• Title/Summary/Keyword: Nature Classrooms

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Using a project-based learning approach in Korean EFL classrooms (EFL 상황에서의 프로젝트 학습법 활용 방안)

  • Kim, Nam-Soon
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.57-76
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    • 2005
  • This study provides a rationale for using project-based learning with Korean students of English in Korea; in addition, it describes the process of creating and implementing project-based learning in the classroom and gives examples of how this unique teaching and learning method has been used successfully to teach learners with different levels of English proficiency. The first two chapters of the study examine the nature of project-based learning by comparing it with related fields of study, such as language teaching syllabi and methods, cognitive psychology, constructivists' views and interaction theory. The latter part of the study deals with issues related to applying project-based learning in Korean English classes. It emphasizes the importance not only of motivating active group effort and participation, but also in creating a trusting, cooperative relationship between group members in order to have a successful accomplishment of a project. The study concludes with implications for future studies.

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An Analysis of Elementary $"Chay{\tilde{o}}n"$ Textbooks : From a Perspective of Gender Fairness (양성(兩性) 평등 교육의 관점에서 본 초등 학교 "자연" 교과서 분석)

  • Shin, Dong-Hee
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.193-199
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    • 2000
  • The textbook is a predominant feature of most classrooms. Because the textbook is an important aspect of educational experience, it is essential that the content of the texts be carefully scrutinized. The purpose of this study was to examine the visual portrayal of gender groups in elementary $"Chay{\tilde{o}}n"$ textbooks developed by the 6th National Science Curriculum. An instrument was developed to analyze the nature and type of activity engaged in by these groups as well as how often members of these groups were portrayed. Data were collected from 8 elementary $"Chay{\tilde{o}}n"$ textbooks. The results show the following two different features. While the elementary $"Chay{\tilde{o}}n"$ textbooks do not show gender-biases in representing science learning activities such as observing, experimenting, measuring, they show distinct gender-stereotyped roles and activities. It is expected that the results of this study are considered in developing the new elementary "Science" textbooks which show gender-fairness.

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Pre-service elementary school teachers' metaphors on mathematics textbooks (예비초등교사의 수학교과서에 대한 은유 분석)

  • Kim, Jin Ho;Kim, Sang Mee
    • The Mathematical Education
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    • v.53 no.1
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    • pp.147-162
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    • 2014
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of pre-service elementary teachers' metaphors on mathematics textbooks. Their metaphors describe individual and collective patterns of thinking and action on mathematics teaching and learning. To analyze their metaphors, qualitative analysis method based on Lakoff and Johnson's theory of metaphor (1980) was adopted. Metaphors on mathematics textbooks were elicited from 161 pre-service elementary school teachers through writing prompts. The writing prompt responses revealed three types and thirteen categories: As Type I, there were (1) 'Principles', (2) 'Summary', (3) 'Manual', (4) 'Encyclopedia', (5) 'Code', (6) 'Guidelines', and (7) 'Example'. As TypeII, there were (9) 'Assistant', (10) 'Friend', (11) 'Scale', and (12) 'Ongoing'. As TypeIII, there was (13) 'Trap'. Among these categories, 'Guidelines', 'Assistant', and 'Ongoing' were the most frequently revealed. These results indicate that the relations of mathematics curriculum, textbooks, and classrooms are not a unilateral way but should communicate with each other.

How did Elementary Teachers Handle Critical Experiments in Science Classrooms?

  • Kwon, Sung-Gi;Lee, Mi-Kyoung;Nam, Il-Kyun
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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    • v.28 no.2
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    • pp.105-120
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    • 2009
  • Critical Experiments (CE) in science classrooms mean, tentatively, critical situations as comparable to anomalous cases in scientific revolutions where the results of science experiments in schools are unclear, differ from the theory, or students misunderstand the purpose of the experiments. The purpose of this research is to identify what CE occurred during science classes and to investigate how elementary teachers handled them. To analyze how teachers recognized and handled CE, we selected nine typical CE from the $7^{th}$ Korean science curriculum. 125 teachers were selected from 8 districts' elementary schools in a local city. A questionnaire with photos of the nine CE above-mentioned was distributed to these teachers. The focus in this research was the way that each teacher handled the CE. We discovered that there were three basic ways in which teachers handled CE. When CE occurred, 51% of elementary teachers explained the correct result of the experiment (what should have happened) to the students while 40.7% of the teachers repeated to get the correct results. The focuses of handling CE varied. 57 % of the teachers focused on the 'materials' while 30% of the teachers focused on the 'theory'. The other focus was 'thinking'. Only 7.6% of the teachers answered that they gave students a chance to think about the reasons why the CE happened. By analyzing our survey results, we could determine what each teacher did as a follow up to the CE and their focus and reasoning for handling the CE this way. When the CE happened in the science class, few handled the CE with the point of view about purpose of doing experiment. As a result, students could not gain educational experience from the CE. If we use CE as a new method to teach science, it will be a good subject incorporating the nature of science in science education.

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The Nature of Science Reflected in Exhibitions of Natural History Museums (자연사박물관의 전시에 반영된 과학의 본성)

  • Lee Sun-Kyung;Shin Myeong-Kyeong;Kim Chan-Jong
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.26 no.5
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    • pp.376-386
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    • 2005
  • This study investigated to describe how the nature of science is revealed in the four natural history museums in Korea. Natural history museums are well considered as informal settings of education, and the nature of science has been one of major topics stressed in science education. Therefore, the revelation of this topic is supposedly reflected in developing museum exhibitions. In each of the four target natural history museum or natural history exhibition, the representative exhibits subtitled by scientific inquiry and cases dealing with history of science were selected for the study. The analyzing exhibits focused on whether exhibitions were labeled with emphasis on declarative description or interpretative one. In analyzing the contents, the focus was on the concerns of scientists, scientific community, social and cultural aspects, uncertainty of scientific knowledge, and providing sufficient evidences. All things considered, it was hard to conclude that every target exhibit clearly considered the nature of science as an essential element, in designing and developing their exhibitions. More deliberate input of nature of science is suggested for worldly renowned natural history museums, because previous researches keep insisting that the nature of science would be more efficiently achieved in an informal educational setting rather than in classrooms.

The Analysis of the Developmental Approaches in Science, Health and Technology (DASH) Program Using Posner's Curriculum Model

  • Son, Yeon-A;Chae, Dong-Hyun;Min, Byeong-Mee
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.386-400
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    • 2003
  • This paper presents an analysis of the Developmental Approaches in Science, Health and Technology (DASH) program, a K-6 curriculum developed by the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) at the University of Hawaii employing the curriculum analysis framework created by Posner. Using this framework the analyst found that the DASH design is based on the research on learning, teaching, and assessment now driving efforts to reform science education at the elementary level. DASH embraces the constructivist idea that learning is a personal and social process and the recapitulation model that new concepts are built out of theories previously learned. DASH provides an understandable, exciting, and memorable experience in the operations of science, health, and technology, and develops their capacity to use the skills and knowledge of science, health, and technology both in and outside school. A number of studies of DASH have examined its functionality, effectiveness of pedagogy and what students learn. The innovative nature of DASH necessitated a multidimensional assessment that included both quantitative and qualitative research techniques. Ongoing development of the DASH program in the research setting of a university laboratory school permits ever deeper connections with emerging curriculum theory and curriculum practice, and allows new linkages as ideas are tested in research classrooms.

The Analysis Textbooks and Instruction Activities of Construction Contents in 7th Mathematics Curriculum (7차 수학과 교육과정 작도 영역의 교과서와 수업사례 분석)

  • 조완영;정보나
    • School Mathematics
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    • v.4 no.4
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    • pp.601-615
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    • 2002
  • This paper analyzed <7-나> and <8-나> textbooks and teacher instruction activities in classrooms, focusing on procedures used to solve construction problems. The analysis of the teachers' instruction and organization of the construction unit in <7-나> textbooks showed that the majority of the textbooks focused on the second step, i.e., the constructive step. Of the four steps for solving construction problems, teachers placed the most emphasis on the constructive order. The result of the analysis of <8-나> textbooks showed that a large number of textbooks explained the meaning of theorems that were to be proved, and that teachers demonstrated new terms by using a paper-folding activities, but there were no textbooks that tried to prove theorems through the process of construction. Here are two alternative suggestions for teaching strategies related to the construction step, a crucial means of connecting intuitive geometry with formal geometry. First, it is necessary to teach the four steps for solving construction problems in a practical manner and to divide instruction time evenly among the <7-나> textbooks' construction units. The four steps are analysis, construction, verification, and reflection. Second, it is necessary to understand the nature of geometrical figures involved before proving the problems and introducing the construction part as a tool for conjecture upon theorems used in <8-나> textbooks' demonstrative geometry units.

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Co-evolving with Material Artifacts: Learning Science through Technological Design

  • Hwang, Sung-Won;Roth, Wolff-Michael
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.24 no.1
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    • pp.76-89
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    • 2004
  • Recent studies of science and technology "in-the-making" revealed that the process of designing material artifacts is not a straightforward application of prior images or theories by one (or more) person(s) isolated from his or her (their) environment. Rather, designing is a process contingent on the social and material setting for both engineering designers and students. Over the past decade, designing technological artifacts has emerged as an important learning environment in science classrooms. Through the analyses of a large database concerning an innovative simple machines curriculum for sixth-and seventh-grade students, we accumulated valid evidence for the nature of the designing process and science learning through it. In this paper, we show that design actions intertwine with the transformation of the objectified raw materials and artifact, the designer collective, and the mediating tools enabling that transformation, which constitute the elements of an activity from the perspective of cultural-historical activity theory. We conceptualize the continuous change of relation between material artifacts, designers, and tools throughout the design activity as co-evolution. Two episodes were selected to exemplify synchronic and diachronic change of relations inherent in co-evolving activity system. Finally, we discuss the implications of co-evolution during design activity for science learning.

Working with Diverse Learners in Mathematics Classrooms: An Analysis of Elementary Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions Reflected in Lesson Planning

  • Lee, Ji-Eun;Jongekrijg, Terri
    • Research in Mathematical Education
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    • v.22 no.1
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    • pp.19-33
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    • 2019
  • While the field of mathematics education strives to promote equitable mathematics learning and identifies it as a core instructional practice, less is known about its effective enactment. As teachers' teaching practices are dependent on their views and beliefs, this study investigated 133 elementary pre-service teachers' (PSTs') interpretations of diverse learners' learning experiences and proposed accommodations for them as reflected in their lesson planning process. Findings showed that PSTs came up with some strategies that are often suggested in teacher education literature, such as using multiple modes of representation and various grouping strategies. However, their responses were generic in nature rather than specific to diverse learners. Also, it was noted that many PSTs' interchangeably referred to the English Language Learners (ELLs), struggling learners, and culturally diverse learners, inferring that they thought that culturally diverse students must have been ELLs and that ELLs or culturally diverse students must have been weaker students in math. We found that the PSTs used their own frames while filtering and discarding information about diverse student populations to develop instructional plans, rather than based on the results of assessments of learning. We suggest that it is the critical first step to unwrap PSTs' unproven assumptions to better equip them for working with all of their future students.

A Theoretical Study on Abduction as an Inquiry Method in Earth Science (지구과학의 한 탐구 방법으로서 귀추법에 대한 이론적 고찰)

  • Oh, Phil-Seok;Kim, Chan-Jong
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.25 no.5
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    • pp.610-623
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    • 2005
  • This was a theoretical study of which the goal was to provide a foundation for developing and implementing earth science inquiry activities based on abduction as a scientific inquiry method. Through a review of relevant literature, the study examined the nature of earth science in terms of the goals of earth science inquiry and the characteristics of what is investigated in earth science. It also explored the forms and meanings of abduction, thinking strategies used in the abductive inference, and the abductive inquiry model. Abduction is the process of inferring certain rules (e.g., scientific facts, principles, laws) and providing explanatory statements or hypotheses in order to explain some phenomena. This method was found to be well-suited to the earth science inquiry which studies the causes and processes of natural phenomena in the earth and space environment. Abduction has the nature of ampliative, selective, evaluative, and creative inference, and several thinking strategies, including reconstruction of data, heuristic generalization, analogy, existential, conceptual combination, and elimination strategies, are employed for inferring rules and suggesting hypotheses. This study found the abductive inquiry model to be adaptable to earth science classrooms, and it is therefore suggested that earth science instructions should be based on the abductive method and that research work concerning the abductive inquiry in the classroom should follow.