• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.801-828
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• 2011

In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of Pedagogical Content knowledge(PCK)'s components through actual course of teachers of science gifted students in the middle school. For this study, four middle school science teachers of gifted students belonging to the gifted education professional organizations in a metropolis were selected, each of them was physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science teacher. Two of them were full-time teachers to teach only gifted students and two were part-time teachers who had taught general students in ordinary time and specially had taught the gifted students once a week. Qualitative data were collected through classroom observations, interviews, and documents. As a result, some unique characteristics of PCK's components were identified. The teachers' orientations to teaching science were closely correlated with PCK's components. The teachers' knowledges of science curriculum were different individually. But the decisions about type of teaching(acceleration or enrichment) were connected with the objectives of gifted education and lesson objectives. Also, the teachers' knowledges of science curriculum were influenced by the knowledge of students' understanding. Teachers used different instructional strategies according to the knowledge of science curriculum and the knowledge of students' understanding. We found that PCK's components were so closely connected and could show the direction of relationships among those PCK's components. We suggested teachers' PCK model which was named "Tetrahedron Model of PCK", to explain the characteristics and relationships of PCK's components.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.1187-1203
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• 2012

This study investigated the changes in teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers through mentoring in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planed, performed and reflected on science instructions for secondary science-gifted students through mentoring during nine class hours over three times respectively. We observed their instructions and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for in-depth interviews with mentees, and discussions between mentor and mentee, researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the mentoring, although there were many limitations, positively changed the mentees' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science content. These results suggest that the mentoring will be useful in improving the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers and provide meaningful implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1021-1040
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• 2013

In order to explore the influences of coteaching through mentoring upon the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers, this case study deeply investigated the change processes in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Two beginning teachers planned, performed and reflected together their science instructions for science-gifted students in secondary school during four 3-hour classes. Since the second instruction, pre-, during-, and post-mentoring were conducted, we collected various data related to teachers' planning processes, videotaped all coteaching science classes, and wrote field notes. We also recorded in-depth interviews with the teachers and the whole process of mentoring. All the data were analyzed by using the constant comparative method. The results of the analyses indicated that coteaching through mentoring positively changed the teachers' PCK. Above all, we found that coteaching and mentoring strategies generated a significant synergy effect through a mutually complementary relationship. The teachers developed deep practical knowledge about the enrichment curriculum, which placed more emphasis on developing cognitive and/or affective characteristics of science-gifted students. The teachers also improved their knowledge about the characteristics of science-gifted students and the instructional strategies appropriate for developing them. Moreover, practical knowledge about assessment domains and methods used in science-gifted education were improved. Knowledge on science content necessary for effective inquiry instruction was also improved.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1170-1185
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• 2013

In this case study, we investigated the characteristics of secondary beginning science-gifted education teachers' reflection on their science teaching with coteaching through mentoring. We selected two beginning teachers with less than one year teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together on their science teaching for science-gifted students during twelve class hours over four times. Since the second class, pre-, during-, and post-mentorings were conducted. We observed their science classes with coteaching through mentoring, and analyzed their reflective journals in the views of productive reflection. The analyses of the results revealed that 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' and 'science-gifted students' were most frequently included in their reflection regardless of class time. 'Curriculum for science-gifted education' were also frequently included although fewer than the two aspects. However, 'subject matter knowledge' and 'assessment in science-gifted education' were hardly included. Two to four aspects of the five were variously integrated in their reflection. The integrations among three to four aspects were especially more frequently included than those between two aspects. The integrations of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' or 'science-gifted students' with the other aspects were also found to be the most frequent. These results suggest that coteaching through mentoring can promote beginning science-gifted education teachers' productive reflection on their science teaching.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.655-670
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• 2012

As a case study on the changes of beginning science-gifted education teachers' teaching professionalism through coteaching, this study deeply investigated the change processes in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science instructions for secondary science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed coteaching of science instructions of the teachers, and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for discussions between them and in-depth interviews with them, their reflective journals, and researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the coteaching positively changed the two teachers' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science contents although there were some limitations. The results suggest that the coteaching will be useful in improving beginning teachers' teaching professionalism, and provide practical implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.324-337
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• 2014

This study investigated the characteristics of science-gifted elementary students' reflection of their science classes. To do this, 91 reflective journals of 20 science-gifted elementary students were analyzed in terms of 'productive reflection'. The results revealed that the mean score of the inclusion scores, which mean the number of aspects of teaching included, was 2.99 on a scale of 5 points and was not significantly correlated with grade level. Most of the reflective journals included the aspects of 'science-gifted students (93.4%)'. 'Instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education (70.3%)', 'subject matter knowledge (68.1%)', and 'curriculum for science-gifted education (57.1%)' were also frequently included. However, 'assessment in science-gifted education (9.9%)' was hardly included. The mean score of the integration scores, which mean the number of aspects of teaching integrated as an index of productive reflection, was 2.84 on a scale of 5 points and was not significantly correlated with grade level. 6.6% of the journals showed no integrations. 34.1% of the journals integrated only two aspects, 39.6% of the journals integrated three aspects, 25.3% of the journals integrated four aspects, and no journals integrated all five aspects. Especially, the integrations between 'science-gifted students (100.0%)' and the other aspects were included in all journals. The integrations between 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education (70.3%)' and/or 'subject matter knowledge (65.9%)' and/or 'curriculum for science-gifted education (53.8%)' and the other aspects were also frequently included. However, the integrations between 'assessment in science-gifted education (9.9%)' and the other aspects were hardly included. There were no statistically significant differences between experiment-centered instruction and theory-centered instruction in the inclusion and integration scores. However, there were more diverse inclusion and integration types, and more aspects tended to be included or integrated in experiment-centered instruction than in theory-centered instruction.