• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.68-78
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate teaching anxiety and the professional development of beginning secondary science teachers. For this study, a survey was conducted among beginning science teachers (N=83) with under five years of experience, and in-depth interviews with these five teachers were carried out. The survey tackled beginning secondary science teachers' anxiety levels by asking about their difficulties in teaching science classes, and results showed that the teachers' levels of teaching anxiety marked high. Levels of teaching anxiety in physics among subjects and in chemistry among experiments marked highest. To overcome teaching anxiety, teachers searched for information on the Internet or received help from their colleagues and veteran teachers. They revealed that plans for professional development as science teachers included receiving in-service training and joining teacher communities. In addition, the best type of required training program for professional development appeared to be lectures about teaching know-how from veteran teachers.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.289-301
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate beginning secondary science teachers' teaching practices in terms of motivating and understanding students. Six first-year teachers participated in this study. Data were collected by classroom observations and structured interviews. Instructional materials used during the class were also collected to understand teaching practice. Lessons observed were video-tape recorded and the teachers were interviewed. Video- and audio-tape recording were transcribed. The framework, developed by Knowles Project Team of Michigan State University, was adopted and revised according to Korean classroom context and employed as an analytical tool for teaching practices. The beginning secondary science teachers intention ranged from 'Managing Work' to 'School Science.' No teachers revealed 'Reform Science Teaching' orientation. For the execution of science lessons, one teacher with 'Managing Work' orientation showed 'expert' level of execution, but the others executed at a 'novice' level. Beginning science teachers need to be guided and informed about 'Reform Science Teaching' for motivating and understanding students to develop professionally.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.354-365
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• 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
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.691-702
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• 2006

The purposes of the study are to portray Korean beginning secondary science teachers' ways of arranging science content, sense-making strategy, and factors contributing to the tensions between teachers' intentions and actual practice. Six beginning secondary science teachers participated in this study. Science classes taught by the participating teachers were observed and videotaped. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for science teachers participated in this study after science classes were observed. Instructional materials were also collected for each science class. Video- and audio-taped data were transcribed and analyzed using conceptual framework developed by the Michigan State University. The findings of this study produce the following conclusions: (1) beginning teachers' science classes are arranged in ways compatible to traditional school science, (2) frequently used sense-making strategies are procedural display and narrative reasoning, (3) tensions between beginning teachers' intentions and practice arise from two factors such as assessment and differences in educational views with peer teachers, and (4) learning experiences, lack of perceptions and preparations on reform science teaching, and the absence of systematic program for professional development programs for beginning science teachers are major obstacles to reform science teaching for beginning teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.611-625
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• 2009

The purpose of this research is to investigate the characteristics of beginning science teachers' subject matter knowledge (SMK) as revealed in their classroom teaching methods. In this research, we explored six beginning teachers' classroom teaching episodes on the 'work and energy' unit. Using open-ended interviews with the teachers and group discussions taking place on a regular basis to analyze and compare the classes of six beginning teachers, we extracted the features of beginning science teachers' SMK. Using grounded theory methods, the characteristics of beginning science teachers' SMK drawn from this research are: (1) beginning teachers' positivistic epistemology on science, (2) claiming the teacher's authority based on rich subject content knowledge, and (3) beginning teachers' science elitism. These epistemological characteristics are realized such PCK as (1) representational errors caused by the teacher's own science misconception, (2) doing harm to students with too much content knowledge, (3) sporadic content presentation lacking a focus, and (4) surplus class hours with lack of effective science teaching explanations. Suggestions for alternative perspectives on science SMK are presented by experienced teachers. In conclusion, science teachers' SMK is necessary, but not sufficient, for effective teaching. Science teachers' SMK does have an effect on science teaching, mediated by other types of teacher knowledge. The beginning teachers need a systematic support to transform their SMK into a viable PCK.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.160-175
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• 2004

This study examined the knowledge and practices of scientific inquiry displayed by three student teachers and two beginning teachers at secondary levels. Observations using the instrument of OTOP designed by the research team of OCEPT (Oregon Collaborative for Excellent in the Preparation of Teachers) generalized similar teaching strategies of scientific inquiry between student and beginning teachers, such as using group work for students' first hand experience, using concrete materials for experimentation or visual tools for demonstration, using questions for factual knowledge mainly without opportunities to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed. Those scientific inquiry activities were very confirmative ones to follow the steps without opportunities of understanding nature of science or nature of scientific inquiry. However, all participants in this study hold knowledge of scientific inquiry envisioned by the National Science Education Standards [NSES] (NRC, 1996), where students identify their hypothesis, use critical and logical thinking, and consider alternative explanations through argumentation as well as experimentation. An inconsistent relationship between participating teachers knowledge and practices about scientific inquiry resulted from their lack of pedagogy skills of implementing it in the classroom. Providing opportunities for these teachers to reflect on their beliefs and practices about scientific inquiry was recommended for the future study. Furthermore, increasing college faculty interest in new teaching approaches for upgrading the content knowledge of student teachers and beginning teachers was recommended as a solution, since those teachers showed evidence of influence by college faculties at universities in their pedagogy skills.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.557-564
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the problems in the teaching practice of beginning science teachers who participated in the collaborative mentoring program to improve their teaching expertise. The participants were six beginning science teachers and six mentors at middle and high school levels. From each beginning science teacher and mentor teacher, journals, one-to-one mentoring records and transcripts, interviews and questionnaires, and transcripts conducted at the beginning, middle and the end of the mentoring program were collected. Seven aspects of the beginning science teachers' problems in their teaching practice were identified. The result showed that mentee teachers didn't set up specific learning objectives and they organized and presented lesson contents without considering students' proficiency level. Also, they found it hard to prepare for the lessons irrelevant to their major field of study and they tended to use convergent questions more than divergent questions. Mentee teachers tend to give teacher-centered rather than student-centered teaching. Beginning teachers' recognition of their problems in their teaching practice tends to lead changes in their teaching practice. Some of the problems that mentee teachers showed could be overcome if they recognized the problem through the collaborative mentoring program, but if not, it tends to remain throughout mentoring program.This study also highlighted the importance of reflection on beginning science teachers' practice.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.655-670
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• 2012

As a case study on the changes of beginning science-gifted education teachers' teaching professionalism through coteaching, this study deeply investigated the change processes in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science instructions for secondary science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed coteaching of science instructions of the teachers, and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for discussions between them and in-depth interviews with them, their reflective journals, and researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the coteaching positively changed the two teachers' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science contents although there were some limitations. The results suggest that the coteaching will be useful in improving beginning teachers' teaching professionalism, and provide practical implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.658-666
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• 2014

This study was designed to explore pre-service secondary science teachers' understanding and views of argument-based inquiry approach. Participants were 17 pre-service secondary science teachers enrolled in chemistry curricular materials and teaching methods course for majors in the college of education at a university in Seoul. Main data sources included each student responses to an open ended survey and individual interviews. Data analyses indicated that the pre-service teachers had very limited and biased understanding on scientific inquiry at the beginning of the semester. While the pre-service teachers understood that scientific inquiry should be an essential component of science teaching, a few pre-service teachers mentioned 'argumentation' or 'discussions' when they defined what scientific inquiry is. The majority of the pre-service teachers mentioned that science should be taught through scientific inquiry since science is inquiry itself. However, the pre-service teachers expressed several potential barriers and their concerns on implementing argumentation in scientific inquiry. While they concerned about students' lack of participation at the beginning of the semester, they concerned more about the teachers' ability of leading student argumentation at the end of the semester.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1214-1228
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• 2011

As a case study on beginning teachers' teaching professionalism in science-gifted education, we analyzed their teaching professionalism based on pedagogical content knowledge. To do this, we selected 3 elementary and 3 secondary beginning teachers from science-gifted education institutes in the metropolitan area. After their science instructions for science-gifted students were observed, in-depth interviews were conducted. Analyses were conducted with taped videos, researcher's field notes, and transcripts for in-depth interviews. This study revealed that most of the teachers had relatively desirable belief about science-gifted education. However, they tended to have a little deficient practical knowledge about science-gifted students, the curriculum for science-gifted education, science contents, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, and the assessment in science-gifted education. These results imply that many teachers are likely to have a little deficiency in teaching professionalism for science-gifted students in various aspects, and need to find the ways of improving their teaching professionalism.