• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.130-148
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• 2019

This study compared the characteristics of scientific poems written by scientifically-gifted and general elementary students, and their perceptions of writing scientific poem. To do this, 5~6 graders (n=100) at two gifted science education institutes and 5~6 graders (n=93) at a elementary school in Seoul were selected. Scientific poems written by the students were analyzed according to their numbers and types. Their perceptions of writing scientific poems were also analyzed through a questionnaire and group interviews. The analysis of the results revealed that the general students wrote more scientific poems than the scientifically-gifted students for thirty minutes. The general students mainly named the titles in a direct way, while scientifically-gifted students did it in an implicit way. The free verse poems in both general students and scientifically-gifted students appeared most frequently, and the prose or narrative poems also often appeared. The general and scientifically-gifted students frequently used impersonation, and some students did not use metaphors. They didn't connect the scientific knowledge for multiple grade. While the poems of the general students evenly included the scientific knowledge for various academic fields, those of scientifically-gifted students tended to include the scientific knowledge for physics or chemistry. The poems of scientifically-gifted students tended to include more science process skills, especially in basic inquiry skills, than those of general students. The scientifically-gifted students wrote scientific poems in a more expanded form regarding the scientific knowledge, than the general students. Scientifically-gifted students perceived the educational benefits of writing scientific poems more positively based on various cognitive and affective aspects. However, many scientifically-gifted and general students had also several difficulties in the processes of writing scientific poems. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• 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 the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.294-305
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• 2011

This study was to examine the differences of behavioral characteristics between scientifically gifted students and ordinary students. The subjects were 40 scientifically gifted students (27 males and 13 females) and 38 ordinary students (21 males and 17 females). The study specifically analyzed the several characteristics including logical thinking, science process skills, creativity, earth science creativity, self-directed learning, and cognitive style. The results were as follows; First, while 94.74% of scientifically gifted students reached the formal stage, only 36.36% of ordinary students reached it in logical thinking. Second, scientifically gifted students gained higher scores than ordinary students did in science process skills (average 8.11), creativity (average 8.27), earth science creativity (average 6.73), scientific attitude (average 10.79), self-directed learning (average 21.60). Third, 70% of scientifically gifted students and 60.53% of ordinary students showed to have the characteristics of field independent thinking. These results implied that the behavioral characteristics of scientifically gifted students should be included in science gifted education for the pursuit of the essential gifted education and maximization of its efficiency.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.464-472
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze the science inquiry problem finding ability of gifted elementary students of science and general elementary students. For this purpose, this study analyzed the types of science inquiry problems in an ill-structured problem finding situation. Also, this study has compared science inquiry problem finding abilities of those two groups. From the results of this study, new ways of improving student' science inquiry problem finding ability and selection of gifted students of science were suggested. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, most of the inquiry problems generated by the scientifically gifted and the general students in an ill-structured problem situation could be categorized into seven types (measurement, method, cause, possibility, what, comparison, relationship) according to the inquiry objectives, and both group found more problems in scientific context than in everyday context. Regardless of the context of problem, scientifically gifted students found more problems and the type of problems generated by them were more various than those of general students. Second, there were differences in problem finding ability between scientifically gifted and general students. Scientifically gifted students found more problems and the quality of problems were higher than general students.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.100-107
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to assess gifted students' conceptions about nature of science (NOS). Scientifically gifted students who are expected to be professionals in the future should possess an adequate understanding of NOS that if firm foundation for scientific career. 47 volunteers from the 8th grade gifted science program in Seoul National University Gifted Education Center participated to answer questions inquiring NOS conceptions. Their answers were analyzed and compared to different groups such as non-gifted students and younger gifted students. As a result, gifted students' understanding of NOS appeared to surpass that of non-gifted students in many aspects and it seemed that gifted students formed their NOS view in early ages. The relative weakness in their NOS conceptions was found in understanding of scientific enterprise. Their strong misunderstanding about obstacles that minority people would face in scientific enterprise was noticed, too. They admitted that there has been discrimination in scientific enterprise, but they wrongly believed that outstanding scientists cannot be affected by it. Further studies will be required to probe more.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.spc5
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• pp.532-547
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• 2007

The purposes of this study were to investigate the creative science problem solving (CSPS) process amongst scientifically-gifted students and average students through the qualitative think-aloud research method, and to compare the differences in their CSP, scientific knowledge, scientific process skills, creative thinking, and finally, the affective domain used in their CSPS. For the purposes of this study, two scientifically-gifted 6th grade students and one average student were selected. The results show that one gifted student with good creative thinking skills exhibited better performance in CSPS than the other gifted student, who had the highest level of scientific knowledge. In the case of the average student, in spite of her high level of factual knowledge, she had difficulty in proceeding in CSPS due to her shallow scientific knowledge along with her low level of understanding of the given problem. This study highlights the importance of considering the factors which influence successful CSPS and which can play an important role in the education of scientifically-gifted children. These factors were identified as scientific knowledge, understanding of the scientific process, creative thinking, the affective domain, and science problem solving skills.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.241-252
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of a science gifted education program. 155 students who experienced the SNU science gifted education program were interviewed. The interview questions consisted of eligible questions from 'Interview Protocol of Hertzog' (2003) based on 'Recommended Practice in Gifted Education (Shore, Cornell, & Ward, 1991)'. All interviews were immediately transcribed and analyzed qualitatively. It was found that scientifically gifted students had similar concepts of the gifted to what scholars consider as the gifted. Comparing the programs to school education program, the students agreed that the science gifted education program provided more experiments opportunities, higher and deeper level of contents, and more active interactions. Regarding long-term effects, it was found that program influenced on students' decisions for the future, stimuli and expansion of horizons, school work and entrance examinations. Students gained self-confidence and became more interested in science. Some pointed out that they felt greater stimulated, although some indicated an elevated level of self conceit. Implications of science gifted education were found based on these results.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.292-303
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• 2009

In this study, we investigated the characteristics of the analogies, the mapping understanding, and the mapping errors on saturated solution of scientifically-gifted and general elementary students. Fifth graders (n=60) at four scientifically-gifted education institutes in Seoul and/or Gyeonggi province and fifth graders (n=91) at three elementary schools in Seoul were selected and assigned to the scientifically-gifted group and the general group respectively. After the students of each group performed the experiment and were taught about the target concept in the first class, they administered the test on the self-generating analogies on the target concept in the second class. The results revealed that the students in the scientifically-gifted group made more analogies, especially verbal/pictorial, structural/functional, enriched, and higher systematic ones, and had deeper understanding of the analogy than those in the general group. The numbers of the shared attributes included in the student-generated analogies and the scores of the mapping understanding of the students in the scientifically-gifted group were significantly higher than those in the general group. The students in the scientifically-gifted group had fewer mapping errors than those in the general group. However, not a few students in the scientifically-gifted group had at least one mapping error. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.219-232
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated and compared the types of analogy generation processes and the perceptions of analogy generation on saturated solution of fifth grade scientifically-gifted and general elementary students. After the instruction of self-generating analogies on 'saturated solution' concept for two classes, 12 scientifically-gifted and 8 general elementary students were interviewed to explore their analogy generation processes and the perceptions of the abilities required in the processes, the conditions of good analogies, and the advantages/disadvantages of analogy generation. The results revealed that their analogy generation processes were classified into three types. The scientifically-gifted students generated the analogies in more systematic and efficient ways and had better understanding of the important parts in the processes than the general elementary students. They also suggested more concrete and various ideas about the conditions of good analogies. Many scientifically-gifted and general elementary students thought that analogy generation would have positive influences on the developments of the cognitive aspects such as various higher-level thinking abilities and understanding of science concepts as well as the affective aspects such as science learning motivation and interest. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.243-254
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• 2020

This study analyzed the characteristics of "free inquiry" products for scientifically-gifted elementary school students. To do this, 5~6 graders (n=99) at a gifted science education institutes in Seoul were selected. The products (n=82) of "free inquiry" submitted by the students in 2018 and 2019 were analyzed according to their contents and method types. The analysis of the results showed that the free inquiry outputs of scientifically-gifted students tended to not include the scientific knowledge of the upper grades than the corresponding students. In the outputs, the scientific knowledge in different grades were often not linked. There were relatively many cases of convergence of knowledge in various science and/or non-science subjects and knowledge of 'physics', whereas knowledge of 'earth science' were the least. The outputs were more often aimed at "finding scientific facts" than "development and invention" and tended to target non-living things rather than living things. The scientifically-gifted students tended to conduct free inquiry using 'experimental-centered inquiry' by themselves rather than by group. They were also most likely to conduct experiments only once, and did not clearly write down the period of their inquiry. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.