• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.687-708
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between cognitive conflict and students' causal attributions and to find out what kinds of attributions affect successful resolution of cognitive conflict in learning physics. Twenty-nine college students who attended a base general physics course took an attribution test and a conceptual pretest related to action and reaction concept. Of these, twenty students who revealed alternative conceptions were selected. They were confronted with a discrepant demonstration and took part in the cognitive conflict level test, a posttest, and delayed posttest. Those students who experienced high levels of cognitive conflict were selected and interviewed to find out what kinds of attributions affect resolving the conflict. When confronted with the discrepant event, the students who attributed success outcomes to "effort" experienced higher levels of cognitive conflict than those to "task difficulty." However, those students who revealed high levels of cognitive conflict and attributed success outcomes to effort did not always produce conceptual change. They had different perspectives on effort and conducted different effort activities to resolve the cognitive conflict. In addition, these effort activities appeared to include their motivational beliefs, metacognitive and volitional strategies. The results of this study indicate that in order for the conflicts to lead to change, students need to have the perspective on effort implying the use of the self-regulated learning strategy and to conduct effort activities based on them. Beyond cold conceptual change, this article suggests that there is a management strategy of cognitive conflict in the classroom context.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.801-814
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to find out whether pre-service biology teachers' biological meanings of competition and adaptation is the same as everyday meanings to understand natural selection and evolution. Fifty three pre-service biology teachers answered written tests and thirteen of them were interviewed. The tests on general meanings on competition and adaptation, tests on biological meanings on competition and adaptation and tests on natural selection were administered. Questions on semi-structured interviews were composed of only biological meanings about competition and adaptation. Analyzing data through four steps, pre-service biological teachers' general meanings on competition and adaptation were compared with the definitions of Korean dictionary and compared with biological definitions. Pre-service teachers' alternative conceptions about biological competition and adaptation were classified and the alternative conceptual types were checked when explaining natural selection and evolution. They realized competition is battle for intention or purpose like everyday meaning of competition. However, they didn't realize adaptation happen in the population level. They thought that adaptation, like in everyday life meaning, is getting suitable to environment for survival on an individual level. By relating adaptation to evolution, they thought that long-lasting adaptation become evolution. This study has significance with respect to suggesting the alternative concepts of competition and adaptation based on effective evolution teaching from constructivism viewpoint and highlighting the importance of the concepts of biological competition and adaptation, which have been concerned rarely for a long time.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine how many plant names elementary school children how, and what kind of criteria they use for classifying these plants. The sample involved 926 students from the 2nd, the 4th, and the 6th grades dwelling in one urban, three suburban, and six rural areas. Their level of perception on the name of plants increased in correlation to the elevation of the grade level. However, different patterns of increases were shown depending on the local environments in which they live. The most well-known plant names for students were the rose of Sharon, the rose and the pine tree. The students mostly classified the plants using the following criteria such as 'with or without flower' and 'edible or inedible' regardless as to whether they had prior loaming experience of plant classification. 65.3% of the 6th graders correctly grouped 5 kinds of plants into the flowering and the non-flowering plant categories at the 1st level of classification. However, only 17.9% and 7.7% correctly divided the flowering and the non-flowering plants into two subgroups at the 2nd level of classification respectively. Therefore, their abilities in plant classification was shown overall to be poor. The students living in suburban areas appeared to be harmonized with both the natural and urbanized surroundings and classified the plants more scientifically than those from the urban or rural areas were able to. This suggests that the conception of plant classification by children is affected by the environment in which they live. If children have more opportunities to observe plants in surroundings such as their classrooms and school gardens, it will help them to form the relevant scientific concepts as well as to correct any alternative conceptions related to classification.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.477-491
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• 2010

This research took an interpretive approach to investigate professional mathematicians' conception of mathematics, particularly focusing on their beliefs about the nature of mathematics as a discipline, and the relation between the discipline and themselves as knowers. The analysis shows that the professional mathematicians consider mathematics as human practice. For mathematicians, mathematics as a product is considered as a crystalization of practice that emerges in the dialogical relation between the discipline and its practitioners. This dialogical nature of mathematics suggests that professional mathematicians consider mathematics not as isolated fixed knowledge but as something they are playfully engaged with. The results of this research extend our understanding of what mathematics is and provide an alternative perspective on mathematics to make the learning of mathematics more accessible by dismantling the myth of the rationalist pure objectivity in mathematics.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

This study investigates students' conceptions of fractions from a measurement approach while providing a technological environment designed to support students' understanding of the relationships between quantities and adjustable units. 13 third-graders participated in this study and they were involved in a series of measurement tasks through task-based interviews. The tasks were devised to investigate the relationship between units and quantity through manipulations. Screencasting videos were collected including verbal explanations and manipulations. Drawing upon the theory of semiotic mediation, students' constructed concepts during interviews were coded as mathematical words and visual mediators to identify conceptual profiles using a fine-grained analysis. Two students changed their strategies to solve the tasks were selected as a representative case of the two profiles: from guessing to recursive partitioning; from using random units to making a relation to the given unit. Dragging mathematical objects plays a critical role to mediate and formulate fraction understandings such as unitizing and partitioning. In addition, static and dynamic representations influence the development of unit concepts in measurement situations. The findings will contribute to the field's understanding of how students come to understand the concept of fraction as measure and the role of technology, which result in a theory-driven, empirically-tested set of tasks that can be used to introduce fractions as an alternative way.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.173-192
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to develop inquiry modules for learning straight propagation of light, to verify their efficiency, and to acquire implications. this study proposes teaching modules for improvements of light experiments, which were developed in this work. Inquiry modules were applied to 75 school teachers(8 elementary school teachers, 67 middle school and high school teachers) for examining that the modules make teachers have the scientific concepts. Then, conception changes were analyzed except 5 teachers who responded poorly. The pre-test result shows that most teachers have alternative conceptions, which is that they thought the bright shape on apparatus's bottom panel itself shown in the textbook as evidence for the path of light's straight propagation. The post-test result shows this alternative conception was changed into scientific conception. Unlikely pretest, most teachers' conception was changed into the scientific conception that the light come from a light source. Teachers are able to express that the light beam comes from a miniature electric bulb. Further more, most teachers can draw light's path correctly; from the miniature electric bulb, through vertical panel having a hole, to the apparatus bottom.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.60-77
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• 2008

We investigated the textbook model explaining a phase of the Moon and compared it with student models at the secondary levels in Korea. 20 high school students and 36 middle school students from suburb area participated in this study. Participants were interviewed to explain understandings about the cause of the Moon's phase with drawing their models. The results of this study showed that the textbooks now in use explain the phase of the Moon with one unique scientific model, while students displayed 6 different kinds of models including the scientific model. Furthermore the students tend to have comparatively scientific model modes as their grades increase and their scholastic ability levels become higher. Although the students have learned the Moon's phase in school, they still have alternative models because the textbook does not explain enough for the students to overcome their alternative conceptions. In the textbook, the model presented without explanation of the limitation of the model, so there can be a gap between the model in the textbooks and the models in the mind of students. With these findings, we propose complementary models for helping secondary school students to develop their understanding of moon phases.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.153-165
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• 2012

This study investigated the frequent mistakes and the causes of the alternative conceptions in the animal classification by using the questionnaire and interview with the middle school students (N=300). As results, some students have difficulties classifying suggested animals into vertebrates or invertebrates : snakes (31.7%), shrimps (28.3%), turtles (25.6%), frogs (24.7%), and starfish (10.7%) in order of precedence. These errors seemed to be caused by intuitive thinking over characteristics of physical motions and appearance of suggested animals, wrong inference from comparing to features of familiar animals and the lack of observation experience of the vertebrate backbone. Furthermore, the results showed that relatively many students made a mistake classifying subgroup members of vertebrates such as classifying salamanders into the class Reptilia (45.3%) and turtles into Amphibia (40.3%). It is likely that those errors are affected by ambiguousness of classification terminology (e.g. the term of Amphibia) and weak ability in relating the physiological and ecological feature to standard of classification feature. In addition, sociocultural factors could influence animal classification as 'bat in birds', 'whale in fish, and 'penguin in mammals'. The present study implied that teaching and learning animal classification may require an appropriate guide focused on activities to explore major characteristics used for the animal classification standard through providing more chances of animal observation rather than the cramming method of learning induced by technical memorizing.

• Journal of Ethics
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• no.80
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• pp.51-77
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• 2011

This study aims to explore how to establish any foundation of the value of the unification of the Korean Peninsula in multicultural society of Korea. Its main issue is related to Korean identity of a nation and its shared value among the mulitcultural members, in particular, of North Koreans including defectors, foreign workers, and immigrants of international marriage and their children. For this study, I would utilize a given research of the application of two concepts of culture to multicultural levels by criticizing its limit; as an alternative, furthermore, I would pay attention to the possibility of the concept of emotion in multicultural members. A short feature in a given study of two conceptions of culture in a multicultural society is as follows: the first is to regard it as the patterns of meanings and symbols, which is very useful to understand others or other culture; secondly, to see it as the lasting process of perfection in human life, which makes us recognize ourselves as a member, so to speak, identity. In application it to Korean muliticultural members, however, there are crucial and complicated problems according to the cases of their lives. For North Koreans, firstly, they tend to get the conception of Korean identity in terms of ideological policies and education of North Korean government. This means that they have a strong hatred towards the word multiculture, in the level of recognizing the self-culture. Secondly, North Korean defectors also have the recognition of the self-culture, but their serious problem is discriminative treatments by South Korean in terms of socio-economics, in the process of their settlement. Thirdly, parents and their children in multicultural family can have their identity as Korean. In parents, however, the level is double that they can have both identities of Korean as well as of their countries. The foundation, therefore, of the value of the unification in the Korean Peninsula is closely related to the issue of identity as Korean. To recognize it, it is possible only to consider and reflect all members' lives by applying the dual conceptions of culture to their multicultural lives. That is not of outer system, but of inner, relational and cultural emotion, which enables them to share their common value of unification.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.734-744
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify middle school students' mental models on plate tectonics and to compare the mental models of verbal-learning-style students with those of visual-learning-style students. 94 student participants in 9th grade were requested to draw and explain three topics; generation of magma, the formation of the mountain range and the interior of the Earth. The criterions for analyzing the mental models are derived from the data of the drawing task. The research results were as follows: The mental models on the generation of magma were classified as 'unstable model,' 'partial casual model,' 'causal model,' and 'conceptual model.' On the other hand, the mental models on the interior of the Earth were classified as 'static unstable model,' 'dynamic unstable model,' and 'conceptual model.' Students holding 'unstable model' were unable to relate the plate collision and the magma generation. They showed a variety of alternative conceptions of study areas, such as 'magma is generated from the core' and 'the mountain is formed by rising of the plates themselves.' Also, visual-learning-style students showed higher proportion of conceptual models and lower proportion of unstable mental models than verbal-learning-style students on three topics. The findings revealed that the students tend to have different concepts on the plate tectonics depending on their learning style.