• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.937-945
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• 2004

In this study, we examined high school students' abilities for solving problems under single concept situations and complex concept situations and their mental capacities. Single concept situations are defined as the problems which can be solved with a scientific concept or principle and complex concept situations are the problems combined with more than 2 single concept situations. 152 11th-graders were participated in this study, who had taken natural science track. FIT 752 was used to measure their mental capacities. And an instrument, made up of six questions under three single concept situations and three complex concept situations, was used to assess students' problem solving abilities. As results, students' problem solving abilities were lower in complex concept situations than in single concept situations. There wasn't significant difference in mental capacities between of students who succeeded in solving problems and ones who did not under both single and complex concept situations. Although students solved the problems of single concept situations, some of them failed in solving the problems of complex concept situations composed of single concept situations which they succeeded in solving. They belonged to relatively low mental capacity group, of which students who failed in solving problems of complex situations had lower metal capacities than ones who succeeded in solving them. According to these results, it could be concluded that mental capacity is one of main variables which have influence on problem solving of complex concept situations composed of solvable single concept situations.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.213-222
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• 2007

In this study, science history program was developed to enhance student's concepts toward the particulate nature of matter and the understanding about the nature of science. And the effects of its application was investigated in the lesson of ‘Composition of Matter' in middle school science class. This science history program was based on genetic approach and included the contents from the old Greek natural philosophers to Avogadro. Before instruction, the test of understanding about nature of science was administered, and the science scores of the previous course were obtained, which were used as covariates. During 24 class hours, this study was conducted with two classes(experimental and comparison group) in a middle school in Seoul. The experimental group was received lessons by science history programs and the comparison group was received traditional lessons. After instruction, the scientific concept test, the test of understanding about nature of science were administered. The result of this study indicates that the scientific concept scores of experimental group were significantly higher than comparison group at p <.01 level of significance. It means that the students in experimental group has more sound conceptions about the particulate nature of matter and less mis conceptions about matter than the students in comparison group. However, there was no significant difference between two groups in the score of understanding about the nature of science.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.287-295
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• 2002

In this study, the effects of a self-assessment on the students' science concept understanding and science-related attitudes were investigated. Student's perceptions towards the self-assessment were also examined. Five classes from a middle school in Gyunggi Province were chosen. Two of those classes were assigned to the control group that no self-assesment tool was applied to and the other 3 classes were assigned to the experimental group which a self-assess-ment tool developed for this study was applied to. The experimental group was further divided into two groups for imple-ment of two kinds of programs. One experimental group was provided some feedback such as solutions to problems and the other was not provided any type of feedback. The tests of science-related attitudes were administered before and after the instruction period. The science concepts understanding test was done only after the instruction. The results of this study were as follows. There were significant differences between the experimental group and control group in under-standing of scientific concepts. The enhancement of science-related attitudes was also higher for the experimental group. Providing feedback to students was more effective in the improvement of students' science-related attitudes. However, there were no significant differences in understanding of scientific concepts in relation to the feedback in experiment groups. From the above results, it was acknowledged thet self-assessment applied to the middle school science class showed considerably positive influences on the improvements of the understanding of scientific concepts and science-related attitudes.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.353-363
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• 2006

This study investigates how the lunar phases drawing module-applied instruction affects high school students' conceptual changes of the lunar phases. 46 juniors in a high school were given the module instruction on drawing the lunar phases, and then interviews were conducted to verify conceptual changes in subjects' recognition structures. The types of students' misconceptions of the lunar phases change before the instruction were as follows. Type S is that the Earth's shadow covers the moon. Type SR is that one has both misconception of Type S and a scientific concept at the same time according to the positional relationships. The scientific concept means that an observer sees a moon's part which reflects sunlight. Type SB is that the Earth's shadow covers the moon or the moon can be seen or not by the background's brightness according to the positional relationships. The last Type SRB includes all three above-mentioned types, and it explains the lunar phases at each position. As a result of the module-based instruction, 26 out of 36 subjects built up the scientific concept and 10 students did not. 7 out of the 11 Type S and 3 out of the 17 Type SR students did not, either. Especially, type S students did not change their preconception that the phases of moon change were done by the earth's shadow. Here, their preconception is too much strong; as they solve problems, their preconception is more beneficial, comparing to the method which it is presented from the module. This fact supports that it is difficult for students to discard preconception.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.161-176
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• 2022

This study developed an MEA program to which the invention technique was applied and analyzed the conceptual change of students. The MEA activity applying the invention technique (TRIZ) was composed of the topic of making a paper electric circuit in the section 'Using electricity' presented in the 6th grade textbook. As a way to materialize ideas for problem solving, among the TRIZ techniques, division, integration, multi-purpose, overlapping, subtraction, and converse techniques were extracted and applied. The devised program consists of examining invention techniques (1st session), problem-solving (2nd and 3rd sessions), and expressing the problem-solving process (4th session). As a result of applying to 6th grade elementary school students, it was confirmed that the scientific concept of the experimental group participating in the MEA class to which the invention technique was applied was improved compared to the control group participating in the general class. As a result of calculating the scientific concept improvement index, the control group showed a low educational effect of 0.15, and the experimental group showed an intermediate educational effect of 0.69. This study is meaningful in that it suggests a specific way to graft invention education into science subjects.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.307-324
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• 2022

This study examined the content diversity of seven authorized science textbooks by comparing the characteristics of the science concept description and the contents of inquiry activities in the "weight of objects" unit. For each textbook, the flow of concept description content and the uniqueness of the concept description process were analyzed, and the number of nodes and links and words with high connections were determined using language network analysis. In addition, for the inquiry activities described in each textbook, the inquiry subject, inquiry type, science process skill, and uniqueness were investigated. Results showed that the authorized textbooks displayed no more diversity than expected in their scientific concept description method or their inquiry activity composition. The learning elements, inclusion of subconcepts, and central words were similar for each textbook. The comparison of inquiry activities showed similarities in their contents, inquiry types, and scientific process skills. Specifically, these textbooks did not introduce any research topics or experimental methods that were absent in previous textbooks. However, despite the fact that the authorized textbook system was developed based on the same curriculum, some efforts were made to make use of its strengths. Since the sequence of subconcepts to explain the core contents differed across textbooks, this explanation process was divided into several types, and although the contents of inquiry activities were the same, the materials for inquiry activities were shown differently for each textbook to improve and overcome the difficulties in the existing experiments. These findings necessitate the continuation of efforts to utilize the strengths of certified textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.565-575
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• 2017

This study analyzes the epistemic considerations and the argumentation level revealed in the discourse of the key concept of natural selection for science-gifted elementary students. The paper analyzes and discusses the results of a three-student focus group, drawn from a cohort of twenty gifted sixth-grade elementary students. Nature, generality, justification, and audience were used to analyze epistemic consideration. Learning progression in scientific argumentation including argument construction and critique was used to analyze students' scientific argumentation level. The findings are as follows: First, Epistemic considerations in discourse varied between key concepts of natural selection discussed. The nature aspect of epistemic considerations is highly expressed in the discourse for all natural selection key concepts. But the level of generality, justification and audience was high or low, and the level was not revealed in the discourse. In the heredity of variation, which is highly expressed in terms of generality of knowledge, the linkage with various phenomena against the acquired character generated a variety of ideas. These ideas were used to facilitate engagement in argumentation, so that all three students showed the level of argumentation of suggestions of counter-critique. Second, students tried to explain the process of speciation by using concepts that were high in practical epistemic considerations level when explaining the concept of speciation, which is the final natural selection key concept. Conversely, the concept of low level of epistemic considerations was not included as an explanation factor. The results of this study suggest that students need to analyze specific factors to understand why epistemological decisions are made by students and how epistemological resources are used according to context through various epistemological resources. Analysis of various factors influencing epistemological decisions can be a mediator of the instructor who can improve the quality and level of the argumentation.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.183-199
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• 2012

Previous Earth Science textbooks have mostly lacked the latest astronomical phenomena frequently being reported in mass media such as popular science magazines. One of the main directions in the revision of the 2009 National Curriculum of Korea is to actively include those phenomena. Furthermore, despite a close link between astronomy and physics, the concept of modern physics has not been actively introduced in Earth Science textbooks and at the same time the linkage of physics to astronomy has rarely been studies in physics textbooks. Therefore, the concept of integration among different fields in science is emphasized in the new National Curriculum. Transient phenomena in the high energy astrophysical objects are examples that reflect such issue. The purpose of this study is to introduce transferring a real-time data and making imaging of astronomical observations using e-Science. As a first step, we performed the first experiment for a large data transfer of astronomical observation between Korea and Japan using KOREN, a National Research and Education Test Network. We introduce actively on-going fields of e-Science in observational activities of astronomy and astrophysics, and their close interrelationship with scientific inquiry activities and public outreach activities. We discuss our experiment in the scientific and educational aspects to the primitive e-Science activity in the Korean astronomical society and, in turn, provide a prospective view for its application to the scientific inquiry activities and public outreach activities in the upcoming commercial Gbps-level internet environments.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.43-93
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• 2018

The concept of citizen science(CS) is defined as "scientific work carried out by citizens." Here, 'citizen' means someone who has knowledge of everyday life, regardless of whether they have formal expertise in a related field. This definition may encompass scientists, as many scientists participate in scientific democracy and use their expertise in a citizen-oriented manner. That work is derived from their citizenship, so their scientific work is CS. CS in Korea has expanded from the Korea Pollution Research Institute, which was founded in 1982, to the Center for Democracy in Science & Technology, which was founded in 1997. Furthermore, in recent years, government agencies have started using CS approach. In this paper, I introduce Korean CS and examine its accomplishments and difficulties through eight cases. I show that Korea's CS activities have made a significant impact on Korean society and the experience of these activities has implications for the future directions of CS. I do so by examining four modes of CS and explore practical messages for more varied roles of CS. Until now CS has been mainly considered in the context of "CS as education" or "CS as movement" in Korea. However, governance and the platform mode of social decision-making or research, though still rare, have recently emerged as additional CS activities. Although it cannot be said with certainty that CS is better, it is undoubtedly better the more varieties of its modes coexist. The four types of CS will contribute individually or complementarily to social learning. Thus, because of its distinctive potential, CS is not exhausted by the supplementary concept of science.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.344-364
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• 2021

The study explored how two elementary school teachers perceived computational thinking, reflected them into curriculum revision, and taught them in the classroom during longitudinal professional developed program (PDP) for nine months. Computational thinking is a new direction in educational policy-making including science education; therefore we planned to investigate participating teachers' perception of computational thinking to provide their fundamental understandings. Nine meetings, lasting about two hours each, were held with the participating teachers and they developed 11 lesson plans for one unit each, as they formed new understandings about computational thinking. Data were collected through PDP program while two teachers started perceiving computational thinking, revising their curriculum, and implementing it into their class for nine months. The results were as follows; first, elementary school teachers' perception of computational thinking was that the definition of scientific literacy as the purpose of science education was extended, i.e., it refers to scientific literacy to prepare students to be creative problem solvers. Second, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) lessons were divided into two stages; concept formation stage where scientific thinking is emphasized, and concept application, where computational thinking is emphasized. Thirdly, computational thinking is a cognitive thinking process, and ICT (informational and communications technology) is a functional tool. Fourth, computational thinking components appear repeatedly and may not be sequential. Finally, STEAM education can be improved by utilizing computational thinking. Based on this study, we imply that STEAM education can be activated by computational thinking when teachers are equipped with competencies of understanding and implementing computational thinking within the systematic PDPs, which is very essential for newly policies.