• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.569-590
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• 2023

The purpose of this case study is to compare and analyze the covariational reasoning levels of two middle school students revealed in the process of solving and generalizing algebra word problems. A class was conducted with two middle school students who had not learned quadratic equations in school mathematics. During the retrospective analysis after the class was over, a noticeable difference between the two students was revealed in solving algebra word problems, including situations where speed changes. Accordingly, this study compared and analyzed the level of covariational reasoning revealed in the process of solving or generalizing algebra word problems including situations where speed is constant or changing, based on the theoretical framework proposed by Thompson & Carlson(2017). As a result, this study confirmed that students' covariational reasoning levels may be different even if the problem-solving methods and results of algebra word problems are similar, and the similarity of problem-solving revealed in the process of solving and generalizing algebra word problems was analyzed from a covariation perspective. This study suggests that in the teaching and learning algebra word problems, rather than focusing on finding solutions by quickly converting problem situations into equations, activities of finding changing quantities and representing the relationships between them in various ways.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.164-178
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to design a teaching and learning method conductive to the development of creative thinking skills and investigate its effects. It has been developed integrated mind map with feature of visualizing the divergent thinking to the aspects of Science (S), Technology (T) & Engineering (E), Arts (A), Mathematics (M). Integrated mind map can be divided into four types of STEAM type, STEA type, STEM type, STE type depending on the category of key words in the first branch. And Integrated mind map can be divided into three levels of guided, intermediate, open depending on the teacher's guide degree. And also integrated mind map activities were carried out in the form of group, class share as well as individual. This study was implemented during a semester and students in experiment group experienced individual-integrated mind map activity 10 times, group-integrated mind map activity 10 times, class share-integrated mind map activity 3 times. The results indicated that the experimental group presented statistically meaningful improvement in creative thinking skills (p<.05). And there was a statistically meaningful improvement in fluency, flexibility, originality as a sub-category of creative thinking skills(p <.05). Also creative thinking skills are not affected by the level of cognitive, academic performance, gender (p<.05). In conclusion, it was found that 'integrated mind map activity' improved student's creative thinking skills. There was no interaction effect about creative thinking skills between the teaching strategy and cognitive level, achivement, gender of those students.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.358-375
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• 2015

The purposes of this study were to investigate the value, necessity and legitimacy of STEAM Education and to propose practical approaching methods for STEAM Education to be applicable in Korea through a variety of literature review, case studies and collecting suggestions from domestic and international educational experts. The research questions are as follows: (1) To investigate the perception, understanding and recognitions of domestic and foreign professionals in STEAM education. (2) To analyze policy implications for an improvement in STEAM. The following aspects of STEAM were found to be challenges in our current STEAM policy after analyzing multiple questionnaires with the professionals and case studies including their experiences, understanding, supports and directions of the policy from the governments. The results indicate that (1) there was a lack of precise and conceptual understanding of STEAM in respect to experience. Training sessions for teachers in this field to help transform their perception is necessary. Development of practical programs with an easy access is also required. It is important to get the aims of related educational activities recognized by the professionals and established standards for an evaluation. The experts perceived that a theme-based learning is the most preferred and effective approaching method and the programs that develop creative thinking and learning applicable to practice are required to promote. (2) The results indicate that there was a lack of programs and inducements for supporting outstanding STEAM educators. It is shown that making an appropriate environment for STEAM education takes the first priority before training numbers of teachers unilaterally, thus securing enough budget seems critical. The professionals also emphasize on developing specialized teaching materials that include diverse inter-related subjects such as science technology, engineering, arts and humanities and social science with diverse viewpoints and advanced technology. This work requires a STEAM network for teachers to link up and share their materials, documents and experiences. It is necessary to get corporations, universities, and research centers participated in the network. (3) With respect to direction, it is necessary to propose policy that makes STEAM education ordinary and more practical in the present education system. The professionals have recommended training sessions that help develop creative thinking and amalgamative problem-solving techniques. They require reducing the workload of teachers and changing teachers' perspectives towards STEAM. They further urge a tight cooperation between departments of the government related with STEAM.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.159-219
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• 2016

Mathematical ability is important for academic achievement and technological renovations in the STEM disciplines. This study concentrated on the relationship between neural basis of mathematical cognition and its mechanisms. These cognitive functions include domain specific abilities such as numerical skills and visuospatial abilities, as well as domain general abilities which include language, long term memory, and working memory capacity. Individuals can perform higher cognitive functions such as abstract thinking and reasoning based on these basic cognitive functions. The next topic covered in this study is about individual differences in mathematical abilities. Neural efficiency theory was incorporated in this study to view mathematical talent. According to the theory, a person with mathematical talent uses his or her brain more efficiently than the effortful endeavour of the average human being. Mathematically gifted students show different brain activities when compared to average students. Interhemispheric and intrahemispheric connectivities are enhanced in those students, particularly in the right brain along fronto-parietal longitudinal fasciculus. The third topic deals with growth and development in mathematical capacity. As individuals mature, practice mathematical skills, and gain knowledge, such changes are reflected in cortical activation, which include changes in the activation level, redistribution, and reorganization in the supporting cortex. Among these, reorganization can be related to neural plasticity. Neural plasticity was observed in professional mathematicians and children with mathematical learning disabilities. Last topic is about mathematical creativity viewed from Neural Darwinism. When the brain is faced with a novel problem, it needs to collect all of the necessary concepts(knowledge) from long term memory, make multitudes of connections, and test which ones have the highest probability in helping solve the unusual problem. Having followed the above brain modifying steps, once the brain finally finds the correct response to the novel problem, the final response comes as a form of inspiration. For a novice, the first step of acquisition of knowledge structure is the most important. However, as expertise increases, the latter two stages of making connections and selection become more important.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.12
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• pp.39-86
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• 1985

The main purpose of the present study is to survey the major iudexing bulletins of national nature in Korea, to define such problem areas as lacunae, duplicates and limitation in coverage in the indexing services currently available in Korea, and to make some suggestions for action for improving the existing indexing services in the light of general principles and the tradition and constraints unique to Korea. The major findings and conclusions reached at this study are summarised as follows: (A) A new indexing bulletin of general nature covering the entire field needs to be created in each of the following fields without an established indexing service available for the outcome of research and development activities in Korea. (1) Philosophy (2) Religion (3) Pure sciences (4) Art (5) Language (6) Literature (7) History (B) A new specialised indexing bulletin needs to be created in each of the following fields where indexing services are heavily utilised but no, or only partial, indexing service is available. (1) Social sciences (a) Statistics (b) Sociology (c) Folklore (d) Military science (2) Pure sciences (a) Mathematics (b) Physics (c) Chemistry (d) Astronomy (e) Geology (f) Mineralogy (g) Life sciences (h) Botany (i) Zoology (3) Applied sciences (a) Medicine (b) Agriculture (c) Civil engineering (d) Architectural engineering (e) Mechanical engineering (f) Electrical engineering (g) Chemical engineering (h) Domestic science (C) Publication of the indexing bulletins suggested in A and B above may be ideally carried on by a qualified and dependable learned society established in the respective fields and designated by the Minister of Education, and should be financially supported from the public fund under the provisions of Art. 27 of the Scientific Research Promotion Act of 1979. (D) The coverage and contents of the four indexing bulletins in the field of banking and financing published by the Library of the Bank of Korea are similar and considerably duplicated. It is, therefore, suggested that the four indexing bulletins are combined in one to form a more comprehensive and efficient bibliographical tool in the field and it is further developed into a general guide to the literature produced in the entire field of economics in Korea by gradually expanding its subject coverage. (E) For the similar reasons stated in D, the Index to the Articles on North Korea and the Catalogue of Theses on North Korea, both publisheds by the Ministry of Unification Library, are suggested to make into one. The Index to the Articles of the Selected North Korean Journals and the Index to the Articles of the North Korean Journals in Microfilm Housed in the Ministry of Unification Library, both published by the same Library, are also suggested to be combined in one. (F) The contents of the Catalogue of the Reports Submitted by Government Officials Who Have Travelled Abroad, published by the National Archives are included in the Index to the Information Materials Related to Government Administration, published by the National Archives. The publication of the former is hardly justified. (G) The contents of the Index to Legal Literature published by the Seoul National University Libraries and those of the Law Section of the Index to Scholastic Works published by the National Central Library are nearly identical. One of the two indexes should cease to be published. (H) Though five indexes are being published in the field of political science and four in the field of public administration, their subject coverage is limited. Naturally, these indexes are little usable to many other researchers in the two fields. A comprehensive index covering all the specialised areas in each field needs to be developed on one or all the existing indexes. (I) It is suggested that the Catalogue of the Scholastic Works on Curricula published by the National Central Library expands its subject coverage to become a more usable and effective index to all the researchers in the field of education. (J) The bimonthly Index to Periodical Articles and the specialised index by subject series published by the National Assembly Library, and the Index to Scholastic Works published by the National Central Library are expected to increase their coverage and frequency of publication to be used more effectively and more efficiently by all users in all fields till the indexing bulletins suggested in this study will fully be available in Korea.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.173-191
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• 2021

This study noted that a survey of teachers in a leading study conducted in Korea during the Pandemics period pointed out that the "real-time interactive" classes account for a significantly small portion of the remote class format. Contentually, the study reported cases of developing and applying "real-time interactive" class materials based on "planar decision requirements" of high school mathematics subject geometry. The teacher who participated in the development was a math teacher who worked at a Seoul-based high school with 28 years of high school teaching experience, and a teacher who was in charge of geometry in the math department in 2020. The development teacher decided to develop real-time interactive classes. In particular, the materials were developed by organizing the class guidance plan in four stages: 'Meeting and Class Guidance', 'Giving motivation', 'Suggesting tasks', 'Individual Investigative Activities and Teacher Feedback' and 'Reflection and Evaluation' which were selected through the process of selecting the class contents and selecting online class tools. At this time, the development teacher produced and presented about five minutes of video material using the videooscribe, a whiteboard animation program. And in case of task number 8, it consisted of recording the students' free thoughts after class, which served as a role of assessment by students themselves and providing feedback to their teachers. This study is a case study that introduces a series of courses in which field teachers develop class materials, and in addition to presenting class materials that can be applied directly to classes, is a result of a study that focuses on the role of presenting samples for future class data development. The materials developed were verified as class materials based on the opinions of the students who participated in the class and the results of the evaluation commissioned by the three math teachers.

• Journal of Practical Agriculture & Fisheries Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.89-104
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• 2021

Based on the TF-IDF weighted value that evaluates the importance of words that play a key role, the semantic network analysis(SNA) was conducted on the self-introduction letter of freshman at Korea National College of Agriculture and Fisheries(KNCAF) in 2020. The top three words calculated by TF-IDF weights were agriculture, mathematics, study (Q. 1), clubs, plants, friends (Q. 2), friends, clubs, opinions, (Q. 3), mushrooms, insects, and fathers (Q. 4). In the relationship between words, the words with high betweenness centrality are reason, high school, attending (Q. 1), garbage, high school, school (Q. 2), importance, misunderstanding, completion (Q.3), processing, feed, and farmhouse (Q. 4). The words with high degree centrality are high school, inquiry, grades (Q. 1), garbage, cleanup, class time (Q. 2), opinion, meetings, volunteer activities (Q.3), processing, space, and practice (Q. 4). The combination of words with high frequency of simultaneous appearances, that is, high correlation, appeared as 'certification - acquisition', 'problem - solution', 'science - life', and 'misunderstanding - concession'. In cluster analysis, the number of clusters obtained by the height of cluster dendrogram was 2(Q.1), 4(Q.2, 4) and 5(Q. 3). At this time, the cohesion in Cluster was high and the heterogeneity between Clusters was clearly shown.