• East Asian mathematical journal
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.199-227
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• 2023

The Korean government initiated an educational policy regulating academic acceleration in schools (e.g., regulating teaching or assessing above-grade-level content) in order to normalize public education and prevent the growth of private tutoring. To analyze whether the policy is achieving its intended goals, this study examined how high school mathematics teachers responded to the policy. The findings indicate four distinct teacher responses: the teachers would teach above-grade-level lessons in classes, but not assess them on a test; the teachers sought academic acceleration to prevent excessive private tutoring, although the policymakers thought that teachers' academic acceleration results in an excessive demand for private tutoring; the teachers were willing to teach above-grade-level content for students, but they were reluctant to teach below-grade-level content due to the time constraints; and the teachers recognized that the policy limited their curricular autonomy, even though it was intended to ensure their autonomy. Implications for mathematics teacher educators and policymakers are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.149-171
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• 2017

In this research, based on the fact that spatial ability is important for the achievement in the STEM fields, and technological innovation, Purdue Spatial Visualization Test-Rotation has been used to investigate engineering freshmen's spatial ability and gender differences. Students who have taken advanced mathematics courses in high school(those who have taken type B math test in Korean SAT test) and students with general math courses(those who have taken type A in Korean SAT-Math test) are included in this study to find out the relationship between mathematics achievement and spatial ability. Finding out the strategies taken by students was another aim of this study. This strategic differences between high achievers and lower achievers, male and female students were analyzed from students' self report. Spatial ability test score was highest in the SAT-Math type B male students, decreased in the order of type A male students, type B female students, and lastly type A female students. There was no substantial difference between second and third groups. In each group, male students' average score was 8~10% higher than female students, which affirms 2015's results. The correlation between spatial ability and mathematics achievement was negligible in each group, but male students' math score and spatial ability score were higher than that of female students. This can be interpreted that there is some correlation between these two. Strategic choices can vary in the continuous spectrum with analytic method and holistic method at both ends. From students' self report, using Mann-Witney test, it turned out that there exists strategic differences between male and female students. Male students have a tendency to use holistic strategy more often than female students. I also found that the strategy choice did not vary greatly among all score groups. For the perfect score groups, both female and male students used holistic strategy most frequently. For low achieving groups, there is an evidence that these students overuse one method compared to average or high achieving groups, which turned out to be less effective. Based on these, I suggest that low achieving students need to have more chances to adopt efficient strategies and to practice challenging problems to improve their spatial abilities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.327-336
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• 1998

The purposes of this study were to investigate 6th-graders' use of cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies in usual learning and testing situations, and to compare the difference in the use of the strategies by students' science achievement, learning motivation, and gender. The relationship among these strategies, science achievement, and learning motivation were also examined, and the portion of variance of explanation for achievement score was studied by a multiple regression analysis. The results showed that high-achieving students used more cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies in usual learning and more cognitive strategies in testing situations than low-achieving students. Highly motivated students used more cognitive and metacognitive strategies than poorly motivated students in all situations. Elementary female students used more learning strategies than male students in usual learning. On the other hand, no gender differences was found to be significant in the use of strategies in testing situations. These learning strategies were significantly correlated with the science achievement and motivation scores. The cognitive strategies in usual learning accounted for the significant portion of the variance of the achievement score. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.905-926
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• 2015

This study examined differences among high, medium, and low achievers' motivation, self-regulation strategy, and learning style in an online gifted program. The sample included 788 middle and high school students who participated in the 3-months online gifted program. Participants volunteerly completed 60 questions on their motivation, self-regulation strategy use, and learning style. Multivariate analysis of variance(MANOVA) was conducted for data analysis using SPSS 19.0. The results of this study showed that (1) as levels of students' achievement increased, levels of intrinsic motivation increased as well; (2) statistically significant differences also existed on the levels of elaboration strategy, effort management, and time management strategy use among three levels of achievement and (3) no significant differences in students' learning style preference were found between competitive or cooperative learning style. To sum up, high achieving students' levels of intrinsic motivation, elaboration strategy, effort management strategy, and time management strategy use were the highest compared to medium and low achieving students.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.111-136
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• 2018

This study suggests a framework for analyzing items based on the characteristics, and shows the relationship among the characteristics, difficulty, percentage of correct answers, academic achievement and the actual mathematical problem solving competency. Three mathematics educators' classification of 30 items of Mathematics 'Ga' type, on 2017 College Scholastic Ability Test, and the responses given by 148 high school students on the survey examining mathematical problem solving competency were statistically analyzed. The results show that there are only few items satisfying the characteristics for mathematical problem solving competency, and students feel ill-defined and non-routine items difficult, but in actual percentage of correct answers, routineness alone has an effect. For the items satisfying the characteristics, low-achieving group has difficulty in understanding problem, and low and intermediate-achieving group have difficulty in mathematical modelling. The findings can suggest criteria for mathematics teachers to use when developing mathematics questions evaluating problem solving competency.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.34-44
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• 2015

Mathematical, spatial, and verbal abilities are important for future engineers to succeed in the STEM disciplines. The purpose of the study is to assess engineering students' spatial abilities and analyse the relationship with mathematical achievement, verbal achievement, and gender. On the mental rotation tests, 65% of male students demonstrated a substantial level of spatial abilities. But only 30% of female students exhibited spatial skills at the same level as their male colleagues. The correlations between mathematical - spatial - verbal abilities are found to be negligible. When spatial visualization ability was plotted according to the mathematical achievement level, there was no difference in the mean spatial abilities score. But when mathematical achievement score was plotted according to the spatial abilities, there was a noticeable difference. Regression analysis confirmed that female students' mathematical achievement increased as spatial abilities improved. This phenomenon was not observed for male students. It's because male students' spatial ability already contributed to their mathematics achievement. So spatial ability can be regarded as one factor for the gender differences in mathematics achievement. The gender gap on spatial abilities and math achievement is large among high achieving students. For example, there was a 4.3 to 1 male - female ratio and 3.4 to 1 male - female ratio among students scoring 99th percentile in spatial visualization test and scholastic aptitude test-math.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.253-267
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• 2016

Everybody dreams of a bright future. A future career determines the direction and quality of an individual's life. Achieving positive career development is one of the most crucial tasks during adolescence. In both national and personal perspectives, the vocational identity of science-gifted students provides some important points to discuss. The purpose of this study is to examine the vocational identity of science-gifted students. Participants included 103 science-gifted students who have received an acceptance letter from a science-gifted school. The modified VISA (Vocational Identity Status Assessment) model was used to analyze the vocational identities of gifted students with 'a letter to myself in the future'. The study found that vocational identity status of the science-gifted students was determined as Foreclosed and Searching Moratorium. The science-gifted students demonstrated more Commitment than Exploration and Reconsideration. They also showed higher levels in Career Identification, In-Narrow Exploration, and Career Flexibility. In addition, they shared common orientations in vocational identity such as strong enthusiasm, challenging limits, and responsibility towards humanity. We expect that this study will contribute to the social interest of science-gifted students in the area of career education. In order for science-gifted students to nurture their full potential with a deeper awareness of education, follow-up studies have to be conducted to provide greater and ideal career education.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2005

It's one of the most important problem for modern society to find the information-science gifted students and educate them systematically. However, We have only initial phase researches on this matter and a few results. This paper researches and analyzes the attitudes and attractiveness toward computers and moral senses of information-communication of the information-science gifted elementary school students. One object is analysis of 100 information-science gifted students living in Busan in respect of school grade and gender. The other object compares them to a group of 100 ordinary students and 100 high-achieving students that consists of 5th and 6th grade students from A-class elementary school of 6 local office of education in Busan. The result of this paper may help in future the research on education for the information-science gifted students.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.108-116
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of elementary students and teachers in relation to life phenomenon. Students seemed to strongly agree with the notion of vitalism as well as with organicism. However they clearly disagreed with the notion of mechanism. Contrary to our supposition, their viewpoints on lift phenomenon were highly affected by their relative levels of academic achievement in science subject areas, rather than by their religious affiliations. One possible explanation for this outcome is that elementary schoolers have not firmly established religious views, though they might indeed have a religious affiliation. High-achieving children in science subject areas seemed to agree with both vitalism and organicism (p<.01), and it is suggested that those students must have had more opportunities to encounter related cases in modem science or life ethics. Teachers agreed with all three views, showing the highest rate of approval in organicism. Though they appeared to agree with mechanism, they were strongly opposed to radical mechanism generally arguing that 'organism and machines were essentially the same'. Student responses indicated that TV had a bigger influence on their viewpoint on life phenomenon than teachers did. This means that children held certain views about the relative significance and influences of teachers vis-a-vis TV in daily life, and is also reflective of a perception amongst students that teachers do not how the significance of viewpoints on lift phenomenon.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.407-417
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the roles of classroom activities in science lessons and student learning motivation in achieving students' scientific competencies, and to suggest implications for science lessons to develop scientific competencies. For this, based on the PISA 2015 data of Korean high school students, we analyzed how classroom activities in science influenced students' scientific competencies through learning motivation variables. As a result of the path analysis, the activities emphasizing interaction and a link to real life predicted intrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation, and science efficacy significantly. On the other hand, the activities that emphasize the student-led inquiry process did not show any effect on learning motivation. In addition, the higher the motivation to learn the science, the higher their scores in three scientific competencies: explaining phenomenon scientifically, evaluating and designing scientific inquiry, and interpreting data and evidence scientifically. The practices of school science lessons indirectly influenced the achievement of scientific competence through learning motivation. Specifically, the activities emphasizing interaction influenced achieving scientific competencies through intrinsic motivation, and the activities emphasizing linkage to real life influenced it through all learning motivation variables. Finally, we discussed some implications for the roles and practices of school science class for enhancing students' scientific competencies.