• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.144-152
• /
• 2007

In this study, high school science teachers' and students' various conceptions related to osmosis phenomena were compared with and analyzed in relation to the content of science textbooks used in high school science classrooms and college science courses. The questionnaires developed by the researchers were administered to science teachers and students. Differences can be found between the explanations of science textbooks on osmotic pressure and semi-permeable membranes. Many science teachers and students thought of osmotic pressure as 'membrane pressure occurred by the movement of a solvent'. Moreover, the types of teachers of semi-permeable membranes were similar regardless of their academic majors. Many of the teachers thought of a semi-permeable membrane as a membrane that 'passes small-size particles'; however, many students thought of this type of membrane as being 'selectively permeable'. Also, the salt-pickling cabbage phenomenon seemed to cause significant confusion to science teachers and students. These study results show that teachers and students possess various conceptions related to the osmosis phenomena. These different conceptions related to osmosis phenomena might cause confusion and diverse conceptions including misconceptions among teachers and students.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.360-379
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of science. Defining teachers' beliefs as a broad construct, we tried to examine the teachers' understandings about the nature of science. The methodology of this study was a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. In an urban area of Korea, five beginning elementary teachers were chosen. The cross-case and grounded theory study design were adopted for the data analysis. The results of data analysis were checked by teachers for internal validity. This study identified the teachers' beliefs about the nature of science suggested by many researchers. The results of this study showed that: 1) beginning elementary teachers did not well understand and were unfamiliar with the meanings of various terms about the nature of science; 2) their beliefs abut the nature of science were broad and various; 3) they understood some parts of the nature of science; 4) there were differences within their understandings about subconcepts of the nature of science.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.85-94
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perspectives of pre-service elementary teachers on science education of future by using Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist and open-ended questionnaire. The subjects of this study were 136 pre-service elementary teachers. The results of the research are as follows. The pre-service teachers thought that the physical environment reflecting the latest science and technology for science education will be developed in the future. However, few respondents indicated that student-centered equipment or a free and creative classroom environment would be provided. Second, they predicted that there would be changes in teacher's activities due to the introduction of advanced facilities and equipment, but most of the other teachers' activities were thought to be similar to those of current teachers. Third, the pre-service elementary teachers thought that a variety of new technologies would be used in science education and science teachers would mainly teach high-technology, IT technology, science knowledge, and newly discovered science concepts. In addition, we found that pre-service elementary teachers' images were more 'teacher-centered' than 'student-centered'. These results show that pre-service elementary teachers are expected to utilize the latest science and technology actively in science education in 2030 and that it will lead to changes in the physical environment, teachers' activities, education contents, and teaching and learning methods. In addition, they viewed acquisition of science concept as an important goal of science education in the future and had different points of view from the current science education curriculum and scholars' emphasis on educational research for the future.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.163-172
• /
• 2019

This study explored elementary teachers' perceptions on the essential features of science inquiry, the appropriateness of inquiry activities to science inquiry, and the essential features of inquiry by inquiry activities. 85 elementary teachers' perceptions were investigated using Likert scale survey, and 7 teachers were interviewed. The results are as follows. First, the features that elementary teachers perceived the most essential were 'Engaging students in evaluating their explanations in light of alternative explanations' and 'Engaging students in communicating and justifying their explanations'. Second, The inquiry activities that teachers thought the most appropriate to science inquiry were 'experiment' and 'project'. On the other hand, the perceptions on 'discussion' and 'field trip' were relatively low. Third, the inquiry activity that showed the highest mean score of five essential features of inquiry was 'experiment' while the mean score of 'field trip' was the lowest. Educational implications about the science inquiry were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.314-328
• /
• 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
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.354-365
• /
• 2009

In this research, we investigated the support system and professional development in teaching practices of beginning science teachers through instructional consulting. Using open-ended interviews with the participating teachers and group discussions taking place on a regular basis to analyze and compare classes of six beginning teachers, we analyzed beginning teachers' professional development efforts centering around their teaching practices. The group discussion consisted of 6 beginning teachers and another 6 experienced teachers, they discussed and cross-analyzed beginning teachers' 9th lessons on middle school science unit, 'Work and Energy.' The characteristics of beginning science teachers' professional development drawn from this research are: (1) beginning teachers' teaching practices they were taught, (2) lack of reflection on their teaching practices, (3) no guidance for beginning teachers regarding ways to teach, (4) lack of communication between teachers about teaching science, and (5) lack of time for instructional preparation due to other heavy workload. Suggestions for ways to improve and support beginning teachers' professional development are discussed with experienced teachers. Required conditions for an effective induction program are also discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.501-510
• /
• 1997

Science teachers' beliefs about science and school science and their perceptions of the science laboratory learning environment were investigated with an assumption that science laboratory teaching would be affected by science teachers' beliefs. Likert-scale questionnaires of BASSSQ and SLEI were used in this study. The major findings were as follows: 1. Science teachers showed inconsistent beliefs about science and school science. Their responses reflected a patch-like view of postmodern epistemology and objectivism They also showed somewhat different views about science and school science. It was found that science teachers had strong objectivist views about science in some parts. but they had moderate constructivist views about school science in other parts; 2. The mean scores of student cohesiveness, integration. and rule clarity on the actual version in SLEl were relatively high, but those of open-endedness and physical environment were very low; 3. There was no association between teachers' beliefs about science and their perceptions of the science laboratory learning environment. But some associations were found between teachers' beliefs about school science and their perception on student cohesiveness, integration, and rule clarity of the actual science laboratory learning environment. Teachers' beliefs about school science had some statistically significant correlations with their perceptions on all scales of the preferred version of SLEI. We could not show a causal relationship between teachers' beliefs and their science laboratory learning environment through these results. But it can be suggested that teachers' beliefs about school science do have a role in constructing a desirable science laboratory learning environment, as we found that there were statistically significant correlations between them.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.514-523
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigation the elementary school teachers' perception in STEAM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) Education. For this study, 93 elementary school teachers who have taught mathematics/science in gifted class were selected and a fifteen items questionnaire designed to elicit teachers' perception of steam education was to administered to them. The major findings are as follows: First, the ratio of teachers who understood a steam education exactly is very low. But teachers have positive thoughts about the need of steam education. Second, teachers thought that steam education has a good effect on elementary education. Third, teachers thought that steam education will be an alternative teaching and learning method. Fourth, teachers have negative thoughts to participate in class work related on steam education. To improve negative attitudes on steam education, incentives for teachers seems to be required. In order to spread steam education among the elementary school teachers successfully, the expansion of school facilities, administrators and staff in mind, improving financial support, strengthening education through the development of content and teaching strategies were analyzed as a challenge.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.9
• /
• pp.1452-1469
• /
• 2012

This study examined the science learning environments experienced by Korean and U.S. preservice elementary science teachers during their 3-week clinical experience. Observational experiences of 97 Korean and 112 U.S preservice teachers were surveyed with an instrument that we developed for the study. Follow-up interviews provided a clearer picture of what preservice teachers observed and experienced in science classrooms during their clinical experiences. Korean preservice teachers experienced a variety of science teaching environments, whereas the U.S. preservice teachers reported limited opportunities to observe science teaching and learning in terms of 6 identified facets that we posed. Along with our interpretation of the contrast in findings, some of the challenges are discussed in providing preservice teachers with opportunities to observe, experience, and teach in effective science learning environments during the clinical experience.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.102-115
• /
• 2019

This study investigated how elementary school teachers reconstruct science curriculum and how they perceive about their experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with four elementary school teachers who had experience in restructuring science curriculum. Two distinct types of reconstruction were found; restructuring within the subject and integrating between subjects. The teachers who were restructuring science curriculum from personal needs usually substitute, delete, add some contents or activities and change the order of unit within science subject. In contrast, the teachers who were participating in research school usually integrated science with other subjects, developing a new unit or project. The latter recognized the need of teachers' reconstruction of science curriculum more strongly and the importance of teacher's voluntary learning community in implementing the reconstruction. Though they had some difficulties in identifying students' interests and level of understanding and lack of time, all teachers valued curriculum reconstruction by relating it to teacher professional development, identity as a teacher, and job consciousness.