• Title/Summary/Keyword: causal explanation

Search Result 52, Processing Time 0.023 seconds

Definition of Scientific Hypothesis: A Generalization or a Causal Explanation?

  • Jeong, Jin-Su;Kwon, Yong-Ju
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.26 no.5
    • /
    • pp.637-645
    • /
    • 2006
  • This study reviewed and discussed the nature of scientific hypothesis described in philosophy, the philosophy of science, science, and science education. In these descriptions, a hypothesis was defined as one of five types: hypothesis as an assumption, hypothesis as a prediction, hypothesis as a tentative explanation, hypothesis as a tentative law, and hypothesis as a tentative causal explanation. Most scholars agreed that a hypothesis is a proposition or a set of propositions proposed as an explanation for an observed situation. In this view, a hypothesis is a possible answer to or an explanation of a question that accounts for all the observed facts. Also, it is a statement that explains why things happen in nature or an explanation for an observation that can be tested. In the five types of hypothesis meanings, a tentative explanation includes a tentative law and a tentative causal explanation. However, tentative laws are not explanation but description which are general statements drawn from specific experiences by way of a process known as induction. A number of studies also have distinguished hypothesis from assumption, tentative explanation, tentative law, and prediction. Therefore, a hypothesis is concluded to be a proposition or a set of propositions proposed as a tentative causal explanation for an observed situation.

The Causal Structure between the Critical Thinking and the Scientific Literacy Competency in Pre-service Elementary Teachers (초등예비교사의 비판적 사고와 과학적 소양의 역량에 대한 인과구조)

  • Kim, Dong Uk
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
    • /
    • v.37 no.1
    • /
    • pp.1-11
    • /
    • 2018
  • Factors and causal structures of pre-service elementary teachers about the critical thinking and the scientific literacy competency were investigated in this study. The third grade university students and the first grade university students in the metropolitan city participated in this study. The factor analysis method and the structural equation modeling method were used for the data analysis, and the following results were obtained. First, the third grade university students and the first grade university students recognized 'inquisitive thinking' factor and 'reflective thinking' factor as factors of the critical thinking, and 'scientific explanation' factor and 'evidence-based conclusion' factor as factors of the scientific literacy competency respectively. Second, the third grade university students showed more the influence from 'reflective thinking' factor to 'scientific explanation' factor and from 'reflective thinking' factor to 'evidence-based conclusion' factor than the first grade university students.

The English Cause-Focused Causal Construction

  • Kim, Yangsoon
    • International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
    • /
    • v.8 no.4
    • /
    • pp.161-166
    • /
    • 2020
  • The primary aim of this paper is to analyze the resultative adjunct clause, i.e., (thus/thereby/hence) ~ing participle and provide explicit syntactic, semantic and sociolinguistic explanation on the question what causes the cause-focused causal construction with resultative (thus/thereby/hence) ~ing participle in English. What comes first is either cause or effect clause. This study explores the recent style shift of causal constructions from the effect-focused pattern to the cause-focused pattern. In this study, we argue that the increasing number of the cause-focused main clause with a resultative ~ing participle clause shows the process of the style evolution improving speech/wring style in many respects including syntactic simplification, clarification of the sentence meaning with impact on the focused clauses, and improvement of the flow of speech/writing. The style shift found in the English resultative adjunct clauses, i.e., (thus/hence/thereby) ~ing participle constructions prove to be the style evolution from syntactic, semantic and sociolinguistic point of views.

The Relationships between the Patterns of Elementary School Teachers' Explanations and the Patterns of Elementary School Students' Questions on Scientific Phenomena (과학 현상에 대한 초등학생들의 의문 유형과 초등교사들의 설명 유형과의 관계)

  • Shin, Dong-Hoon
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
    • /
    • v.26 no.2
    • /
    • pp.149-160
    • /
    • 2007
  • This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between the patterns of elementary school teachers' explanations and the patterns of students' questions types on scientific phenomena. for the purposes of this study, we collected questions related to scientific phenomena from 255 $3rd{\sim}6th$ students in 2 elementary schools. Classifying the students' questions collected, 20 representative questions for each type were selected. Data regarding teachers' scientific explanation from 62 teachers of 3 elementary schools were also collected. The results of the analysis of the questions for each science field show that the students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades have the most questions regarding biology, and those in the 6th grade have more questions regarding earth science. Regarding question types, object exploration questions and explican exploration questions formed the majority. Moreover, the higher the students' grades, a decrease in the number of conjectural questions and an increase in the number of causal questions were observed. As a result of the analysis of the teachers' explanation, the following explanation types could be discerned; conjecture, hypothesis, prediction, teleological explanation, information given to feed exploration questions, as well as verification and information supply fer verification purposes. There were 4 kinds of relationships between question types and explanation types. One was the explanation fitting to each question type, a second was the explanation with additional content than the question required, a third was where the explanation was inappropriate to the question, and a forth was where the teacher responded that they "don't know." This study, investigating the relationships between questioning as a scientific inquiry process and explanation, will help to promote discussion regarding science classes in elementary school.

  • PDF

A Study on the TAM(Technology Acceptance Model) in Different IT Environments (이질적인 정보기술 사용 환경 하에서의 기술수용모델(TAM)에 대한 연구)

  • Kim, Jun-Woo;Moon, Hyoung-Do
    • Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
    • /
    • v.14 no.4
    • /
    • pp.175-198
    • /
    • 2007
  • Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been a basis model for testing technology use. Post researches of TAM have been conducted with the updating the TAM by adding new independent variables in order to increase the explanation power of the model. However, one problem is that different independent variables have to be introduced to keep the explanation power whenever applying to particular technology. This reduces the generality of the research model. Thus in order to increase the generality of the model, this study reviewed the previous researches and collected the independent variables used, and regrouped them into three basic independent constructs. New research model was designed with three basic independent constructs with four constructs selected for the mandatory IT environment and voluntary IT environment, and the structured equations analysis(AMOS) was applied to find the significant causal effect relationships between constructs in addition to the explanation power of the model. Finally, this study concluded that new TAM could be used to explain the users' adopting new technology without any adding new particular independent variables.

  • PDF

Effects of Asian dust storm events on daily mortality in Taipei, Taiwan

  • Yang Chun-Yuh
    • 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
    • /
    • 2004.02a
    • /
    • pp.33-48
    • /
    • 2004
  • o Asia dust storm events could increase the risk of daily mortality in Taipei, although none of the associations were statistically significant, This study found greater specificity for associations with respiratory and circulatory deaths, and this increases the plausibility of a causal explanation.

  • PDF

Analysis of Secondary Students' Causal Explanation about a Genetic Phenomena (중학생들의 유전 현상에 대한 인과적 설명 글쓰기 분석)

  • Lee, Shinyoung;Kim, Mi-young
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
    • /
    • v.38 no.2
    • /
    • pp.249-257
    • /
    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study was to analyze the knowledge and ability levels of middle school students in four areas: conceptual understanding, argument construction, justification schemes, and use of scientific knowledge in a causal explanation for a genetic phenomenon. A group of 162 middle school students who have taken a class titled Genetics and Evolution participated in the study. Each student answered-and justified the answer to-one question pertaining to genetics. Ability levels were rated from level 0 to level 4, with 4 being the top rating. Students were required to choose one of two competing arguments to explain whether green seed pimps and red seed pimps of the same size and shape were the same species or not. Analyzing conceptual understanding: 47% of the respondents provided the correct answer. Analyzing their abilities for constructing an argument: 75% of the students with the correct answer and 42% of the students with the incorrect answer were evaluated to be at ability level 3 or 4 for argument construction. Analyzing the students' justification schemes: "Scientific idea" and "Analogy" were the most frequently used schemes. Analyzing their use of scientific knowledge: of the students who selected the scientific idea justification scheme, 36% used the correct scientific knowledge, but the remainder used inaccurate or nonspecific scientific knowledge. These findings provide implication for encouraging argumentative writing explaining scientific phenomena regarding epistemic practice.

Review of 2013 Major Medical Decisions (2013년 주요 의료 판결 분석)

  • Lee, Dong Pil;Jeong, Hye Seung;Lee, Jung Sun;Yoo, Hyun Jung
    • The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
    • /
    • v.15 no.1
    • /
    • pp.263-302
    • /
    • 2014
  • The court handed down meaningful rulings related to medical sectors in 2013. This paper presents the ruling that the care workers could be the performance assistants of the care-giving service although the duties of care worker are not included in the liability stipulated in the medical contract signed with the hospital for reason of clear distinction of duties between care workers and nurses within the hospital in connection with the contract which was entered into between the hospital and patients. In relation to negligence and causal relationship, the court recognized medical negligence associated with the failure to detect the brain tumor due to the negligent interpretation of MRI findings while rejecting the causal relationship with consequential cerebral hemorrhage. The court also recognized negligence based on the observation on the grounds of inadequate medical records in a case involving the hypoxic brain damage caused during the cosmetic surgery. In terms of the scope of compensation for damages, this paper presents the ruling that the compensation should be estimated based on causal relationship only in case the breach of the 'obligation of explanation' is recognized, however rejecting the reparation for de factor property damages in the form of compensation, and the ruling that the lawsuit could be instituted in case that the damages exceeded the agreed scope despite the agreement that the hospital would not be held responsible for any aftereffects of surgery from the standpoint of lawsuit, along with the ruling that recognized the daily net income by reflecting the unique circumstances faced by individual students of Korean National Police University and artists of Western painting. Many rulings were handed down with respect to medical certificate, prescription, etc., in 2013. This paper introduced the ruling which mentioned the scope of medical certificate, the ruling that related to whether the diagnosis over the phone at the issuance of prescription could constitute the direct diagnosis of patient, along with the ruling that required the medical certificate to be generated in the name of doctor who diagnosed the patients, and the ruling which proclaimed that it would constitute the breach of Medical Act if the prescription was issued to the patients who were not diagnosed. Moreover, this paper also introduced the ruling that related to whether the National Health Insurance Service could make claim to the hospitals for the reimbursement of the health insurance money paid to pharmacies based on the prescription in the event that the hospitals provided prescription of drugs to outpatients in violation of the laws and regulations.

  • PDF

Deflationism and Nonreductionism (수축주의와 비환원주의)

  • Lee, Jong-Wang
    • Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
    • /
    • v.105
    • /
    • pp.75-94
    • /
    • 2008
  • In philosophy of mind, both reductionism and deflationism claim that the problem of mental causation is overstated, but the reason why they claim that way is quite different. On the one hand, for deflationism, since the problem of mental causation is bogus problem we need to focus on epistemology or scientific explanation rather than metaphysics. On the other hand, although the proponents of nonreductionism seem to think of the principles of causal closure of the physical and causal exclusion proposed by Jaegwon Kim as tenable, they do not go with the reductive approach to the problem of mental causation. Instead they stay with the concept of supervenience to overcome mental causation problem that, reductionists think, leads us to the dilemma situation. Of course, deflationists do not think that supervenience is plausible not as much as supervenience physicalists think that it is. If so, in what way and how do deflationists regard the problem of mental causation as a bogus problem? In this paper, I shall examine the most plausible response to mental causation problem, the contemporary version of mind-body problem by critically discussing and clarifying matters concerning the problem.

Examining the Association of Poverty Status Transition with the Causal Relationship between Drinking Problem and Depression (음주문제와 우울 간의 인과관계와 빈곤상태 변화의 연관성 분석)

  • Hoe, Maanse
    • Korean Journal of Social Welfare
    • /
    • v.65 no.2
    • /
    • pp.203-230
    • /
    • 2013
  • The present study aimed to analyze possible causal relationship between drinking problem and depression. In addition, The study examined if poverty status transition is associated with the causal relationship between drinking problem and depression. The study sample consisted of 3,976 adults who have participated in both the first and the second wave survey of the Korea Welfare Panel Study. The causality between drinking problem and depression was analyzed using Latent Difference Scores (LDS) model, which was established in McArdle & Hanagami (2001). Furthermore, it was examined if poverty status transition (represented by four subgroups: poverty-sustained group, poverty-escaping group, non-poverty-sustained group, poverty beginning group) would influence the causal relationship between drinking problem and depression. The major findings are as follows. The result of a LDS model analysis using the entire sample shows that depression at the first wave predicts significantly the change of drinking problem between the first wave and the second wave and also drinking problem at the first wave predicts significantly the change of depression between the first wave and the second wave, which can be interpreted as there is reciprocal causal relationship between depression and drinking problem. In poverty status transition subgroup analyses, the reciprocal causal relationship between depression and drinking problem is held in the poverty-sustained group while depression is a cause of drinking problem both in the poverty beginning group and in the non-poverty-sustained group. However, there is no significant causal relationship between depression and drinking problem in the poverty-escaping group. All these findings indicate that the direction of causality between depression and drinking problem can be varied according the poverty status change, which provides a comprehensive explanation to inconsistent research findings from previous cross-section studies of the relationship between depression and drinking problem.

  • PDF