• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.258-279
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the change of secondary earth science teachers' knowledge about the currents of the East Sea through drawing of a schematic map of oceanic currents. For this purpose, thirty two earth science teachers participated in the six-hour long training of learning and practice related to ocean current schematic map. The teacher participants performed drawing of the ocean current schematic map of the East Sea in three different phases, i.e.; pre-, post-, and delayed-post phase. In addition, all the maps conducted by participants were converted to digitalized image data. Detailed analysis were performed to investigate participating teachers' knowledge about the currents of the East Sea. Findings are as follows: First, the teacher participants have background knowledge about the ocean current map, but it reveals an incorrect knowledge about some concepts. Second, after teacher training, teachers' knowledge increased about the East Sea's currents, while a decrease was found in the differences between individual teachers' knowledge. This pattern was more evident in the delayed-post phase of drawing than in the post-phase occurred immediately after training. Third, the teacher participants were strongly aware of the need to improve the ocean current schematic map of the East Sea in science textbook in terms of scientific knowledge. In addition, they showed a high level of satisfaction about teacher training because they perceived that it was meaningful in various aspects; recognizing the importance of content knowledge and conjunction with instructional strategies, the needs of secondary science curriculum, and recognition of the nature of scientific knowledge. The results imply that teachers' subject matter knowledge plays a significant role to make science teaching effective.