• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.177-188
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• 2024

In this research, a cohort of two children, aged 7-8 years, was selected to participate in a specialized three-week training program aimed at enhancing their working memory. The program consisted of three sessions, each lasting approximately 30 minutes. The primary goal was to investigate the impact and developmental trajectory of working memory in school-aged children. Working memory plays a significant role in young children's learning and daily activities. To address the needs of this demographic, products should offer both educational and enjoyable activities that engage working memory. Digital educational tools, known for their flexibility, are suitable for both older individuals and young children. By updating software or modifying content, these tools can be effectively repurposed for young learners without extensive hardware changes, making them both cost-effective and practical. For example, memory training games initially designed for older adults can be adapted for young children by altering images, music, or storylines. Furthermore, incorporating elements familiar to children, like animals, toys, or fairy tales, can increase their engagement in these activities. Historically, working memory capabilities have been assessed predominantly through traditional intelligence tests. However, recent research questions the adequacy of these behavioral measures in accurately detecting changes in working memory. To bridge this gap, the current study utilized electroencephalography (EEG) as a more sophisticated and precise tool for monitoring potential changes in working memory after the training. The research findings were revealing. Participants showed marked improvement in their performance on n-back tasks, a standard measure for evaluating working memory. This improvement post-training strongly supports the effectiveness of the training program. The results indicate that such targeted and structured training programs can significantly enhance the working memory abilities of children in this age group, providing promising implications for educational strategies and cognitive development interventions.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.180-191
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the preferred SSI topics of students and teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools. It analyzed the similarity of students' and teachers' preferred SSI topics by school level using the cosine similarity measure. A total of 566 students and 327 teachers from elementary, middle, and high schools participated in the study. Sixty topics were identified and listed in the areas of environment, science and technology, health and medicine, and other social issues based on the literature and SSI programs. Students and teachers were asked to select five of their favorite topics. The data was collected online using SurveyMonkey. The collected data was divided into six groups of students and teachers, and the frequency of topic selection was analyzed within each group. The topic preference similarity was analyzed by calculating vector values based on the frequency of the selected topics and measuring the cosine similarity between students, teachers, and teachers and students by school level. The results are as follows: First, the cosine similarity of SSI Preferred Topics between students' school-level cohorts was higher between middle and high school students (0.982) than between elementary and middle school students (0.651) or between elementary and high school students (0.662). Second, the cosine similarity of SSI Preferred Topics between teachers' school-level cohorts was similar for all comparison groups between elementary, middle, and high school. Third, the SSI topic preference similarity between students and teachers by school level had a higher cosine similarity between the elementary student and teacher cohorts (0.974) than the other school level comparisons, middle school (0.621) or high school (0.645). Access to topics of interest to students in SSI education is strongly associated with motivation and persistence in learning, as well as an enjoyable learning experience and positive attitudes toward learning. Therefore, when designing SSI lessons, it is important to examine topics from the perspective of student interest, especially if the teacher has selected SSI topics that are different from students' preferences. Careful instructional design will be needed to overcome the gap.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.261-277
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• 2013

This study aims to investigate the effect of a scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program on pre-service elementary school teachers' attitudes toward science and scientific inquiry in the class of elementary school science educational theory at education university. As for research subjects, this study selected 141 pre-service elementary school teachers who were in the third year of education university. The results of this study can be summarized as below. First, it was found that the scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program improved pre-service elementary school teachers' attitudes toward science and helped them realize it important to have knowledge about science, further making them find it more enjoyable to teach science at school in the future. Second, it was found that the scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program had positive effect on pre-service elementary school teachers' attitudes toward scientific inquiry. In other words, they came to think of inquiry-based learning styles as an important course of science class. Third, as a result of carrying out open-ended questions about what would be helpful in an actual education site through the scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program, this study found out that most of the research subjects responded it would be helpful when applying a class model, and thought it would be helpful for elementary school students to have scientific knowledge and understand the process of inquiry.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.409-420
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• 2023

This study aims to investigate the impact of science classes employing creative science drama on elementary school students' academic achievement and attitudes toward science during the final step of elementary science classes. The creative science drama used in this study is a class-closing activity wherein the teacher provides a basic script for the learning topic and then allows students to complete the rest of the story using their assignment. It devised a creative science drama class based on the research of Yoon (2016), and the contents of this study were centered on the use of magnets and the appearance of the Earth in the first semester of third grade. Students in their third year at H Elementary School in Gyeonggi-do were the subject of this study. The results showed that scientific achievement through science drama in the experimental class was improved, with a statistically significant difference. However, ANCOVA analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in attitudes toward science. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference in scientific drama perception. Interviews with students in the experimental class applying science drama revealed that students found difficulty in writing science drama scripts and that coordinating and reaching a mutually acceptable opinion in group activities required the most discussion and cooperation. However, many of them stated that the experience of scientific drama was enjoyable and informative, and since what they learned was transformed into a scientific drama, they remembered the lessons longer.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 2000.07a
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• pp.235-240
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• 2000

In the age of global communication, more human exchange is extended at the grass-roots level. In the old days, language policy and language planning was based on one nation-state with one language. But high waves of globalizaiton have allowed extended human flow of exchange beyond one's national border on a daily basis. Under such circumstances, homogeneity in Japan may not allow Japanese to speak and communicate only in Japanese and only with Japanese people. In Japan, an advisory report was made to the Ministry of Education in June 1996 about what education should be like in the 21st century. In this report, an introduction of English at public elementary schools was for the first time made. A basic policy of English instruction at the elementary school level was revealed. With this concept, English instruction is not required at the elementary school level but each school has their own choice of introducing English as their curriculum starting April 2002. As Baker, Colin (1996) indicates the age of three as being the threshold diving a child becoming bilingual naturally or by formal instruction. Threre is a movement towards making second language acquisition more naturalistic in an educational setting, developing communicative competence in a more or less formal way. From the lesson of the Canadian immersion success, Genesee (1987) stresses the importance of early language instruction. It is clear that from a psycho-linguistic perspective, most children acquire basic communication skills in their first language apparently effortlessly and without systematic and formal instruction during the first six or seven years of life. This innate capacity diminishes with age, thereby making language learning increasingly difficult. The author, being a returnee, experienced considerable difficulty acquiring L2, and especially achieving native-like competence. There will be many hurdles to conquer until Japanese students are able to reach at least a communicative level in English. It has been mentioned that English is not taught to clear the college entrance examination, but to communicate. However, Japanese college entrance examination still makes students focus more on the grammar-translation method. This is expected to shift to a more communication stressed approach. Japan does not have to aim at becoming an official bilingual country, but at least communicative English should be taught at every level in school Mito College is a small two-year co-ed college in Japan. Students at Mito College are basically notgood at English. It has only one department for business and economics, and English is required for all freshmen. It is necessary for me to make my classes enjoyable and attractive so that students can at least get motivated to learn English. My major target is communicative English so that students may be prepared to use English in various business settings. As an experiment to introduce more communicative English, the author has made the following syllabus design. This program aims at training students speak and enjoy English. 90-minute class (only 190-minute session per week is most common in Japanese colleges) is divided into two: The first half is to train students orally using Graded Direct Method. The latter half uses different materials each time so that students can learn and enjoy English culture and language simultaneously. There are no quizes or examinations in my one-academic year program. However, all students are required to make an original English poem by the end of the spring semester. 2-6 students work together in a group on one poem. Students coming to Mito College, Japan have one of the lowest English levels in all of Japan. However, an attached example of one poem made by a group shows that students can improve their creativity as long as they are kept encouraged. At the end of the fall semester, all students are then required individually to make a 3-minute original English speech. An example of that speech contest will be presented at the Convention in Seoul.