• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.36-54
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service elementary school teachers' understanding about alternative energy and to identify their alternative conceptions. The two-tier instrument had been developed by Cheong et al. (2015) were used for this study. Twelve items from the instrument consisted of four categories: 'source of alternative energy', 'greenhouse gas emission', 'cost in electricity and construction' and 'advantages and disadvantages'. One hundred and fifteen pre-service elementary school teachers were participated in online survey during the semester. The results analyzed using SPSS 26.0. were as follows: First, the correct response rate varied depending on the content of item. Items related to characteristics and advantages & disadvantages of alternative energy showed high percentage of correct answers. Whereas, items regarding the principles of alternative energy showed relatively low percentage of correct answers. Second, there are some items showing statistically meaningful differences according to students' high school track. Nevertheless, there are no significant differences in overall. Third, we identified twelve alternative conceptions about alternative energy from students' answer distribution. Educational implications were discussed based on the results.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.696-702
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• 2008

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.223-246
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• 2012

Korean Ministry of Education Science, and Technology(MEST) has recommended the introduction of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics in school. As part of the mathematics textbooks based on storytelling development, this research has investigated school mathematics teachers' perspectives on mathematics textbooks based on storytelling in order to identify implications for the development and the implementation of it. For the purpose, we have developed survey questionnaire and administered it to 113 high school mathematics teachers. The survey asked the teachers to address their conception of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling, its contribution to school mathematics, challenges and obstacles for the implementation. The survey shows that the mathematics teachers' conception of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling was not clear or limited. Most of them replied that they received information about mathematics textbooks based on storytelling from the materials provided by workshop or materials of school district office. While the teachers heard about that school will implement mathematics textbooks based on storytelling, they rarely had idea of how to use them in class. In the survey, the teachers identified which type of storytelling is effective for which purpose of mathematics education. They also identified the positive effect and the difficulties in the implementation of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling. The mathematics teachers pointed out that textbook is not enough. They urged that the implementation of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling should be integrated into classroom teaching and assessment to make a significant change in the educational practice of mathematics in school. Thus, mathematics teachers need support to implement mathematics textbooks based on storytelling into their teaching practice. Teacher workshop and teacher manuals need to be developed to help teachers understand educational visions and values of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling. These results of the survey would form the worthwhile base information for the development and the implementation of mathematics textbooks based on storytelling.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.68-78
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate teaching anxiety and the professional development of beginning secondary science teachers. For this study, a survey was conducted among beginning science teachers (N=83) with under five years of experience, and in-depth interviews with these five teachers were carried out. The survey tackled beginning secondary science teachers' anxiety levels by asking about their difficulties in teaching science classes, and results showed that the teachers' levels of teaching anxiety marked high. Levels of teaching anxiety in physics among subjects and in chemistry among experiments marked highest. To overcome teaching anxiety, teachers searched for information on the Internet or received help from their colleagues and veteran teachers. They revealed that plans for professional development as science teachers included receiving in-service training and joining teacher communities. In addition, the best type of required training program for professional development appeared to be lectures about teaching know-how from veteran teachers.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.37-50
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to develop the quality of the textbook and to find out reasonable selection and structure by examining and analyzing the cognition of teacher and students on the structure and contents of elementary science textbook in the 7th curriculum. The findings of this study were as follows: First, as a result of the students’ cognition, their interest level of the learning contents was high and the degree of the difficulty of the learning contents was low on the whole. Second, as a result of the teachers’ cognition of contents of the textbook, teachers who taught third graders understood that the third graders have relatively much contents to be studied and the level of the contents of the textbook was high. On the other hand, fourth graders’ teachers recognized that contents to be studied and the level of the contents were appropriate. And they understood that there were much work to be studied in the units which were difficult and there were difference between contents to be studied and the degree of the difficulty in some units such as life or the earth fold. Third, as a result of the teachers' cognition of structure of the textbook. teachers were very affirmative to reduce school hours. They understood that current numbers and scale of the unit were appropriate. Teachers were satisfied with the structure of elementary science textbook in the 7th curriculum on the whole.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.910-922
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate the professional level of the Korean non-physics major middle-school science teachers in 'force and motion' content knowledge. For the study, nine science teachers who majored in chemistry, biology, or earth science were sampled from middle-schools in a big city in Korea. The physics concept test-tool (subjective type), which the authors developed, were administered, and then followed by in-depth interviews. The research findings are as follows: Firstly, non-physics major science teachers' correct answer rate in physics knowledge test of secondary school level was not so high that they may have difficulty in teaching correct concepts in physics to middle-school students. Secondly, some teachers show that they can not apply some physics concepts from one to another situation. That means that they may have difficulty in teaching physics conceptual application in various situations to students.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.378-391
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the graph interpretation ability and perception of high school students and preservice secondary teachers in Earth science. We developed two different instruments; one was a graph interpretation ability inventory that consists of 9 graph types with 18 items, and the other one is two questionnaires to explore the participants' perception about Earth science-related graph. The results of this study are as follows: High school students and preservice secondary teachers demonstrated their remarkable ability in interpreting a line graph, but showed their limited ability with the graph of overlapped and directional change, which means the graph interpretation ability was affected by a graph type; two groups participated in this study revealed a considerable difference in the graph interpretation ability depending on the grade level; preservice teachers were superior to high school students in discriminating two graphs, the representation method, which are different with the same topic; and many participants in both groups considered that the property of Earth science graph was considerably different from that of other science subjects, especially in directional change graph, scatter graph, contour map, and domain graph. The results suggest that the effective graph instruction strategies be developed in Earth science learning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.201-207
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• 2000

We studied aspects of secondary school science teachers in the Chonbuk province concerning their science-related attitudes using the several measuring tools. We applied the multiple comparison to twelve factors at the science teachers 'backgrounds and analyzed the discrepancy in group levels. Science teachers feel half-hearted for the attitudes related to science teachers show a high correlation between the attitudes toward science and the scientific attitudes. We examined the tendency to the science-related attitudes of science teachers having various backgrounds within 5 percent differences of P-value. The contented teachers for their occupations marked higher than the other teachers in the tendency to the science-related attitudes, and the attitude-score of the science teachers graduated from regular colleges also marked higher than the teachers from the training institutes or the different majors. We have investigated the teachers just in Chonbuk province, but we should recognize that the scores in both the perception and the teachers are not improved comparing with the before-studies of Lee(1985), Park(1993), etc. As a result, the development of measuring tools which teachers can examine themselves as their features is needed and the educational systems to specialize the science education should be improved through the various programs for teachers' training courses.

• 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.41 no.3
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• pp.480-500
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• 2022

In this study, the perception and demands on the use of realistic content were analyzed through in-depth interviews with elementary school teachers experienced in using realistic content in science classes. Specifically, the following questions were investigated: (1) What kind of realistic content and how do elementary school teachers use it in science classes? (2) What are the perceptions and difficulties of elementary school teachers regarding the use of realistic content in science classes? (3) What are the needs of elementary school teachers related to the professional development program for the use of realistic content in science classes? The study revealed the following results. First, elementary school teachers mainly used digital textbooks and realistic content provided by the "Science Level Up" site, and the content types could be classified into "exploration type," "visit type," and "production type," according to the purpose of use. Second, elementary school teachers mentioned the educational advantages of using realistic content to help students understand scientific content, induce interest and curiosity, and become immersed in a sense of reality. Several difficulties related to the use of realistic content were mentioned. Among them, the lack of high-quality educational content suitable for science classes and a lack of examples of specific class cases that use realistic content stood out. Thirdly, regarding the development of teacher expertise to use realistic content, elementary school teachers emphasized the need for information on quality realistic content; teacher training centered on specific class cases; instructional models that can be applied by realistic content type; and information on the purchase, use, management, and operation of necessary devices. Reflecting on these research results, implications for more effective use of realistic content in elementary science classes were discussed.