• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.235-250
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• 2012

This paper aims to find out whether or not elementary school students recognize and understand scientific units that they encounter in their everyday life. To select appropriate units for the survey, first, scientific units in elementary textbooks of science and other science related subjects were analyzed. Then it was examined how these units were related to the learners' daily life. The participants in the current survey were 320 elementary school 6th graders. A questionnaire consisted of 11 units of science, such as kg for mass, km for distance, L for volume, V for voltage, s for time, $^{\circ}C$ for temperature, km/h for speed, kcal for heat, % for percentage, W for electric power, pH for acidity, which can often be seen and used in daily life. The students were asked to do the following four tasks, (1) to see presented pictures and select appropriate scientific units, (2) to write reasons for choosing the units, (3) to answer what the units are used for, and (4) to check where to find the units. The data were analyzed in terms of the percentage of the students who seemed to well recognize and understand the units, using SPSS 17.0 statistical program. The results are as follows: Regarding the general use of the units, it was revealed that almost the same units were repeated in science and other subject textbooks from the same grade. With an increase of the students' grade more difficult units were used. As for the use of each unit, it was found that they seemed to relatively well understand what these units kg, km, L, $^{\circ}C$, kcal, km/h, and W stand for, showing more than 91% right. However, the units of V, s, in particular, %, and pH did not seem to be understood. With respect to the recognition of the units, most students did not recognize such units as L for volume and pH for acidity, probably because the units are difficult at the elementary level in comparison to other scientific units. The students indicated that schools were the best place where they could learn and find scientific units related to life, followed by shops/marts, newspapers/broadcasting, streets/roads, homes, and others in that order. The results show that scientific unit learning should be conducted in a systematic way at school and that teachers can play a major role in improving students' understanding and use of the units.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.495-505
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• 2008

The main purposes of this study are to: (1) to develop astronomy observation program based on a standardized coefficient decision program; and (2) to apply the developed program to after-school or club activities. As a first step, we analyzed activities related to astronomy in the authorized textbooks that are currently adopted in high schools. based on the analysis, we developed an astronomy observation program according to the standardized coefficient decision program, and the program was applied to students' astronomical observations as part of the club activities. Specifically, this program used a 102 mm refracting telescope and digital camera. we took into account the observation site's environment of the urban areas in which many school were located and then developed a the computer program for observation activities. The results of this study are as follows. First, the current astronomical education in schools was based off of the textbooks. Specifically, it was mostly about analyzing the materials and making simulated experiments. Second, most schools participated in this study were located in urban areas where students had more difficulty in observation than in rural areas. Third, an exemplary method was investigated in order to make an astronomical observation efficiently in urban areas with the existing devices. In addition, the standardized coefficient decision program was developed to standardize the magnitude of stars according to the observed value. Finally, based on the students' observations, we found that there was no difference between the magnitude of a star in urban sites and in rural sites. The current astronomical education in schools lacks an activity of practical experiments, and many schools have not good observational sites because they are located in urban areas. However, use of this program makes it possible to collect significant data after a series of standardized corrections. In conclusion, this program not only helps schools to create an active astronomy observation activity in fields, but also promotes students to be more interested in astronomical observation through a series of field-based activities.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.192-202
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate high school students' conception of conservation of mass through the scenario of carbon emission in terms of carbon cycle. Seventy six high school students of 11th grade were participated in this study. Participants were provided with two scenarios that showed a gradual increase and decrease of atmospheric $CO_2$ amount from the level recorded in 2013 up to 450 ppm and to 340 ppm by 2110, which is the changes of around 15%. We asked participants to explain the reason after having them draw the emissions trajectory of $CO_2$ according to scenario. Most participants thought that carbon emission would continue to increase despite the two scenarios of carbon emission making sense in terms of conservation of mass between emissions and the natural removal of carbon dioxide. This implies that participants came to think of pattern matching that carbon emission would continue to increase as they used correlation graphs of carbon emission: that is, the graphs of the evolution of anthropogenic emissions, of atmospheric $CO_2$, and of global mean temperature, from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution up to date, all of which are shown in high school earth science textbooks.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.331-347
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to develop a sample chapter of mathematics textbook at the first middle school according to the model of supporting learners' self-directed learning. The self-directed learning is a learning strategy to develop learner's ability to solve unstructured problems by himself or herself. Basically, the textbook should included learning objectives distinctively. Second textbook should consist of some appropriate method for learners to learn content. Third, it suggests some plans to utilize learning strategies of this model effectively when authors or developers develop textbooks in future. Based on those condition, it is also requested that the sample chapter of the textbook be develop in order to study interestingly as well as to implement self-directed study, and content materials using mixed diverse subjects would be included in the chapter. Furthermore, the sample chapter which is suitable to the semester of managing self-directed learning middle school would be developed. For this purpose, in this study the 'Plane shapes' was selected dealt with in the first middle school. The sample chapter is developed at first by the researchers and then revised and completed through the checking from the professionalists two times.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.657-673
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• 2015

In this study, we are interested in the teachers' MCK about '$N{\div}0$' and MPCK in relation to the proper ways to teach it. Even though '$N{\div}0$' is not on the current curriculum and textbooks of elementary school mathematics, a few students sometimes ask a question about it because the division of the form '$a{\div}b$' is dealt in whole number including 0. Teacher's obvious understanding and appropriate guidance based on students' levels can avoid students' error and have positive effects on their subsequent learning. Therefore, we developed an interview form to investigate teachers' MCK about '$N{\div}0$' and MPCK of the proper ways to teach it and carried out individual interviews with 30 elementary school teachers. The results of the analysis of these interviews reveal that some teachers do not have proper MCK about '$N{\div}0$' and many of them have no idea on how to teach their students who are asking about '$N{\div}0$'. Based on our discussion of the results, we suggest some didactical implications.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.1-18
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to develop the evaluation questions to enhance the higher-thinking skills such as decision-making, creative thinking, critical thinking, problem-solving skills and metacognition in the housing area of middle school home economics. Two steps, selection of contents, development of questions and check the validity were adapted to develop the questions. The total of 28 evaluation elements were selected from the validity of contents and questions related to housing in the 9 textbooks based on the 2007 revised curriculum and in the three on-line question banks operated by public institutions. Four guidelines such as using multi-classified table, various materials, question types, and question structures were applied to develop the evaluation questions. The 80 evaluation questions with 175 associated sub questions related to housing were reviewed two times by two professionals to finalize. The five home economics teachers with various teaching experience have evaluated the validity of each 80 questions. The 57(71.3%) questions got 5 point with average of 4,9 out of 5 point-Likert validity scale. The result of high validity of the evaluation questions developed in this study examined by 5 teachers need to apply to students' test in the class.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.624-638
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• 2019

A questionnaire was administered, and all responses were analyzed to examine prospective teachers' conceptual understanding of the relationship between dew point temperature and absolute humidity in air parcels. The responses revealed that many prospective teachers have substantial misconceptions about the relationship. For example, some thought that the absolute humidity and the dew point temperature are proportional to each other, and that the dew point temperature is proportional to the water vapor mass in the parcel. The misconceptions seemingly stemmed from inadequate descriptions on the relationship in middle-school science textbooks of the 7th and 2007 revised curricula. The study notes that the first year students' textbook of the 2015 revised curriculum introduced the concepts of evaporation, condensation, and volume changes as a function of gaseous pressure and temperature, from a perspective of molecular motion. It is suggested that keeping this perspective in the middle school curriculum, while introducing water vapor pressure as the measure of water vapor amount and dew point temperature, should help prevent middle school teachers and students from having misconceptions. There should be a concerted effort to make the science curriculum more consistent and coherent across the grade levels.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.133-150
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate the suitability of elective of the 2009 revised high school science curriculum. This study surveyed 911 students in 126 high schools by using proportionate stratified sampling. Each participating students carried out the on-line survey comprising 13 items about personal and academic suitability. The result of analyzing the response of the questionnaire were as follows. First, there were deviation of study-load, depth, difficulty, etc. between science elective I and II. Second, even though 'science' subject was developed as a subject for improving scientific literacy, it was found that it was considered difficult next to Physics I. Besides, it showed 'science' subject could not function properly to improve the ability to communicate. According to the results of analyzing the degree of interest in science elective, it can not be determined 'no interest in subject' is from the reason of difficulty or large amount of contents to memorize. The results of this study will be useful to provide suggestions for the improvement of next high school science curriculum and textbooks.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2016

The purpose of this review was to introduce and examine 'development' and 'relations' as the core concepts of Home Economics in 2015 revised middle school curriculum in Korea. The 2009 and 2015 proclamation of the ministry of education on home economics curriculum and 26 published middle school textbooks were reviewed. The major findings were as follows. First, the components of human 'development' and family 'relations' were strongly associated with promoting four key competencies (i.e. the self-management competency, the communication competency, the aesthetic sensibility competency, the community competency) of 2015 revision. Also, four of cross-curricular learning topics (i.e. character education, multicultural education, safety and health education, human right education) in 2015 revision could be effectively discussed with human 'development' and family 'relations'. Second, when teaching and learning of the core concept, human 'development', continuous dynamic aspects of life-span development, the connectedness of different domains of development, systematic approach of various concepts in development, specificity and empirical evidence of information and variability of developmental patterns in adolescence should be considered. Third, when teaching and learning of the core concept, family 'relations', family trait such as generational relations, gender relations, role relations and power relations should be taken into account. In addition, exclusively focusing on normal family ideology or image of middle-class family and lecture-centered instruction methods should be changed for students to achieve the competencies relevant to family relations. The future directions for applying core concepts, 'development' and 'relations' in classroom will be discussed.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.61-79
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• 2010

The purposes of this study were to develop lesson plans of library assisted practical problem-based teaching-learning for 'life and career planning' unit in high school Technology Home Economics Subject and to compare the learning effect of this lesson plan with that of practical problem-based teaching-learning in class. The change in student's perception about home economics subject was also compared after two types of teaching-learning process. The contents of the high school Technology Home Economics textbooks and curriculum guide book for the year of 2007 curriculum revision were analyzed. Based on these analysis 10 library assisted practical problem-based teaching-learning lesson plans on 'life and carrer planning' unit were developed. The high school students living in Gyeonggi province as an experimental group participated in library assisted practical problem-based teaching-learning. The control group of students who had same condition with the experimental group were taught by same lesson plans in class. After the experiment, the changes in attitudes toward life and career planning and in perception about Home Economics subject were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance. The more significant positive attitudes toward life and career planning were found in the experimental group of students compared with those of the control group of students. And compared with the control group of students, the experimental group of student perceived more positively about characteristics of Home Economics subject. Thus, the following conclusion was made that the library assisted practical problem-based teaching-learning could be one of the useful teaching-learning methods to improve attitude toward life and career planning and perception about Home Economics subject.