• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.12-24
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• 2015

This study aimed to investigate how middle school teachers perceived major features of the 'Free Learning Semester'. In 2013, the Free Learning Semester has been proposed by Korean government to provide students with the educational programs which deals with various activities in classroom in order to increase student's learning ability. The Free Learning Semester helps students to figure out their dreams and develops their talents. The government plans to expand the Free Learning Semester to all middle schools by 2016. Since teacher's perception is an important matter in the application of the Free Learning Semester, this study seeks to document the changes in curriculum by observing the perception of teachers in the school that implemented the Free Learning Semesters and those that did not implemented the Free Learning Semesters. 172 teachers from nine middle schools in Busan that their school schedules allowed were surveyed. Two school which operated the Free Learning Semester were compared to seven schools which did not operate the Free Learning Semester. The results are summarized as follows: First, almost all (97.7%) teachers in the Free Learning Semester schools have completed a training whereas 74.6% of the teachers in the non-Free Learning Semester schools have not. The usefulness of the training was satisfactory, but the teachers in the Free Learning Semester Schools wanted more practical help with the curriculum. Second, the result, which was statistically significant(p<.05), revealed that the first grade second semester of middle school was the best time to implement the Free Learning Semester. In order for its successful establishment in schools, there needs to be a reliable and effective evaluation system. However, the results regarding the introduction and management of the new system were not statistically significant. Lastly, in the Free Learning Semester Schools, the changes in teachers' perception were statistically significant (p<.05). The results show that the teachers need the training and the teacher's community to implement the curriculum and set a basis for valuation.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to provide the basic data for development of consulting model in elementary science class. For this, some questions on the teachers' perception for science instruction were surveyed to teachers : 13-item-questionnaires were given to 233 teachers in elementary school. The results of this study were as follows: Most of teachers were little understanding and experience of the science instruction consulting. They sensed that their science instruction were difficult, especially experimental activity in science class. They desired consulting mightly in their teaching methods for experimental activity. And it was found that most of them had a mind of consulting participation. Thus it is necessary to inform them the need of the instructional consulting. And in case of the development for the consulting manual, it should be consider the above results.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1599-1612
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the management status of science in senior high schools based on the 2009 Curriculum Revision and the science teachers' perception of the content and a class of science. The way of managing a class was surveyed and discovered that the percentage of more than two teachers giving lessons depending on their major was higher than that of a teacher giving all the lessons. Analysis of teachers' perceptions of the content of science showed that science textbooks reflected the revised science curriculum well. However, teachers thought that the terms and concepts introduced to describe the knowledge of frontier science were so difficult that they feel it's very hard teaching them to the students. Even though science teachers thought that science was mainly focused on cultivating scientific literacy of the students, they assess mostly understanding of science concepts on the students. It means that science teachers stay in line with old position in assessment.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.407-419
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• 2021

This study investigated the perception of science philosophy education targeting 150 elementary school teachers in metropolitan cities and provinces. The questionnaire survey on the perception of the philosophy of science education was composed of a 5-point Likert scale based on the interest and experience of the philosophy of science, the reason for difficulty in using it, and the introduction method, the expected effect. As a result of the survey, elementary school teachers' awareness of the interest and necessity of the philosophy of science was generally high, while the experience of learning and teaching the philosophy of science was low. In addition, to the reason why it was difficult to utilize the philosophy of science, teachers answered that there was insufficient teacher training and development of teaching and learning methods. As a way to introduce the philosophy of science in science education, it was thought that it was necessary to combine the concept learning and inquiry method, and elementary school teachers' perception of the expected effect of using the philosophy of science was generally high. The results of this study are meaningful in that they provide basic data on the direction of the introduction of the philosophy of science in elementary science education.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.23-39
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• 2013

Science teachers' perception on their preparation program can help in conceptualizing how science teachers could be prepared. Based on this premise, this study aims to investigate preservice and inservice science teachers' perception on their teacher preparation programs with a focus on the coherence and balance of program. For this purpose, 20 preservice and 39 inservice science teachers were participated. Selection form and open-ended form questionnaires were developed to survey science teachers' perception on their program. The results of study are as follows: Firstly, participating preservice and inservice science teachers perceived the coherence of their program as moderate. The most and least coherent category of program was 'planning & preparation' and 'professional responsibilities' respectively. Inservice teachers perceived the program less coherent than preservice teachers in all four categories. Secondly, participating preservice and inservice science teachers perceived that practical elements were deficient compare to theoretical elements in light of balance of the program. Lastly, participating preservice and inservice science teachers perceived that current science teacher preparation program was biased to test-driven curriculum, and four domains of the program (subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, and teaching practicum) need to be more strongly connected to secondary school context. Alternative ways to be more coherent and balanced science teacher preparation program were also discussed based on the research.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.383-395
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to analyse the teachers' perception about the applying the history of Korean science in elementary science class. To research the educational value and application of the history of Korean Science in Elementary science class, 202 teachers of elementary school were asked to reply the questionnaire of 5-point Likert scale and Elementary science textbooks were analysed. The results of this study indicated that 4th grade science textbooks does not include the history of Korean Science, and a majority of teachers perceived positively about its educational value. 4th grade teachers showed relatively negative perception on the educational value of the history of Korean Science and Elementary school teachers were very positive about including it as the main classes of the curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.559-567
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• 2006

The purposes of this study were to investigate and compare the perception of students, their parents, and their teachers about students' scientific talent and interest, and to analyze if there is a difference among the perceptions of the three groups by students' gender. For the research, 592 Korean elementary and middle school students, their parents (N=592), and their teachers were sampled and investigated their perceptions, with the questionnaire for students, parents, and teachers developed by the authors and validated by science education experts group. The research results are; (1) in total, the perception scores of parents and teachers are higher than that of students' perception, and the average score of each group decreases by grade in every group; (2) among the students and parents groups, average perception score of male students' talents and interest was higher than that of female students, while teachers perceive averagely that there is no difference in students talents and interest by gender.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2006

This study examined how pre-service elementary teachers' perceptions regarding the learning environment (learning focus/ability-meritocracy/cooperative climate) and achievement goals (mastery/performance-approach/performance-avoidance) in science education courses jointly contributed to their science teaching efficacy beliefs (personal science teaching efficacy belief/science teaching outcome expectancy). A path analysis supported a causal model in which the perception of the learning focus influenced the mastery goal, which in turn influenced the personal science teaching efficacy belief and science teaching outcome expectancy. The perception of learning focus also had a direct effect on science teaching outcome expectancy. The perception of ability-meritocracy influenced personal science teaching efficacy belief via the performance-approach (positively) or, conversely, the performance-avoidance goal (negatively). No link .was deduced from the perception of cooperative climate. The educational implications of these findings were also discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.794-800
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the state of management and science teachers perception of science classes and clubs in secondary schools. There ware 125 participants (75 middle school teachers and 50 high school teachers) from eight metropolitan cities and local areas, and more than 80% of the participants had managed science classes or clubs. Results found that a significant number of science teachers felt it necessary to manage science classes and/or clubs in secondary schools. They believed the classes and/or clubs to be beneficial in the activation of students' interest in science, even though they might not be effective ways of improving scientific achievement. In addition, it was found that secondary science teachers desire financial support, in-service programs, and efficacious programs supporting science class and club management.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.390-403
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• 2009

We have examined the perception of teachers and students in elementary schools toward the frontier science and analyzed corresponding contents in science textbooks in Korea and the U. S. in order to promote a good guidance for the frontier science education. We prepared separate questionnaires for teachers and children, respectively, and analyzed the responses obtained from 244 teachers and 1,000 students in five elementary schools. For the analysis of how to introduce the frontier science, we investigated textbooks such as Science, Society and Practical Arts of Korean elementary school, and an American science textbook published by Scott Foresman. This study revealed that teachers are well aware of the importance of the frontier science, however, they are inactive in conducting the subject in class rooms because of their insufficient scientific knowledge and poor environment for teaching. It has been found that children had strong interest in the frontier science, however, opportunities to learn the topic are not properly provided. The frontier science m the American science textbook turned out to be more systematically introduced than that in Korean ones.