• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.405-424
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics of secondary science teachers' thoughts on 'good' science teaching and to find a concept that can represent the way the teachers think. Participants were twenty pre- and in-service teachers who were enrolled in a graduate course I taught at a university located in Seoul in the first semester, 2011. The participating teachers collected and analyzed a variety of data and created portfolios while they were trained, as part of the course, on qualitative research methods with the same research questions as those of this study. In the current study, the process in which the teachers and I found answers to the research questions was narratively reconstructed based on the teachers' portfolios and my field notes. It was revealed that science teaching was perceived as a task aiming at realizing some kind of values and that because the teachers pursued various values in the science classroom and there exist conflicting relationships among different values, it was hard to define 'good' science teaching. It was also discussed that science instruction was inherently accompanied with the ongoing process of selecting values as the relationships among the values were ever-changing within the contexts of the classroom. This multi-faceted and dynamic structure of the teachers' thoughts on 'good' science teaching was conceptualized analogically as 'Foucault's pendulum,' which has multiple planes of oscillation. Implications for science teacher education and science education research were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.5
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• pp.378-392
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• 2023

The purpose of this study is to analyze the pre-service chemistry teachers' cognition of the nature of model in process of designing and developing models using technology. For this purpose, 19 pre-service chemistry teachers' in the 3rd grade of a education college located in the central region observe experimental phenomena related to Boyle's law presented in the 7th grade science textbook and researchers required the design and development of a model related to the observed experimental results using technology. Based on previous studies, the nature of model were classified into two aspect: 'Representational aspect' and 'Explanatory aspect'. The 'Representational aspect' was classified into 'Representation', 'Abstraction', and 'Simplification', and the 'Explanatory aspect' was classified into 'Analysis', 'Interpretation', 'Reasoning', 'Explanation', and 'Quantification'. The pre-service chemistry teachers' cognition were analyzed by the classification. As a result of the study, the 'Representation' of the 'expressive aspect' was uniformized in the form of space that changes in volume, and the pressure was expressed as the Brightness inside the cylinder or frequency of color change of particles for 'Abstraction'. In the case of 'Simplification', the particle collision was expressed as a perfectly elastic collision, but there was a group that could not simply indicate the type of particle. In the 'Explanatory aspect', in the case of 'Analysis', volume was classified as a manipulated variable, and in the case of 'Interpretation', most groups analyzed the change in pressure through the collision of gas particles. However, the cognition involved in 'Reasoning' was not observed much. In the case of 'Explanation', there were groups that did not succeed in explanation because the area where the particles collided was not set or incorrectly set, and in the case of 'Quantification', there was a group that formulated the number of collisions per unit time, and on the contrary, there was a group that could not quantify the number of collisions because they could not be expressed in numbers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.691-707
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• 2015

This study aims to develop biology teachers' education program based on argumentation activity about core concepts of evolution and to analyze the characteristics of core concepts of evolution learned during the program. The eight core concepts of evolution in this study were variation, heritability of variation, competition, natural selection, adaptation, differential reproductive rate of individuals, changes in genetic pool within a population, and macroevolution. The performances of teachers participating in the program were compared before and after argumentation activities; consisting of seven sessions on the eight core concepts of evolution. The process of the program was specially designed by learning cycle model for teacher education, consisting of seven phases: identification of the task, production of a tentative argument, small group's written argument, share arguments with the other groups, reflective discussion, final written argument, and organization by an instructor. Participants in the study were two pre-service biology teachers and four in-service biology teachers. The results suggest that biology teachers reduced the teleological explanation for biological evolution and improve its adequacy after the intervention. Teachers lacked the opportunity to discuss variation, heritability of variation, competition, and macroevolution because science textbooks lack information on the concepts of biological evolution. The results of this study suggest that because the argumentation program developed for teachers helps to improve understanding the concepts of evolution and to reduce inadequate conceptions in biology, teacher education programs using argumentation activity and eight core concepts of evolution will play a role for efficient evolution education for biology teachers.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.210-226
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to understand what orientations elementary school teachers have related to their science classes, what realities they encounter in real classes, how they overcome their frustrations and failures they experience. We employed a narrative inquiry method and analyzed the experiences of two early career elementary school teachers (Miss Park and Mr. Choi). Miss Park wanted to conduct students-driven inquiry classes, in which students become active investigators, but in reality, she faced herself who conducted teacher-driven classes. Mr. Choi wanted to conduct science classes based on constructivism, but in reality, he encountered himself as a knowledge giver rather than scaffolder. However, rather than giving up their orientations, the two teachers tried to keep them in their own way. It was expected that by understanding what strategies beginner teachers take when their theoretical orientation and ideals are not well implemented in actual educational reality, we could find a clue that will lead to a more successful transition from pre-service teacher to teacher.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.111-125
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• 2022

This study aims to investigate the effects of the ENACT project on promoting pre-service science teachers (PSTs)' views on the social responsibility of scientists and engineers. The ENACT project was designed to cultivate the social responsibility by integrating the theoretical framework of socioscientific issues (SSIs) education with problem-based inquiry approaches for the resolution of the issues. Thirty-two PSTs voluntarily participated in the project and completed the five stages over three months. Data was collected through a questionnaire to measure PSTs' view of the social responsibility of scientists and engineers (VSRoSE) and focus-group interviews. Results indicate that the PSTs presented statistically significant changes in their views of the social responsibility after the ENACT project. The mean scores of the five sub-dimensions of VSRoSE significantly increased. The interviews also supported that the PSTs had opportunities to seriously consider the social responsibility of scientists and engineers through epistemological exploration of science and technology (Cycle I), and problem-solving and action-taking (Cycle II). In particular, they agreed more on such responsibilities as consideration of societal needs and demands, pursuit of the common good, civic engagement and services using their expertise, communications with the public regarding potential risks, and participation in policy decision-making related to science and technology advances. Educational implications for SSI education and teacher education were suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.252-260
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to assist school science class by investigating effective Earth's rotation experiments of districts by school level. The researcher investigated or developed nine experiments for learning Earth's rotation, and conducted and discussed these experiments with 26 elementary school teachers. Each teachers chose an effective Earth's rotation experiment for the district and wrote the reason. As a result, elementary school teachers chose the experiment that is easy to prepare and to do. And elementary school students are interested in the experiments by conducting them on their own. Middle and high school teachers chose more difficult experiments that could be connected with other concepts. University teachers chose effective experiments based on application of knowledge, active exploration, computer literacy, and difficulty.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.538-549
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• 2013

This study investigated the preservice and inservice elementary teachers' perceptions on professionalism of teaching profession, professionalism of science teaching, and their self-efficacy on science teaching. For this study, 64 sophomore, 53 senior preservice teachers and 23 elementary teachers who were also graduate students were participated. The questionnaires consisted of 5 Likert scaled and descriptive items about the professionalism of teaching profession, professionalism of science teaching, and self-efficacy on science teaching. The results showed that some areas of the professionalism of teaching profession had significant differences between the grades in preservice teachers and/or inservice teachers. Most preservice teachers and teachers thought that they need to have professional ability, but not a few teachers thought it was not necessary to have professionalism of science teaching as a elementary teacher, even though their major was science education. The teachers who had higher perceptions on the needs of the professionalism of science teaching showed high self-efficacy on science teaching.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.143-152
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• 2023

This study was conducted on 115 students from 4 classes of 2nd year intensive courses at B University of Education. Elementary preservice teachers were surveyed on what teaching methods they were aware of regarding the subject of elementary science astronomy. Recognition data of 80 people from whom the questionnaire was collected were analyzed. For this study, a 5-day survey was conducted. Elementary preservice teachers complained of difficulties in teaching methods in the astronomy area among various areas of the science department. The purpose of this study was to find out what difficulties elementary preservice teachers have in teaching elementary science astronomy topics, and to find more efficient teaching methods for teaching astronomy topics. The topic of the survey was set by discussing with the preparatory elementary teachers about what kind of survey to use in teaching the subject of elementary science astronomy. There are many topics for elementary science astronomy, but two questionnaires were prepared focusing on the unit on the earth and the moon. 'What does the earth look like?' in Unit 4 (1/10) of the 3rd year, 1st semester In Unit 2 (1/11) of the 1st semester of the 6th grade, it was set as 'What does the moon look like?'. Candidly describe how to teach the subject of astronomy to elementary school students by mobilizing all the background knowledge of preparatory elementary teachers. The results of these surveys were visualized and displayed using Netminer as a language analysis method, and the contents of the responses to the actual surveys by pre-service elementary school teachers were described and interpreted. Based on these results, preparatory elementary teachers tried to suggest a more efficient teaching method for the subject of elementary science astronomy. In addition, basic procedures and methods for lecturing on the subject of elementary science astronomy were presented. A more efficient teaching method for teaching elementary science astronomy subjects to pre-service elementary teachers was suggested.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.127-148
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• 2023

In this study, we used an analysis of the literature on socio-scientific issues (SSI) classes to examine domestic SSI class research and to determine the characteristics of SSI class research for each subject. A search for papers related to SSI classes published in Korea Citation Index-listed journals and candidate journals of the Korea Research Foundation found 95 relevant papers, which were then categorized according to participants and topics. Studies with both pre-service and experienced teachers attempted to investigate SSI-related perceptions. Studies of pre-service teachers tended to examine the level and development pattern of argumentation or to analyze decision-making characteristics and informal reasoning. Studies of experienced teachers tended to analyze instructional expertise in SSI teaching activities, focusing on teachers with substantial SSI teaching experience. Middle and high school students-related studies examined student decision-making and reasoning processes in SSI learning activities, developed SSI class programs, and analyzed educational effects. Examining the characteristics of SSI classes for elementary school students was difficult because few such studies have been published. However, the characteristics that elementary school students show in SSI learning situations could be inferred. A plan to revitalize SSI classes in the elementary science education field from the perspective of teacher education and class research is suggested.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.24-36
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• 2023

In this study, we investigated chemistry teachers' the Stage of Concern (SoC) and the Level of Use (LoU) regarding competency assessment, which was emphasized along with the introduction of the 2015 revised curriculum. A questionnaire was developed based on the CBAM, and responses from 123 chemistry teachers were analyzed. The frequency was investigated for both SoC and LoU, and then the chi-square test was performed according to demographic variables. As a result of the SoC analysis, most of the teachers stayed in stage 3 (management concern, 26.8%) and stage 2 (personal concern, 19.5%). Additionally, among the demographic variables, there was a statistically significant difference in whether or not related education experience was present during the pre-service teacher period. In LoU analysis, Level III (mechanical) was the most frequent (26.8%), followed by Level I (orientation, 22.8%), Level II (preparation, 13.8%). In LoU, there was also a statistically significant difference in whether or not related education experience was present during the pre-service teacher period. The Spearman correlation coefficient between SoC and LoU in the competency assessment was .298 and there was a positive correlation. Based on the above results, educational implications for improving the concern and use of chemistry teachers for competency assessment were discussed.