• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.522-532
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to do a survey on teachers' perception and operational state for elementary science online remote classes and suggest ways to improve the elementary science online remote classes. The survey was based on responses from 100 teachers who have taught elementary science online remote classes for the first semester of 2020 for COVID-19. The questionnaire used in this study consisted of four parts: general informations of participants, the operation status of elementary science online remote classes, teachers' perceptions on the operation of elementary science online remote classes, ways to improve elementary science online remote classes. As a result of this study, elementary teachers taught elementary science online remote classes on the main use of content utilization type. And they had a difficulty in conducting elementary science online remote classes because of lack of contents, absence of elementary science online remote classes teaching methods, learner management and heavy workload. Therefore, to improve elementary science online remote classes the Ministry of Education and regional offices of education have to develop and provide high-quality contents reflect the characteristics of elementary science subjects, introduce a rent-an-experiment equipment system, and build a science class platform providing frequent real-time interaction between teacher and student.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.555-568
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• 2014

Even though identical science textbooks are used in elementary science classes, differences exist in teachers' teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to understand the relationships between elementary teachers' beliefs of science learning and their science teaching practices. An Likert-scale survey and interviews were performed on four elementary teachers to obtain information about the beliefs of teachers in science learning. In order to understand their teaching practices and the relationships between teachers' beliefs and their teaching practices, 2 classes per each teacher were recorded and instruction analyses were performed in the aspects of teaching contents, methods, and learning environments. The results showed that teacher A and B, who held traditional beliefs of science learning, taught their classes mainly based on teacher's explanation. While, teacher C and D, who held constructive beliefs of science learning, reorganized the contents of textbooks and applied various teaching methods and strategies in conducting their teaching practices. There were differences in teachers' beliefs of science learning and teaching practices. These differences in beliefs were related with their science teaching practices.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.183-193
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• 2015

Teacher guidebooks are practical and commonly used resources for teachers to deliver the goals and contents of science curriculum in classroom teaching. Thus, the alignment of teacher guidebooks and science curriculum could be critical to undertake the effectiveness of curriculum implication in science classrooms. This study is to investigate how the learning objectives of science curriculum are implicated in teacher guidebooks by analyzing the dimensions of knowledge and cognitive process in learning objectives in both documents. Grade 3~4 learning objectives (82 objectives in the curriculum, 459 in the teacher guidebook, 541 in total) in 2009 Revised science curriculum and teacher guidebooks were coded and analyzed based on the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. The analysis focused on how the knowledge dimensions and cognitive processes of the curriculum were emphasized and restructured in the teacher guidebooks to examine the coalition between the two important documents. The study found: 1) the learning objectives in Grade 3~4 in both documents were skewed to certain knowledge dimension (conceptual) and cognitive process (understand); 2) there was a high coalition between unit objectives and lesson objectives in the teacher guidebooks, however, relatively low coalition between the curriculum and the teacher guidebooks; and 3) learning objectives in the curriculum were delivered in teacher guidebooks in various patterns (similar, detailed, additional, in portion, and the same), and 'detailed' and 'additional' were frequently shown. There also appeared new objectives in the teacher guidebooks, which were not present in the curriculum. The findings in this study could provide some suggestions to the current project of developing 2015 Science Curriculum in regard to understanding the dimensions of knowledge and cognitive process of learning objectives and their alignments with textbooks and teacher guidebooks.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.440-454
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• 2018

This study aims to compare student self-, teacher-, and objective assessments of elementary science-gifted students' scientific creativity. A science-gifted program on the topic of Hydraulic Machine was implemented to 40 fifth-graders in the Science-Gifted Education Center of an education office in Seoul, Korea for four weeks. The products of the students' activities were assessed by three types of 'Student Self-Assesment', 'Teacher-Assesment', and 'Objective Assessment using Formula'. Based on two essential components of creativity, the scientific creativity is divided into two parts of originality and usefulness. Ideas that satisfy both components can be counted as scientifically creative. The main results of this study are as follows: First, the scores of each week and the average of the overall four-week scores on scientific creativity were significantly correlated. Student self-assessment (r=.687), teacher-assessment (r=.715), and objective assessment (r=.724) appeared consistently over instructional periods. Second, the average scores of student self-, objective, and teacher-assessments were 73.15, 35.72, and 26.60, respectively. The result of student self-assessment on scientific creativity tended to be higher than those of formula and teacher. Third, among the three types of assessment on scientific creativity, a strong correlation appeared between teacher- and objective assessment (r=.974), but neither between student self- and objective (r=.161) nor between student self- and teacher- (r=.213). Fourth, the scores on originality component had a positive correlation between teacher- and objective assessment (r=.713). The scores of student self- and teacher-assessments had a significant correlation too (r=.315), but not between student self- and objective assessment (r=.279). Fifth, the scores on usefulness component did not have a significant correlation between student self- and teacher-assessment (r=.155). Sixth, there was no significant difference on scientific creativity between student self- and objective assessment [${\chi}^2$(1, n=40)=1.667, p<.197]. Not between student self- and teacher-assessment either [${\chi}^2$(1, n=40)=1.616, p<.204]. On the contrary, there was a significant difference between teacher- and objective assessment [${\chi}^2$(1, n=40)=32.593, p<.000]. Seventh, the students were categorized into four groups according to the levels of their scores by student self- and teacher-assessment. The result showed that factors influencing student self-assessment are inherent in the personality traits of gifted individuals, such as self-esteem and perfectionism. The findings suggested that there are challenges for the educators to make efforts to construct consistent assessment methods for scientific creativity.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.334-346
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• 2012

For teachers' conceptions and understandings are critical to their decision making and classroom practice, this study attempts to understand pre-service elementary teachers' views and practices of science inquiry during peer teaching practice. Fifteen 4th year university students in teacher education program participated in peer teaching practice. Their teaching and reflective discussion were video and audio recorded and written lesson plans were collected for data analysis. Five science teacher educators individually looked into the data and shared their comments and interpretations on pre-service teachers' views and practice. The study findings suggest that pre-service teachers emphasized the importance of providing students with motivating resources in the beginning of lesson, employing certain inquiry teaching models, the process of predicting and dis/proving via experiment, and teachers' minimal intervention as the important features of inquiry teaching. Science teacher educators emphasized that it is critical to help children understand inquiry questions in the beginning of inquiry process, to be mindful of children's problem solving and critical thinking rather than following instruction models or simply going through prediction and test process. They also commented that teachers' guidance could lead a good inquiry process in classroom practice, not always interfering students' inquiry. Based on the findings, the study suggests science teacher educators need to understand what and how pre-service teachers view and practice science inquiry teaching and consider these as useful resources where they can start effective teaching for pre-service teachers at the university level.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.353-368
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• 2020

This study analyzed the teacher's perception for influence of behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students on general students in elementary school science class. To do this, we selected the eight elementary school teachers who were conducting the regular science classes including scientifically-gifted students belonging to the gifted education institutes in Seoul and conducted individual in-depth interviews. The analysis of the results reveal that the teachers mentioned seven behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students in general elementary school science classes.: 'excellent in designing and performing experiments', 'playing a leading role in experiments', 'expressing their abundant prior knowledge frequently', 'attempting their tasks with curiosity and persistence', 'displaying scientific creativity', 'often asking scientific questions in detail', and 'expressing their opinions logically'. These behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students had positive effects on general students, such as 'providing them with a successful experience in conducting experiments', 'improving understanding of science class contents', 'developing scientific thinking and reflective thinking', and 'improving their students' positive experiences about science'. However, the excessive learning-driven behaviors of scientifically-gifted students had negative effects on general students, such as 'limiting opportunities for general students to participate in classes', 'conducting passive exploration centered on results', and 'causing conflicts with general students'. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.133-144
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of Teacher Participation-oriented Education Program (TPEP) for Elementary School Teachers to Improve Class Expertise in Science Classes with a focus on visual attention. The participants were two elementary school teachers in Seoul and taught science subjects. The lesson topic applied to this study were 'Structure and Function of Our Body' in the second semester of fifth grade and 'Volcano and Earthquake' in the second semester of fourth grade. The mobile eye tracker SMI's ETG 2w, which is a binocular tracking system was used in this study. In this study, the actual practice time, participant's visual attention, visual intake time average, and visual intake time average were analyzed by class phase. The results of the study are as follows. First, as a result of analyzing the actual class execution time, the actual class execution time was almost in line with the lesson plan after the TPEP application. Second, visual attention in the areas related to teaching and learning activities was high after applying TPEP. Factors affecting the progress of the class and cognitive burdens were identified quantitatively and objectively through visual attention. Third, as a result of analyzing the visual intake time average of participants, there was a statistically significant difference in all classes. Fourth, as a result of analyzing the visual intake time average of participants, the results were statistically significant in the introduction(video), activity 1, activity 2, and activity 3 stages in the lecture type class. The Teacher Participation-oriented Education Program (TPEP) for Elementary School Teachers to Improve Class Expertise in Science Classes can extend elementary science class expertise such as self-class analysis, eye tracking, linguistic, gesture, and class design beyond traditional class analysis and consulting.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.171-182
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to analyze lesson plans from third to sixth grades of science and to find out teaching strategies in respects of learning functions provided by preservice elementary teachers in education university. On the whole, to control students' learning process preservice teachers used more shared-regulation strategy than strong teacher-regulation one. Teaching activities for regulative learning function were most used in strategy of strong teacher-regulation, and in strategy of shared-regulation those for cognitive learning functions were most used. But teaching activities for affective learning functions were used a little considered in both teaching strategies. In introduction step of instruction, affective and regulative learning functions were more instructed by strong teacher-regulation strategy and cognitive learning functions were more instructed by shared-regulation strategy. The affective, cognitive, and regulative learning functions were largely planned by shared-regulation teaching strategy in development. The regulative learning functions were planned by strong teacher-regulation strategy than by shared-regulation strategy and affective learning functions were considered a little bit in consolidation. There was a tendency that strong teacherregulation strategy was increased in lessons for fifth and sixth grade.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2013

This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of good science teachings regarded by preservice elementary school teachers. It also aimed to suggest a direction of peer teaching practice to help preservice teachers' professional development. Adjacency pairs were adopted to analyze the characteristics of good science teachings. The results showed that pre-service elementary teachers were accustomed to adjacency pairs. Almost of their discourse were organized by adjacency pairs. 'Question-Answer' and 'Request-Accept' were mainly used in science classes by pre-service elementary teachers. Based on the findings, the study suggested science teacher educators to provide chances to analyze exemplary science teachers' science class or chances to analyze their science teachings in terms of competence of science classroom discourse.