• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.119-130
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• 1999

The purposes of this research were as follows : (1) to investigate the effectiveness of the program for elementary preservice teachers, which was designed to develop postmodern views of science and constructivist views of teaming and teaching and (2) to find out the relation between students' learning approaches and their beliefs about science and school science. One hundred and forty three students enrolled in Science Education 11 in the University of Education participaled in the study. Students' beliefs of science and school science was not changed after treatment of the program. But they showed postmodern views of science and school science in comparison with the science teacher. Additionally the results showed that meaningful learners showed the constructivist view about school science as compared with the rote learners.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.43-53
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• 1998

The National Health Promotion Law passed in 1995 was a milestone for initiating a national health promotion program in Korea, and government officers and health professionals are working on how to approach health promotion issues. The purpose of this study was to analyse methods and use of constructivist paradigm in health promotion and education. The health promotion area needs community empowerment, building community partnerships, and community capacity. To meet these health promotion requirements health promotion workforce should be trained through professional preparation programs that contains communication skills, group process skills, and management of programs in advanced countries such as the United States and Australia. Skills and responsibilities of those who are in charge of providing health promotion services have not yet been clearly defined in Korea because the area of health promotion is a multi-academic field, and needs a different approach, constructivist approach. Constructivist paradigm requires relativism, reasoning skills, collaborating, and motivation. These components are needed for community empowerment. Constructivism also has been applied to the field of education. Problem-based education, outcome-based education, performance-based education came from the constructivism. These educational methods are student-centered method. As the modernizing society becomes more complicated, traditional or conventional teacher-centered education cannot meet the needs of students. Students need to learn skills necessary to make healthy decisions with individual value system. So these interactive, self-learning methods can serve much more to the learner. Constructivist educational methods can be applied to educational programs in computers, too. To expand and differentiate the area of health education and health promotion from other health related fields, it is crucial to devote efforts in application and development of constructivist methods.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.242-258
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• 2002

This study investigated preservice teachers' understandings of the ontology and epistemology underlying constructivist notions of teaming. Throughout this study, the epistemological, ontological, and pedagogical characteristics for each teacher's developing views of learning were identified through four in-depth interviews. Data from interviews were used to create three profiles containing ontological beliefs, epistemological commitments and pedagogical beliefs. This study has demonstrated that the notion of a constructivist profile change has significant potential for informing the analysis and description of preservice teachers' beliefs changes. Major findings include: constructivist profile changes overtime, diversification of profile components over time, features of the teachers' pedagogical belief profile changes, and teachers' unawareness of their profiles. However, changes in ontological beliefs and epistemological commitments were not easy, nor were they easily internalized for these teachers. The implications of this research are that preservice teachers should be aware of coexisting different categories of their learning-to-teach profiles, and that teacher educators should provide these preservice teachers with instruction designed to change preservice teachers' profiles towards increasing constructivist views of teaching and learning and restricting other undesirable categories.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.309-323
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• 2002

This qualitative study investigated preservice teachers' understandings of the ontology and epistemology underlying constructivist notions of learning through four in-depth interviews. Of the sixteen participants in a larger study, five significantly changed ontological and epistemological beliefs and eleven did not. This study focused on these eleven teachers who have hardly changed their philosophical beliefs throughout the teacher education program. Ten teachers who consistently maintained the scientific realist beliefs were presented as a composite case (Young's case). Among the eleven teachers, there was one outlier who had consistently maintained an idealist and relativist epistemological position from the beginning of the study and was subjected to another case analysis (Ben's case). These cases corroborated the assertion that each individual's deeply entrenched ontological and epistemological beliefs are very hard to change. For researchers, this study offers insights into the reasons that preservice teachers give for non-changes in their thinking about learning to teach. The study also examines preservice teachers' perceived constraints in implementing their ideal pedagogies and the influence of the teacher education program on their pedagogical beliefs changes. The benefits and influences of the M.Ed. program's theoretical coursework and the field experiences on these teachers' learning-to-teach experiences are addressed with rich data. The implications for teacher educators as well as for the instructional practices of preservice teacher education programs are discussed. This research emphasize necessity of the field-based teacher education program and the need of empowering experienced school teachers as teacher educators in teacher preparation and professional development.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.854-869
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• 2007

In this study, we investigated secondary science teachers' internalization of constructivistic science teaching who participated in a collaborative program between teachers and researchers designed by researchers according to constructivist views. The program consisted of lecture, workshop, and small group activities. New trends in science education and framework for science teaching were introduced during lectures, and understanding about the framework were deepened by analyzing school science classes recorded during workshops. In small group activities, participating teachers and researchers cooperated to design science lesson plans using science teaching frameworks. Five secondary science teachers participated in collaborative workshops. Collaborative programs were video-taped. Semi-structured interviews were conducted before and after workshops. All data recorded were transcribed and analyzed. In the process of internalization, participating teachers attended on different parts. Various and discernable factors such as there own background, beliefs, values, and school context produced tensions with or facilitated internalization of constructivistic science teaching. Teaching experiences and student understanding affected teachers' lesson planning activities. Teachers also showed different understandings on inquiry, application, and model from the framework, and they interpret those concepts in the framework based on their prior understanding. They perceived that too much content should be dealt within relatively limited time. Therefore, they tended to separate science class into two parts when developing science lessons: explaining science content by lecture and science laboratory as a constructivistic activity. The results of the study provide meaningful implications to the constructivist teacher education and professional development.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.289-299
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• 1997

This study has been undertaken in the light of constructivist view of teacher education. Participant observation, unstructured interview and questionnaire were used to explore the process and the role of practicum in science teacher education. The subjects were 19 student teachers majoring in physics education; 8 had participated at boys junior high school, 11 at senior high school. The student teachers had very critical and negative perception on their school days' science lessons. They had expected to do 'better' in their practicum but there were only 3 to 5 opportunities of teaching under the umbrella of textbook. Explanation in the classroom and solving exercise problem were the main features of student teachers' lessons. Much of the lessons were similar when it is to same topic and the main reference for their lesson preparation was the textbook. The student teachers felt the design of teaching approach as the most difficult thing during their lesson preparation. They realized that teaching is harder than they thought and they should consider students' level and responses. Though they had become to have more positive perception on teaching job through their field experiences, their decision on job preference did not change. More than half did not want to be a teacher. The student teachers recognised the courses related with science education as the most useful to their teaching in practice among the program of college of education which they had taken. The experience of writing one lesson plan or teaching in front of their peers, designing a new demonstration equipment were recognised as valuable and helpful element of the courses. They proposed to reduce the amount of general education courses and to emphasize the courses relevant with science education and practicum. The limited opportunity of teaching in practicum was pointed out as problematic. Though the practicum was recognized as a 'good' experience to student teachers, it was confined by textbook and limited teaching opportunity. In conclusion, the practicum was not organized and implemented as a meaningful experience of science teaching and learning. There should be more structured studies on what kind of perceptions and experiences the student teachers had brought to the science teacher education program, how they interact with the elements of the program and how they affect to their science teaching. The structure and content of practicum also should be studied and developed so as to make practicum as a meaningful experience of science teaching and learning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.269-278
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• 2006

In this study, we used Virtual Reality (VR) materials on an introductory earth science course consisted of thirty six pre-service science teacher program students. Before and after class an instrument of Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) was administered. The main focus of the CLES was to evaluate how the classroom was prepared for student centered learning environment. The pre and post tests of student perceptions regarding their learning environment were compared in six domains: personal relevance, critical voice, shared control, student negotiation, scientific uncertainty, and attitude. Questionnaire regarding the general perception of the VR materials was administered as well. How future science teachers valued the use of VR materials in their classrooms was found from this study. Based on these results, we intend to contribute for a more complete understanding of the potential of VR materials in achieving better learner-centered classroom environment.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2002

This study investigated preservice science teachers' understandings of philosophical foundations(i.e., ontological and epistemological beliefs) underlying constructivist notions of learning. The teacher education program these subjects participated in explicitly addressed philosophical notions consistent with different views of constructivism. For these preservice science teachers, the program provided them with the opportunity to reflect upon the implications that their ontological and epistemological commitments had for their role as a science teacher. Data from four in-depth interviews were used to explore changes in each preservice science teacher's ontological beliefs, epistemological commitments, and pedagogical preferences. Results indicated that ontological beliefs and epistemological commitments were not necessarily consistent with conceptions of science teaching and learning for these preservice teachers. While some students internalized idealist and relativist perspectives, they did not integrate these relativist epistemological views into their preferred instructional practices. Also, regarding the fallible and tentative nature of knowledge, data in this study indicated that participants' epistemological beliefs about scientific Knowledge did influence how they were thinking about their roles as science teachers. Implications for teacher education programs and research on preservice science teacher's philosophical beliefs are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.360-376
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• 2001

This qualitative research investigated in-service science teachers' perceptions about cooperative learning and their perceived barriers in implementing cooperative learning in their classrooms. The underlying premise for cooperative learning is founded in constructivist epistemology. Cooperative learning (CL) is presented as an alternative frame to the current educational system which emphasizes content memorization and individual student performance through competition. An in-depth interview was conducted with 18 in-service science teachers who enrolled in the first-class teacher certification program during 2001 summer vacation. These secondary school teachers's interview data were analyzed and categorized into three areas: teachers' definition of cooperative learning, issues with implementing cooperative learning in classrooms, and teachers' and students' responses towards cooperative learning. Each of these areas are further subdivided into 10 themes: teachers' perceived meaning of cooperative learning, the importance of talk in learning, when to use cooperative learning, how to end a cooperative class, how to group students for cooperative learning, obstacles to implementing cooperative learning, students' reactions to cooperative learning, teachers' reasons for choosing (not choosing) student-centered approaches to learning/teaching, characteristics of teachers who use cooperative learning methods, and teachers' reasons for resisting cooperative learning. Detailed descriptions of the teachers' responses and discussion on each category are provided. For the development and implementation of CL in more classrooms, there should be changes and supports in the following five areas: (1) teachers have to examine their pedagogical beliefs toward constructivist perspectives, (2) teacher (re)education programs have to provide teachers with cooperative learning opportunities in methods courses, (3) students' understanding of their changed roles (4) supports in light of curriculum materials and instructional resources, (5) supports in terms of facilities and administrators. It's important to remember that cooperative learning is not a panacea for all instructional problems. It's only one way of teaching and learning, useful for specific kinds of teaching goals and especially relevant for classrooms with a wide mix of student academic skills. Suggestions for further research are also provided.