• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.767-782
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• 2009

The researchers who are studying biology and teachers who are teaching biology think that the genetics-related concepts are highly significant than other concepts in biology. With such background, researches on the identification of major concepts have been under way to guide in biology class. Minimal research has been carried out, however, on what concepts should be taught to achieve the specific objectives of the class in relation to the unit of genetics in middle and high school. Accordingly this study was designed to determine the concepts of genetics that should be taught to achieve the objectives of the genetics unit in secondary school. For this purpose 5 instructional objectives of the genetics unit on the 9th grade and 4 instructional objectives of Biology I were selected and the concepts that were taught to achieve class objectives. The survey was conducted among 114 science teachers from middle schools and 85 biology teachers from high schools. The results indicated that 9.1 and 10.2 concepts on average were taught in the 9th grade and in Biology I respectively. Moreover statistical difference in the number of concepts that were taught according to the teachers' teaching experiences appeared among the middle school teachers (p<.05). But such statistical difference did not appear among the high school teachers (p>.05). Furthermore the concepts for the 9th grade consist of the basic genetics concepts although Biology I concepts were integrated and advanced contents for same concepts. Thus this finding suggests that concepts of genetics units to be taught in middle and high school were in linkage.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.650-663
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• 2013

Multidimensional scaling can be used to identify relationships among concepts, revealing the structure of the cognitive framework by measuring distances within perceptual maps. The current study sought to examine the relationships among concepts related to photosynthesis in 2,844 $3^{rd}-11^{th}$ grade science students. The questionnaire included items on 'location,' 'products,' 'reactants,' and 'environmental factors', presenting images related to each theme. Students provided responses corresponding to particular topics, and reported the extent to which the concept was related to the topic on a scale from 1 to 30. The survey results were as follows: first, students were not able to clearly distinguish between or understand the four main topics. Second, students organized their cognitive structures by closely associating related concepts after learning. Third, the presented concepts revealed a mixture of scientific and non-scientific concepts, suggesting that students needed to clearly distinguish the preconceptions through which they organized concepts, so that they are suitable for cognitive structures based on learning. Furthermore, non-scientific concepts within perceptions were consistently maintained throughout learning, affecting the proximity of scientific concepts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.627-633
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• 2003

This study is to investigate the level and connection of learning concepts related to metabolism presented in life science textbooks developed according to the national common basic curriculum. One kind of elementary school, and three kinds of middle school and high school science textbooks were analysed. The gross number of concepts related to metabolism was 42 in elementary, 149 in middle and 126 in high school science textbooks. The number of concepts was much more different by school than by publisher. Ratio of the number of concrete versus formal concepts decreased gradationally by grade, but the number of learning concepts increased radically by grade. Thus, it is implied that science learning concepts are presented considering the number of concepts as well as cognitive level of learner, and unit and content are constructed on the connection among them in developing science curriculum and textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1524-1536
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• 2012

Science attitudes affect the quality of learning, and they are considered as one of the major concerns in science education. It is necessary to analyze the proximity between concepts with science attitudes. Accordingly, this study was designed to analyze the proximity of the concept related to photosynthesis as it changed after class according to the levels of science attitudes. A survey on the concept of photosynthesis and science attitudes before and after class was conducted on 270 7th-grade students. The concept of photosynthesis was composed of 'the place of photosynthesis,' 'products of photosynthesis,' 'reactants of photosynthesis,' and 'environmental factors.' The proximity of the concept of photosynthesis was analyzed through the utilization of multidimensional scaling (MDS). The research results were as follows: (1) Students changed the proximity between concepts by acquiring concrete concepts through class. (2) The upper group in science attitudes tends to be closer to the proximity between scientific concepts through class, compared to the intermediate and lower groups. (3) In all students with entire levels of science attitudes, non-scientific concepts continued to exist even after class, and the non-scientific concepts were deemed to interfere with the proximity between scientific concepts related to photosynthesis. (4) Students turned out to be aware of the concepts related to each other in four areas associated with photosynthesis. That is, it can be said that students are closely aware of the place where photosynthesis can occur and the materials needed as well as materials generated as a result of photosynthesis and the materials needed in terms of concepts related to photosynthesis.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.161-177
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• 2009

This study aims to explore how teachers construct scientific explanation during instructional practices to help students' scientific inquiry. Before investigating teachers' classroom practices, elementary school science curriculum was examined to identify scientific concepts, particularly in earth science. Then, a total of six teachers' scientific explanation in actual teaching practices was analysed focusing on a) explanation of scientific concepts; b) rationale for scientific explanation; c) connection between scientific explanation and everyday explanation. The findings are as follows. First, the science curriculum provides $1{\sim}2$ main scientific concepts per unit, which are mostly appeared in the unit title. Those concepts and sub-concepts are not explicitly described but embedded in students' inquiry activities. Second, the teachers explain scientific concepts and discuss the rationale behind the scientific explanation, but rarely connect scientific explanation to everyday explanation. Also, the level of scientific explanations is low remaining level 1 or 2, not reaching 3, the highest level. Based on the results, the study suggests a) teachers need to provide explicit and clear explanations about scientific concepts; b) teachers are required to connect scientific explanation and everyday explanation; c) the level of teachers scientific explanation should be elevated by using an evidence, reasoning and claim, the components of scientific explanation as well as introducing new scientific concepts and inquiry activities.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2004

The purpose of this research is to provide useful data in forming sound scientific concepts by investigating elementary students' non-scientific concepts related to their concepts of biological adaptation, and by analyzing the general inclinations and causes of some misconceptions. Twenty-four objective questions were designed to be given to 5th and 6th grade elementary students in order to investigate their concepts of biological adaptation. According to the test results, they formed scientific concepts in most questions. But they appeared to have many misconceptions in some parts which should be guided by the teacher's additional explanations rather than by the education curricula's focus. There are some cases where the 6th grade students had more misconceptions than the 5th grade students who were not systemically taught the concepts of biological adaptation, for the reasons of strengthening or maintaining the misconceptions by confusing the contents of learning. Male and female students have different scientific concepts of different questions according to their interest and attention. Therefore, it is necessary to develop various teaching-learning data which can help the teachers' additional explanations about the concepts of biological adaptation and invoke students' interest and attention, and to seek appropriate measures to form sound scientific concepts among teachers as well as students.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.39-53
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• 2006

This study investigated the effects of family related cooking programs on young children's basic science concepts and mathematics abilities. Subjects were 24 five-year-old children, 12 each for the experimental and the control group. Examinations of basic science concepts and mathematics abilities were applied to determine the homogeneity of the two groups. The 23 cooking activities, 12 for kindergarten and 11 for each child's home, were applied to the experimental group for six-week periods. The results of this study were that the family related cooking programs were effective in the formation of children's basic science concepts and children's mathematics abilities.

• International Journal of Fuzzy Logic and Intelligent Systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.230-241
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• 2010

In the present paper we introduce and study fundamental concepts in the framework of L-fuzzifying topology(so called(2,L)-fuzzy topology)as L-concepts where L is a complete residuated lattice. The concepts of (2,L)-derived, (2,L)-closure, (2,L)-interior, (2,L)-exterior and (2,L)-boundary operators are studied and some results on above concepts are obtained. Also, the concepts of an L-convergence of nets and an L-convergence of filters are introduced and some important results are obtained. Furthermore, we introduce and study bases and subbases in (2,L)-topology. As applications of our work the corresponding results(see[10-11]) are generalized and new consequences are obtained.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.160-171
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• 2003

This study was designed to analyze the types of concepts about earth science related to seasonal changes, so as to develop a generative learning model focused on dissolving cognitive conflicts between the aforementioned concepts through debates and using said debates to find out how effectively the model works. There are 100 types of earth science concepts concering seasonal changes, 66 of which are unscientific in nature, including misconceptions. Through a second field trial and a research and development (R&D) process, a test on these concepts was developed, consisting of 14 items. For the experimental group, a four-phase generative learning strategy that reflects the types of earth science concepts and cognitive conflicts between such concepts was developed through pre-analysis and discussion, respectively. On the other hand, a traditional teaching and teaming strategy was used for the control group. A meaningful statistic gap found between the two groups through a covariance analysis, the significance level of which was 0.05. This result may be interpreted to mean that the generative teaming strategy is a possible alternative for correcting misconceptions about scientific concepts of seasonal changes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.335-351
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• 2014

The 96 elementary school teachers' the degrees of understandings about the characteristics of the currents according to the connection methods of batteries in simple electric circuits were investigated. In this study, the concepts on the characteristics of currents according to the connection methods of batteries were divided 'the learned concepts' and 'the differentiated concepts'. The characteristics of the currents in the region of the larger resistance of load than the internal resistance of a battery were called the learned concepts, they are taught in the science curriculum. While the characteristics of the currents in the region of the smaller resistance of load than the internal resistance of a battery were called the differentiated concepts, they are not exposed clearly in the science curriculum. The results obtained in this study are as follows: The average score related to the learned concepts was relatively high, while the degree of the teachers' cognitions of the internal resistance of a battery and the resistance of wires were low. Also the average score related to the differentiated concepts was very low because it seems so new to the elementary school teachers. It strongly suggests that the elementary school teachers did not understand meaningfully the characteristics of the currents related to the connections of batteries on the ground of the cognitions of the internal resistances of batteries and the resistances of loads in simple electric circuits. Hence, they might experience difficulties due to the problems occurred in relation to the connections of batteries in the elementary school science lessons.