• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.314-328
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine Korean preservice science teachers' understanding of the nature of science (NOS). Thirty-one Korean preservice teachers were given an open-ended questionnaire about their understanding of NOS. The Korean preservice teachers' responses were categorized according to pattern and theme. These findings will provide information to aid in the development of curriculum and instruction to improve preservice teachers' understanding of NOS. Compared to in previous studies, Korean preservice teachers demonstrated various philosophical stances that have been suggested by philosophers of science. In addition, they were more likely to connect science to human endeavors and social needs. These results were interpreted in relation to the influence of the science methods course, secondary science curriculum, and the traditional cultural view.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.342-358
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice teachers' understanding of democratic citizenship. This study utilized the democratic citizenship frame to assess 17 participants' comprehension of this concept. The researcher designed a method course where participants in groups analyzed science activities to identify democratic citizenship components. Through the analysis of two science activities-one on energy and the other on climate change-and the development of science panels addressing various global issues, preservice teachers' understanding of democratic citizenship was enhanced. Preservice teachers showed a good understanding of critical thinking, communication and collaboration, and STS (science, technology, and society); and the most enhanced understanding of empathy, which was the least perceived in pre-survey, component of democratic citizenship. The democratic citizenship frame proved to be a valuable tool for teaching and learning this topic, particularly when applied to socioscientific issues in the classroom. More research-based revisions of the science curriculum are necessary, and more systematic practices with reflections are essential in teacher education.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.199-210
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• 2004

This study investigates 55 preservice secondary mathematics teachers' situational understanding of functional relationship. Functional thinking is fundamental and useful because it develops students' quantitative thinking about the world and analytical thinking about complex situations through examination of the relations between interdependent factors. Functional thinking is indispensable for understanding natural phenomena, for investigation by science, and for the technological inventions in engineering and navigation. Therefore, it goes without saying that teachers should be able to represent and communicate about various functional situations in the course of teaching and learning functional relationships to develop students' functional thinking. The result of this study illustrates that many preservice teachers were not able to appropriately represent and communicate about various functional situations. Additionally, it shows that most preservice teachers have limited understanding of the value of teaching function.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.99-108
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• 2012

This study investigated the characteristics of preservice elementary teachers' science PCK through a mentoring program. Their perceptions of the mentoring program were also examined. The participants of this study were 33 preservice elementary teachers who prepared science lessons in small groups. A mentoring program was implemented in the processes of science lessons planning and evaluation to support their professional development. The characteristics of the preservice elementary teachers' science PCK exhibited through the mentoring program were as follows: They showed poor understanding of instructional models and logical connections of each instructional step. They also had problem in setting a clear learning goal for their science lessons. This was related with their poor understanding of the curriculum. They seldom considered students' misconceptions, and their perceptions of assessment were quite restricted. The analyses on their perceptions of the mentoring program revealed that the preservice teachers thought it was helpful for their professional development in several aspects. Mentoring could play an important role to examine and improve preservice elementary teachers' science PCK.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.32-46
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice elementary teachers' understandings and instructional strategies about children's science misconceptions. The participants were sixty senior students from a national university of education located in the midwestern area of Korea. A questionnaire, developed on the basis of Gomez-Zwiep's semi-structured interview questions, was used. The results of this study are as follows: first, many of the preservice teachers showed appropriate understanding of 'definition of misconceptions' (96.67%), 'examples of misconceptions' (78.33%), 'resistance to change of misconceptions' (71.67%), and 'impact on instruction of misconceptions' (91.67%), except for 'sources of misconceptions' (45.00%); second, although almost all the preservice teachers (96.67%) appreciated the necessity of identifying children's misconceptions before instruction, 43.33% of the preservice teachers did not show appropriate understandings on when and how to identify children's misconceptions; third, most of the preservice teachers (81.67%) were generally aware of instructional strategies to address children's misconceptions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.871-876
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• 2015

The purpose of this research was to investigation of elementary preservice teachers' understanding of the image observed in a diverging lens. To achieve the research purpose, Scientific inquiry activity of 'Observing Objects through a Diverging Lens' in the 2009 Revised Science Curriculum was carried out by 29 junior elementary preservice teachers, and preservice teachers' difficulties were analyzed during scientific inquiry activity. The results were as follows. First, preservice teachers had difficulties in comparing the size of the images. Second, preservice teachers couldn't correctly explain the reason about the changing of the image size according to distance from the lens to the object. Third, preservice teachers couldn't correctly explain the changing of the image size according to distance from the lens to the eyes. Fourth, preservice teachers were classified into five levels according to their conceptions of the image formation by the diverging lens, and most of them stayed in the first level. The result of this research suggests that reformations in text and preservice teachers' education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.450-466
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore preservice elementary teachers' perceptions on models used in science and science education. Participants were sixty-one undergraduate students who were enrolled in a science education course offered at a university of education located in a mid-sized city, Korea. Data were obtained from the participants at the beginning of the course when they provided their answers to a questionnaire about models. The analysis revealed that a large number of the preservice teachers perceived models as representative of physical realities. By contrast, a relatively small number of them viewed models as representations of ideas or things like theories or hypotheses. Lots of the participants were apt to define a model from the perspective of its functions and considered the purposes of models communication, teaching, and understanding as well as visualization, simplification, and clarification. Most of the preservice teachers believed that there could be multiple models for a single target, and all of them answered that models could be changed in science. It was therefore concluded that the preservice teachers perceived properly the multiplicity and variability of models. Nevertheless, they could not elaborate how a model is used and evaluated in the process of scientific inquiry, and just a few of them mentioned the detailed nature of models. The preservice teachers possessed teacher-centered views of using models in the science classroom, and a small number of them remarked that they were going to use models for students to develop their own models and perform scientific inquiry.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.696-702
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• 2008

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.401-414
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the elementary preservice teachers' conceptions about 'plastics' focusing on non-polar property from a National University of Education. For the study, the views about plastics, relative shapes of a water droplet on plastic or glass material, and relative shapes of water surface in the plastic or glass measuring cylinder were surveyed from the preservice teachers. And the responses were analyzed based on the patterns. The results from the study are as follows: First, most preservice teachers were well aware of the plastic products which are used in daily life. Second, the responses concerning the reason why plastics can be used commonly were divided into 2 categories with 14 sub-level groups. However relatively few preservice teachers mentioned regarding 'chemical stability' and 'conductivity', which are associated with the plastics' non-polar property. Third, it was found that 50 participants (30.1%) had 'Scientific conception (Sc)', 38 (22.9%) had 'Partial-scientific conception (Ps)', 66 (39.8%) had 'Misconception (Mc)', and 12 (7.2%) had 'No conception (Nc)' on the subject of the relative shapes of a water droplet. Fourth, the distribution patterns and the ratio of the preservice teachers' conception on the survey question 3 concerning the relative shapes of water surface were quite similar to those of the survey question 2. So it was concluded that overall understanding level of the preservice teachers was pretty low on the subjects of the relative polarities of the plastic, glass, and water as well as their interactions. Fifth, the distribution percentile of 'Sc'/'Ps'/'Mc'/'Nc' was not related with the gender but highly correlated with preservice teachers' academic field and their science subjects taken in high school. Based on the results from the study, some educational guidelines were suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.206-217
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• 2010

This study aims to explore preservice teachers' overall views of nature of science and compare their views by gender and certificate area (biology vs. non-biology teachers). In addition, a comparison with American preservice teachers' views was also implemented. The Views of Nature of Science (Abd-El-Khalick, 1998), an openended questionnaire, is utilized to explore participants' views of nature of science. Along with 'definition of science', six aspects of the nature of science, (1) theories and laws, (2) tentativeness, (3) social and cultural embeddedness, (4) creativity, (5) theory-laden, and (6) inference, were investigated. The qualitative result indicates that the participants' first image of science was about the method of science such as observations and experiments. Furthermore, these preservice science teachers particularly have a difficulty in differentiating between scientific theories and laws, and understanding the importance of creation and imagination in developing scientific knowledge. In addition, compared to American preservice teachers' view of the nature of science, Korean preservice teachers possess naive views in creative and imaginative aspect. Interestingly, biology teachers demonstrated lower understanding in theories and laws as well as tentativeness of scientific knowledge. However, there is no difference by gender.