• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.693-734
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• 2011

The purpose of this research is to analyze the pedagogical content knowledge on the natural number concepts of Korean Elementary School Teachers. Shulman(1986b) had developed a tool in order to understand teachers' knowledge, as he defined three types of knowledge in teaching ; Subject Matter Knowledge, Curricular Knowledge, and Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Pang(2002) defined two types of elements including in the ways of teaching ; individual element, and sociocultural element. Two research questions are addressed; (1) What is the pedagogical content knowledge of Natural number Concepts for Korean Elementary School Teachers? ; (2) What factors are included in the pedagogical content knowledge of Natural number Concepts for Korean Elementary School Teachers? Findings reveal that (1) the Korean Elementary School Teachers had three types of the pedagogical content knowledge on the natural number concepts; (2) Teacher Factors were more included than Social-Cultural Factors in the pedagogical content knowledge on the natural number concepts of the Korean Elementary School Teachers. Further suggestions were made for future researches to include (1) a comparative study on teachers between ordinary teachers and those who majored mathematics education in the graduate school. (2) an analysis on the classroom activities about the natural number concepts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.389-405
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze elementary school teachers' understanding, certainty, and familiarity with 13 key concepts of wave physics that are presented in textbook and teacher's guidebook. 123 elementary school teachers answered concept tests and questionnaires. In the results to these tests and questionnaires, teachers demonstrated a high level of understanding and high certainty in understanding with regard to the concepts of sound generation, effect of medium on wave, timbre, wavelength, and trough and crest of wave. For the topics of sound velocity, wave reflection and wave transmission, teachers demonstrated a high level of understanding but low certainty in understanding. With regard to sound propagation, teachers demonstrated a low level of understanding and an improperly high certainty in that low understanding. Teachers lacked knowledge, i.e., displayed a low level of understanding and low certainty in sound strength, sound frequency, constructive interference and destructive interference. In constructive and destructive interference, the teachers also displayed a low level of familiarity. We analyzed the differences in teacher's understanding, certainty, and familiarity according to teacher demographics defined by the teacher's gender, teaching experience with concepts of sound, career, curriculum track while in high school, and major in university. There were no significant differences in understanding, certainty, or familiarity as defined by gender, teaching experience, and career. However, these displays of knowledge were affected by the teacher's curriculum track in high school and their major. These results suggest that the teacher's understanding of, familiarity with, and certainty in wave physics concepts are more influenced by their learning experience than by their teaching experience. Therefore, we suggest additional learning opportunities for teachers (such as teacher training programs) in order to improve teacher knowledge and correct teacher misconceptions in wave physics.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.59-78
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to research and analyze students' informal knowledge before they learned formal knowledge about fraction concepts and to see how to apply this informal knowledge to teach fraction concepts. According to this purpose, research questions were follows. 1) What is the students' informal knowledge about dividing into equal parts, the equivalent fraction, and comparing size of fractions among important and primary concepts of fraction? 2) What are the contents to can lead bad concepts among students' informal knowledge? 3) How will students' informal knowledge be used when teachers give lessons in fraction concepts? To perform this study, I asked interview questions that constructed a form of drawing expression, a form of story telling, and a form of activity with figure. The interview questions included questions related to dividing into equal parts, the equivalent fraction, and comparing size of fractions. The conclusions are as follows: First, when students before they learned formal knowledge about fraction concepts solve the problem, they use the informal knowledge. And a form of informal knowledge is vary various. Second, among students' informal knowledge related to important and primary concepts of fraction, there are contents to lead bad concepts. Third, it is necessary to use students' various informal knowledge to instruct fraction concepts so that students can understand clearly about fraction concepts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.567-578
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• 2022

In this study, we examine whether the description of the elementary science curriculum guide, the concept of evolution, and the beliefs of teachers affect the teaching practice in classes related to adaptation of elementary school teachers. First, we examined the alternative concept among the sentences described in the bio-adaptation-related unit of the 2009 Elementary Science Curriculum Teacher's Guide and identified the effects of this description on the teaching practice of elementary school teachers. Next, six elementary school teachers were classified according to the results of the evolutionary concept test paper and the evolutionary belief test paper, and based on the class recording data and interview data, whether there is a difference in teaching execution. As a result, it was confirmed that there were a total of 18 descriptions corresponding to the concept of evolutionary alternatives in the analysis of instruction descriptions, and that these descriptions influenced elementary school teachers' adaptation concepts and teaching practice. Next, the group with high and low levels of evolution differ in the areas of "recognition of importance in the unit, distinction between adaptation concepts in the general sense and adaptation concepts in the biological sense, errors in the class," and "recognition of evolutionary education needs in the elementary curriculum." This study is meaningful in that it qualitatively confirms the research on the evolution concept of elementary school teachers, which has been approached quantitatively, and in-depth, confirms how the description, evolution concepts, and evolutionary beliefs affect elementary school teachers' biological adaptation concepts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.452-463
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to identify the effectiveness of concepts on global warming, practical will and belief on global warming mitigation by experiments based on global warming program. For this study, 60 $6^{th}$ grade students were selected in two elementary schools. They were divided into an experimental group and a control group. The students of the experimental group took part in global warming program focusing experiments for 10 lessons during 2 weeks. The students of the control group were taught according to the regular curriculum of $6^{th}$ grade about global warming. To identify the effects of this program, both groups' students were tested on concepts on global warming, practical will and belief on global warming mitigation before and after the program implementation. Also the students of the experimental group wrote an essay and gave an interview about the program after implementation. The results were that the experimental group gained higher scores than the control group in the concepts on global warming. The programs improved students' practical will and belief on global warming mitigation. Also this program showed that the students systematically understood on global warming than existing classes in the regular curriculum.

• The Journal of Korean Association of Computer Education
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.1-10
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• 2005

Presently, elementary school students take coercive action in case error or fault happens while they are using computers. These action are caused by lack of comprehension about basic computer concepts. In this paper, we propose an instructional method for basic computer concepts based on various instructional method. To estimate the effect of proposed method, a class over 16 phases is performed. We show that a effect of class and necessity of development of instructional learning method for basic computer concepts education in elementary schools on the basis of result that analyze reaction of students after class.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.141-153
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• 2004

Pupils with learning impediments in elementary schools have difficulties in learning numerical calculations. Numerical concepts, the basis of numerical calculations, require repetitious exercises, and it has been widely reported that computer-mediated learning motivates the learners to concentrate on their learning for longer hours. The aim of the research is to develop and apply a Web-based courseware to experimental groups to improve learning numerical concepts of the learners with learning difficulties in elementary school and to discuss the effects of the results. The courseware is designed to improve the numerical concepts of the learners through many thought activities. The experiment shows effectiveness of the learning activities to improve learning numerical concepts for students with learning difficulties, categorized into two groups - an experimental group and a control group, and also it shows positive responses on improvement of their calculation ability.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.509-524
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• 2007

The purpose of the study is to compare elementary school science textbooks ($3^{rd}$ grade) in Korea and the U.S., centering on the ways to present scientific concepts and inquiry process in the units of 'matter.' The analysis is focused on: a) general structure of the units; b) how to present scientific concepts in terms of its connections and complexity; c) how to present inquiry process in terms of its types and skills. The findings of the study are as follows. First, the contents of 'matter' units are scientific discipline-based in both countries. The general structure of the units in Korean textbooks is unrestricted compared to those in the U.S. Second, the connections among the concepts are poor and the level of complexity is low in Korean textbooks, which are contrary to those in the U.S. textbooks. Third, it is a common feature that the inquiry process is based on learners' everyday experiences with simple experiments in two countries' textbooks. However, the inquiry process in the U.S. textbooks is provided with detailed instructions while the process in Korea is presented with diverse activities without formal guidelines. Based on the results, the study suggests three recommendations to improve Korean textbooks: a) science contents should be linked to other disciplines in order to promote practical applications; b) scientific concepts are required to be tightly connected and provided with in-depth explanations; c) inquiry process is needed to be presented with specific guidance to facilitate scientific thinking.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.399-408
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• 2015

This study is to find out that the effects of a creative experience activity program to scientific concepts and self-directed learning skills. This study has been aimed at 2 class 40 students of 4th grade in D metropolitan city A elementary school in 2015, one class 20 students are the research group to apply Scientific research program using creative experience activity, another class 20 students were comparison groups to apply general science classes. The related class section of this study is 4th grade 2 semester of science 4 chapters, 'The Earth and the moon' This section is in fourth grade elementary science curriculum revision in 2009 is a Sections to learn for the first time about astronomical area. Target research group in club activities as part of the creative activities implemented using scientific inquiry and analyzed the results. In addition, in order to better research based on the results of this study as follows. First, the science curriculum in elementary schools, as well as applied research about the creative experience activity classes in other subjects is required. The ongoing research is needed to classes utilizing the characteristics of creative experience activities in several subjects of the elementary school curriculum. Second, Creative experiential learning is only effective when it is done consistently, it is worth studying for long periods of time.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.15-31
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary student teachers' conceptions about the mechanism of the greenhouse effect, the greenhouse gases, the global warming, and their learning experiences of the greenhouse effect and the global warming. Participants were 82 student teachers in their second year of studies (science education: n=28, not science education: n=27) and in their fourth year of studies (science education: n=27). The open-ended questionnaire was used to examine the teachers' spontaneous ideas depicted by their drawings and/or writings. The results of this study are as follows: First, the student teachers' scientific response rate about key concepts related to the mechanism of the greenhouse effect was low (6.1%~28.0%); Second, although there are various greenhouse gases, it was only carbon dioxide that the student teacher's response rate was more than 80%; Third, only 17.1% of the student teachers clearly distinguished the greenhouse effect and the global warming; Fourth, there was a tendency that the student teacher group in the fourth year of studies and science education showed higher scientific response rate about the concepts than the other two groups.