• 대한공업교육학회지
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.189-208
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• 2014

The purpose of this research was to investigate the critical issues and practical strategies that Korean technology teachers perceived. To accomplish the purpose of this study, a qualitative study was conducted to identify critical issues and practical strategies of Korean technology education targeted on Korean technology teachers. A purposeful sampling for choosing technology teachers was used for this study with three selection conditions: 1) 'Excellent Korean technology teacher' award winning teachers, or 2) technology teachers actively involved in both on-line and off-line teachers' association, and 3) leaders in local technology teachers' association. This study conducted exploratory in-depth interviews with selective 15 technology teachers regarding critical issues and practical strategies of Korean technology teachers. The interpretation of the interview content was conducted by two researchers using the thematic analysis which analyzed the frequency of concepts, words, and meanings held from collected data. In the conclusion, critical issues researchers identified were 1) curriculum problems, 2) education environment and facilities problems, 3) teachers' problems, 4) students' problems, 5) related research institution and college problems, 6) social problems. Secondly, Korean technology teachers agreed with following practical strategies 1) separating technology education from home economic education, 2) sharing practices on managing and improving educational environment and laboratory for technology education, 3) actively involving in technology teachers' group, 4) motivating students using hands-on activity 5) improving the quality and the quantity on technology teachers preparatory institution, 6) advertising the values of technology education to the public. Lastly, the positive factors to succeed technology education were 1) technology education satisfying social needs and 2) technology teachers' will or passion toward improving their technology classrooms. The negative factors to hinder technology education were 1) low self-respect of Korean technology teachers and 2) rejection or retarded acceptance toward social transition. Several recommendations based the conclusion were suggested as 1) implementing supplementary study toward selected critical issues and 2) conducting exemplary case studies regarding concrete practical strategies for improving challenges of Korean technology education.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.117-134
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to identify the stage of concern, the level of use, and the innovation configuration of Home Economics teachers regarding creativity and personality education in Home Economics(HE) classes. The survey questionnaires were sent through mails and e-mails to middle-school HE teachers in the whole country selected by systematic sampling and convenience sampling. Questionnaires of the stages of concern and the levels of use developed by Hall(1987) were used in this study. 187 data were used for the final analysis by using SPSS/window(12.0) program. The results of the study were as following: First, for the stage of concerns of HE teachers on creativity and personality education, the information stage of concerns(85.51) was the one with the highest response rate and the next high in the following order: the management stage of concerns(81.88), the awareness stage of concerns(82.15), the refocusing stage of concerns(68.80), the collaboration stage of concerns(61.97), and the consequence stage of concerns(59.76). Second, the levels of use of HE teachers on creativity and personality education was highest with the mechanical levels(level 3; 21.4%) and the next high in the following order: the orientation levels of use(level 1; 20.9%), the refinement levels(level 5; 17.1%), the non-use levels(level 0; 15.0%), the preparation levels(level 2; 10.2%), the integration levels(level 6; 5.9%), the renewal levels(level 7; 4.8%), the routine levels(level 4; 4.8%). Third, for the innovation configuration of HE teachers on creativity and personality education, more than half of the HE teachers(56.1%) mainly focused on personality education in their HE classes; 31.0% of the HE teachers performed both creativity and personality education; a small number of teachers(6.4%) focused on creativity education; the same number of teachers(6.4%) responded that they do not focus on neither of the two. Examining the level and type of performance HE teachers applied, the average score on the performance of creativity and personality education was 3.76 out of 5.00 and the mean of creativity component was 3.59 and of personality component was 3.94, higher than standard. For the creativity education, openness/sensitivity(3.97) education was performed most and the next most in the following order: problem-solving skill(3.79), curiosity/interest(3.73), critical thinking(3.63), problem-finding skill(3.61), originality(3.57), analogy(3.47), fluency/adaptability(3.46), precision(3.46), imagination(3.37), and focus/sympathy(3.37). For the personality education, the following components were performed in order from most to least: power of execution(4.07), cooperation/consideration/just(4.06), self-management skill(4.04), civic consciousness(4.04), career development ability(4.03), environment adaptability(3.95), responsibility/ownership(3.94), decision making(3.89), trust/honesty/promise(3.88), autonomy(3.86), and global competency(3.55). Regarding what makes performing creativity and personality education difficult, most HE teachers(64.71%) chose the lack of instructional materials and 40.11% of participants chose the lack of seminar and workshop opportunity. 38.5% chose the difficulty of developing an evaluation criteria or an evaluation tool while 25.67% responded that they do not know any means of performing creativity and personality education. Regarding the better way to support for creativity and personality education, the HE teachers chose in order from most to least: 'expansion of hands-on activities for students related to education on creativity and personality'(4.34), 'development of HE classroom culture putting emphasis on creativity and personality'(4.29), 'a proper curriculum on creativity and personality education that goes along with students' developmental stages'(4.27), 'securing enough human resource and number of professors who will conduct creativity and personality education'(4.21), 'establishment of the concept and value of the education on creativity and personality'(4.09), and 'educational promotion on creativity and personality education supported by local communities and companies'(3.94).