the channels of research to promote science teachers' professional development were addressed. These efforts include the Case studies of exemplary science teachers' teaching performances, the development of licensure instruments for the certification of science teachers, the use of computers and distance education for supervising student teachers, the exploration of promoting science teachers' understanding about the nature of science, the exploration of promoting science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, the exploration of promoting science teachers' ability of increasing effective student-teacher and student-student interactions, and the exploration of effective teaching strategies.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2013

This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of good science teachings regarded by preservice elementary school teachers. It also aimed to suggest a direction of peer teaching practice to help preservice teachers' professional development. Adjacency pairs were adopted to analyze the characteristics of good science teachings. The results showed that pre-service elementary teachers were accustomed to adjacency pairs. Almost of their discourse were organized by adjacency pairs. 'Question-Answer' and 'Request-Accept' were mainly used in science classes by pre-service elementary teachers. Based on the findings, the study suggested science teacher educators to provide chances to analyze exemplary science teachers' science class or chances to analyze their science teachings in terms of competence of science classroom discourse.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2023

Over the last three decades, there has been an increasingly strong emphasis on group-centered approaches to mathematics teaching. One primary responsibility for teachers who use group-centered instruction is to "check in", or intervene, with groups to monitor group learning and provide mathematical support when necessary. While prior research has contributed valuable insight for successful teacher interventions in mathematics group work, there is a need for more fine-grained analyses of interactions between teachers and students. In this study, we co-conducted research with an exemplary middle grade teacher (Ms. Green) to learn about fine-grained details of her intervention practices, hoping to generate knowledge about successful teacher interventions that can be expanded, replicated, and/or contradicted in other contexts. Analyzing Ms. Green's practices as an exemplary case, we found that she used exceptionally short interventions (35 seconds on average), provided space for student dialogue, and applied four distinct strategies to support groups to make mathematical progress: (1) observing/listening before speaking; (2) using a combination of social and analytic scaffolds; (3) redirecting students to task instructions; (4) abruptly walking away. These findings imply that successful interventions may be characterized by brevity, shared dialogue between the teacher and students, and distinct (and sometimes unnatural) teaching moves.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.163-175
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• 2004

We believe new assessment strategies and practices need to be developed that will enable teachers and others to assess students' performance in a manner that reflect the 7th Korean curriculum reform vision for school mathematics. This research was conducted to develop the assessment tasks based on the current literatures such as National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1999) and Korea Institute of Curriculum & Evaluation(KICE, 2002, 2003) in quadratic functions of the secondary school and to find the effect of these tasks by classifying students' responses. The research instrument were composed of three criteria, the previous knowledge, the application of quadratic functions, and the general properties in functions. The research data were collected from 32 high school students in a suburb of Seoul and sorted by their similarities and differences in mathematical understanding. Through the research, we could know more than ever before about how the students learned mathematics and about how to improve teachers' mathematical instruction.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.291-312
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• 2017

According to the current research of educational assessment, formative assessment which focuses on improving students' learning has been emphasized. Consequently, integration between instruction and assessment is crucial and various assessment strategies are required. In order to use different assessment strategies in classrooms, teachers should experience strategies and reflect their strengths and weaknesses. In this study, pre-service elementary teachers experienced six assessment strategies (feedback, providing assessment standard, providing exemplary cases, self assessment, peer assessment, and written assessment), and their perceptions toward each strategy were investigated. During one semester, pre-service teachers experienced each of them and they answered questionnaire at the end of the semester. From the results, it is found that pre-service teachers presented different strategies that were most helpful in their cognitive and affective domain according to their perception of assessment. The results imply that different assessment strategies should be applied in instruction and teachers should extend their perception of assessment purposes.