• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.277-288
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to find the point for improvement through the comparative analysis of the 2007 & 2009 revised science curriculum, and the NGSS of the United States with Bloom's revised taxonomy. The results of the analysis confirmed that the revised curriculum in 2009 compared to the revised curriculum in 2007 has expanded the type of cognitive process and knowledge, which promote a higher level thinking. However, the revised curriculum in 2009 has been biased to the type of specific cognitive process and knowledge in cognitive process dimension and knowledge dimension as compared to the NGSS of the United States. In the revised curriculum in 2009, the type of cognitive process such as 'analyze,' 'evaluate,' 'create,' and the type of knowledge such as 'meta-cognitive knowledge' have been treated inattentively. In addition, through comparative analysis, it was identified that the type of cognitive process and knowledge that were neglected in achievement standards were not dealt with in the learning objective of teachers' guides, either. The revised curriculum should consist of achievement standards in comparison to the previous curriculum to reflect better the goals of science education. Therefore, it is necessary to create an achievement standards including various types of cognitive processes and knowledge by improving the method of statement of achievement standards of science curriculum.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.94-118
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to explore the multi-faceted understanding and issues of science subject matter competencies from the trends of competency-based curriculum discourse, and to examine the relationship between general core competencies and science subject matter competencies. First, we examined the theoretical background of competency-based curriculum focusing on behaviorism, humanism, and its comprehensive synthesis. After that, we reviewed OECD's competency-related projects (DeSeCo; OECD Education 2030), US Next-Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Korea's 2015 Revised National Curriculum from the viewpoint of competency-based curriculum. After that, we summarized and systematically analyzed a list of competencies, 105 general core competencies and 45 science subject matter competencies proposed by 15 important documents from home and abroad. The results of this study are as follows: First, the issues of the proper number, appropriate dimension, and how individual competencies should be unique and independent were pointed, in terms of defining and categorizing competencies. Second, it was suggested that the competency items are presented in various dimensions such as personal-micro dimension, community meso-dimension, and social-macro dimension. Meso-dimension was placed on both general core competencies and subject matter competencies. Third, in the relationship between general core competencies and subject matter competencies, the former emphasizes macro-dimension, and the latter emphasizes micro-dimension, revealing an existing gap, and where the two can meet each other is the meso-dimension. These discussions are thought to provide insight into the understanding of competencies in the national curriculum, including the 2015 Revised National Curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.621-630
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• 2020

This study compared and analyzed the contents of secondary earth science curriculum in Mongolia and South Korea to check the contents of earth science education in both countries and to prepare basic data necessary for future earth science curriculum revisions. The research questions of this study are: first, to understand the changes and current operating conditions of earth science curriculum in both countries, to compare and analyze with other foreign cases, and second, to compare and analyze the contents of earth science and curriculum in both countries. The TIMSS evaluation framework is used to compare and analyze the earth science-related contents included in the science curriculum of middle schools. For analyzing the contents of high school, the contents of NGSS in the United States and the earth science curriculum contents of high schools in South Korea were mixed and the analysis frameworks were created and validated by experts. As a result of the study, countries that follow the Russian-style education system did not organize and operate earth science as an independent science subject, and deal with earth science-related content in the natural geography area of the geography subject. The earth science contents covered in middle school science curriculum in both countries, 18 of the 27 content elements of the TIMSS content analysis framework were matched in Mongolia and 20 in South Korea. In high school curriculum, the contents of earth science in Mongolia were described more briefly and not covered than in South Korea. In particular, the Mongolian geography curriculum dealt with many environmental issues. The emphasis on the operation method of the earth science curriculum in Mongolia and the contents related to the environment can be used as a reference when developing an interdisciplinary integrated curriculum of science and social studies in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of engineering design-based ocean cleanup classes on STEAM attitudes and creative engineering problem-solving dispositions. Furthermore, during this process, we tried to determine interesting points that students encountered in engineering design-based classes. For this study, a science class with six lessons based on engineering design was developed and reviewed by a professor who majored in engineering design, along with five engineering design experts with a master's degree or higher. The subject of the class was selected as the design and implementation of scientific and engineering measures to reduce marine pollution based on the method implemented in an actual Ocean Clean-up Project. The engineering design process utilized the engineering design model presented by NGSS (2013), and was configured to experience redesign through the optimization process. To verify effectiveness, the STEAM attitude questionnaire developed by Park et al. (2019) and the creative engineering problemsolving propensity test tool developed by Kang and Nam (2016) were used. A pre and post t-test was used for statistical analysis for the effectiveness test. In addition, the contents of interesting points experienced by the learners were transcribed after receiving descriptive responses, and were analyzed and visualized through degree centrality analysis. Results confirmed that engineering design in science classes had a positive effect on both STEAM attitude and creative engineering problem-solving disposition (p< .05). In addition, as a result of unstructured data analysis, science and engineering knowledge, engineering experience, and cooperation and collaboration appeared as factors in which learners were interested in learning, confirming that engineering experience was the main factor.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.147-160
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the elementary science curriculum and textbooks of Korea, the United States, Japan, and Singapore to know how the contents on particulate concept of matter is introduced and expressed. In Korea, particulate concept of matter was adopted as a term for 'molecules' in the 3rd through 6th curriculum, and the term for 'particles' was adopted in the 2009 revised curriculum. In the United States, NGSS adopted the term 'particle' in fifth grade. Japan presented the concept of 'particle' as a core concept of matter in the commentary, and the expressions 'particles' were being introduced in the textbooks. But it did not cover particulate nature of matter at the elementary school level in Singapore. An analysis of elementary textbooks in Korea, the United States and Japan except Singapore showed particulate expressions in 'dissolution', 'state change of water', 'gas pressure and volume', 'combustion and extinguishment' units. Korean textbook was only being introduced in 'dissolution' and 'gas pressure and volume', but in the textbooks of Japan and the United States, water was expressed as particles in 'state change of water' unit. Discussion and implication on the introduction of particulate concept to elementary science curriculum and textbooks were suggested based on the results.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.309-322
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• 2018

There is no doubt that science -and, therefore, science education- is central to the lives of all (NGSS, 2013). This manuscript focuses on ideas in astronomy that are at the foundation of elementary students' understanding of the discipline: the apparent motion of the sun explaining the day / night cycle on Earth. According to prior research demonstrating that neither children nor adults hold a scientific understanding of the big ideas of astronomy (NRC, 1996), understanding of concepts may base students' progress towards more advanced understanding in the domain of astronomy. We have analyzed the logic of the domain and synthesized prior research assessing children's spatial representation from an earth- and a space based perspective to develop a set of learning trajectories that describe how students' initial ideas about apparent celestial motion as they take school science can be build upon. In this study elementary students' representations were compared by their resident context including urban and rural. This study may present a first look at the use of a learning progression framework in analyzing the structure of astronomy education. We discuss how this work may eventually lead towards the development and empirical testing of how children learn to describe and explain apparent patterns of celestial motion.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.92-111
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• 2020

The 2015 revised science curriculum and NGSS (Next Generation Science Standard) suggest computational thinking as an inquiry skill or competency. Particularly, concern in computational thinking has increased since the Ministry of Education has required software education since 2014. However, there is still insufficient discussion on how to integrate computational thinking in science education. Therefore, this study aims to prepare a way to integrate computational thinking elements into scientific inquiry by analyzing the related literature. In order to achieve this goal, we summarized various definitions of the elements of computational thinking and analyzed general problem solving process and scientific inquiry process to develop and suggest the model. We also considered integrated problem solving cases from the computer science field and summarized the elements of the Computational Thinking-Scientific Inquiry (CT-SI) model. We asked scientists to explain their research process based on the elements. Based on these explanations from the scientists, we developed 'Problem-finding' CT-SI model and 'Problem solving' CT-SI model. These two models were reviewed by scientists. 'Problem-finding' model is relevant for selecting information and analyzing problems in the theoretical research. 'Problem solving' is suitable for engineering problem solving process using a general research process and engineering design. In addition, two teachers evaluated whether these models could be used in the secondary school curriculum. The models we developed in this study linked with the scientific inquiry and this will help enhance the practices of 'collecting, analyzing and interpreting data,' 'use of mathematical thinking and computer' suggested in the 2015 revised curriculum.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.121-133
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• 2020

This study proposes a lesson design framework to design a science and engineering integrated lesson in a meaningful and easy way based on engineering design, which is the core feature of STEM education. The science and engineering integrated lesson design framework is developed based on the analysis of domestic and foreign theoretical and practical research papers and expert discussion on science and engineering integrated education as well as the feedbacks from science teachers. The science and engineering integrated lesson design framework uses engineering design as the main pedagogical method. The framework includes the core elements of the engineering integrated lesson suggested in previous studies and the achievement level of each grade group suggested in NGSS and provides a way for teachers to easily introduce engineering design into science classes. In addition, the framework developed in this study complements the shortcomings of the complicated Korean STEAM education framework. It can also provide specific guidance to in-service teachers as well as pre-service teachers to easily understand and apply engineering design and problem solving processes to science and engineering integrated lessons.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.215-223
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• 2017

This study aims to find an effective way to present essential science concepts in national science curriculum through international comparisons. Next Generation Science Standard (US), Ontario Science Curriculum (Canada), Australia Science Curriculum, and British/English Science Curriculum were selected for comparison. In science curriculum documents, these countries used terms such as 'Key ideas,' 'Big ideas,' 'Key concepts,' 'Disciplinary core ideas.' and 'Fundamental concepts' to present essential concepts of science. This study reviewed the characteristics of the meaning, the status, and the role of essential concepts country by country. The result shows essential concepts have been used with different meanings and statutes in each case. Furthermore, various roles were performed through essential concepts in order to organize their science curriculum. From these foreign nation's cases, this study proposes several ways to present essential science concepts based on results. First, interdisciplinary integrated concepts were needed to organize an integrated science curriculum. In science curriculum documents of the United States, Canada, Australia and England, two types of terms were used in order to structuralize an integrated science curriculum. Second, essential concepts should include concepts related with function and value as well as scientific knowledge. Third, essential concepts need to be presented in such a way as to show specific contexts. Therefore, selecting appropriate contents and structure are needed to be able to improve the way to present essential concepts in Korea's educational environment.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.799-812
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• 2017

Energy as a powerful and unifying concept to understand natural world has been regarded as one of the key concepts of the science curricula in many countries. However, concerning learning and teaching of energy, various difficulties have been reported widely. This study aimed at analyzing and comparing science curricula of Korea, the U.S., England, and Singapore regarding energy to identify the potential issues for energy curriculum in the future. 2015 revised Korean science curriculum, Next Generation Science Standards of the U.S., Science programmes of study of England, and the Science syllabus of Singapore were compared based on six basic elements of the concept of energy: energy form, energy resource, energy transfer, energy transformation, energy conservation, and energy dissipation. Achievement criteria that include energy were extracted from all curricula and categorized into the six elements. The frequency and distribution of the six elements in the four curricula were compared in terms of school levels and disciplinary areas. Contents of six energy elements were also compared. Though all curricula emphasized energy as a key science concept, we found many differences in the degree of emphasis of basic ideas and specific contents and approaches. Korean curriculum is characterized by 1) high frequency concerning energy form among the elements of the concept of energy, 2) introducing energy forms of unclear meaning, which are not linked with other physical quantities, 3) emphasis on energy conversion in comparison of energy transfer, 4) focusing on mechanical energy conservation instead of more general energy conservation, and 5) absence of the concept of 'system' concerning energy. Issues for energy curriculum development were discussed.