• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.181-192
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• 2017

This study aims to examine the educational effects of the SSI program using Digital Storytelling (DST) approaches. Since DST provides students opportunities to express their own opinions in the form of stories and to share learning outcomes through the web, we developed and implemented SSI program by adopting the concept of DST in order to produce synergistic effects on student learning. Twenty-four 9th graders who enthusiastically engaged in the DST-based SSI program participated in this study. The students responded to focus group interviews after the instruction, and all interviews were transcribed for analysis. The results indicated that the students became aware of socio-ethical perspectives of each SSI topic while searching and collecting data by themselves. They also felt the necessity to consider multiple perspectives around the issues by having discussions with group members. Second, pre-producing DST allowed students to negotiate to settle on a group discussion, and to use emotional contents that can lead viewers to have sympathy. In addition, while producing DST, students considered various factors such as design, soundtrack, visual effects, and screen composition in order to express their opinions and convey their messages more effectively. In the stage of sharing DST outcomes and receiving feedback, they realized new perspectives that they did not perceive in the previous production process, and to move them into an action for resolving the problems caused by SSI. This study showed the potentials of DST-based SSI instruction as a good strategy to support students' SSI engagement.