• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.1050-1062
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• 2012

Concepts of science have been developed by occupying 'ecological niche' within conceptual ecology. The ecological niche is determined from the mutual effect between intellectual environmental of the learner and new concept, which few studies have been conducted. This study examined how the ecological niche of the concept of photosynthesis in $7^{th}$ grade is changed by instruction. The ecological niche was analyzed using 2 methods: (1) the change in the diversity of concepts, and (2) the change in the proximity of concepts based on the frequency and the relativeness score of the concepts. The concept of photosynthesis was analyzed in the 4 domains in the place of photosynthesis, products of photosynthesis, reactants of photosynthesis, and environmental factors. The results of this study are as follows: (1) reduced diversity of concepts, (2) increased frequency and relativeness score of the scientific concepts, and (3) increased proximity of the scientific concepts by instruction. With these results, the mutual effects of the concepts within the conceptual ecology have become active by class to differentiate the relationships between the concepts, which accordingly displayed their changes in status.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1524-1536
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• 2012

Science attitudes affect the quality of learning, and they are considered as one of the major concerns in science education. It is necessary to analyze the proximity between concepts with science attitudes. Accordingly, this study was designed to analyze the proximity of the concept related to photosynthesis as it changed after class according to the levels of science attitudes. A survey on the concept of photosynthesis and science attitudes before and after class was conducted on 270 7th-grade students. The concept of photosynthesis was composed of 'the place of photosynthesis,' 'products of photosynthesis,' 'reactants of photosynthesis,' and 'environmental factors.' The proximity of the concept of photosynthesis was analyzed through the utilization of multidimensional scaling (MDS). The research results were as follows: (1) Students changed the proximity between concepts by acquiring concrete concepts through class. (2) The upper group in science attitudes tends to be closer to the proximity between scientific concepts through class, compared to the intermediate and lower groups. (3) In all students with entire levels of science attitudes, non-scientific concepts continued to exist even after class, and the non-scientific concepts were deemed to interfere with the proximity between scientific concepts related to photosynthesis. (4) Students turned out to be aware of the concepts related to each other in four areas associated with photosynthesis. That is, it can be said that students are closely aware of the place where photosynthesis can occur and the materials needed as well as materials generated as a result of photosynthesis and the materials needed in terms of concepts related to photosynthesis.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.650-663
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• 2013

Multidimensional scaling can be used to identify relationships among concepts, revealing the structure of the cognitive framework by measuring distances within perceptual maps. The current study sought to examine the relationships among concepts related to photosynthesis in 2,844 $3^{rd}-11^{th}$ grade science students. The questionnaire included items on 'location,' 'products,' 'reactants,' and 'environmental factors', presenting images related to each theme. Students provided responses corresponding to particular topics, and reported the extent to which the concept was related to the topic on a scale from 1 to 30. The survey results were as follows: first, students were not able to clearly distinguish between or understand the four main topics. Second, students organized their cognitive structures by closely associating related concepts after learning. Third, the presented concepts revealed a mixture of scientific and non-scientific concepts, suggesting that students needed to clearly distinguish the preconceptions through which they organized concepts, so that they are suitable for cognitive structures based on learning. Furthermore, non-scientific concepts within perceptions were consistently maintained throughout learning, affecting the proximity of scientific concepts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.72-85
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• 2015

Conception in learner's cognitive structure has a niche as species in ecosystems. The purpose of this study is to analyze the change of niche overlap of photosynthesis concept through instruction. The photosynthesis concepts were selected from literature review. Selected concepts were in 4 areas: Location of photosynthesis, reactants, products, and environmental factors. The subjects consisted 304 elementary students. The respondent marked the relevance between the presented concepts and each area on a scale of 1~30 points. The analysis of niche overlap in concepts was performed by changing in niche overlap graph, niche space size, and overlap index before and after instruction. The results are as follows. First, on the whole understanding level and relevance of the scientific concepts was increased through instruction as a result of learning. Second, elementary school students cognitive concepts in the form of chunking concepts through classification process. Based on the results, this study has the following suggestion. Students' conceptual ecologies and niche analyzed by this study will be used as material for development of instruction strategy.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.195-212
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• 2017

Small group learning is an educational approach to allow students to solve the problems and to achieve a common goal. Especially, small group learning in science education is one of the most important educational approaches and effective to ensure understanding of a topic. Small group learning consisting of three students in science education maximize student understanding and learning efficiency. However, It is reported that the effects of small group learning on achievement show different results, corresponding to different grouping methods(homogeneous/heterogeneous). This study investigated the effects of grouping method on difference of ecological niche of photosynthesis concepts. To achieve this, 1107 7th students were composed of homogeneous and heterogeneous groups classified into top, middle, and bottom levels. The photosynthesis units were divided into four categories: the photosynthesizing place, the substances of photosynthesis, required materials for the photosynthesizing, and environmental factors affecting photosynthesis. A questionnaire was composed by selecting concepts having a frequency of 4% or more based on prior studies on the change of the ecological status of photosynthesis. The questionnaire was scored in terms of relativity and understanding on each of the proposed concepts in the four categories. The result of this study is as set forth below. 1) There was an enhancement of learning the concept of science in small group classes consisting of 3 students. 2) To enhance the average upon composing of a group, it is proposed that the group should be formed homogeneously, and to reduce the deviation between the members, it is proposed that the group should be formed heterogeneously. Through this study, it is expected that specific studies verifying the difference or effect on the duplicity of results are conducted based on the composition of groups.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.513-527
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• 2011

There have been studies about conceptual ecology making a profound study of conceptual changes in learners' cognitive structure. Because learners' cognitive structure have been compared to ecology, it is natural to think that conception in learner's cognitive structure have a niche as species in ecology have niches. Therefore, it is necessary to study niche approach about conception that learners recognize in their cognitive structure. The purposes of this study were to identify relationships among conceptions that 5th grade elementary school students recognize about photosynthesis and to identify how these relationships among conceptions about photosynthesis change before and after a class of photosynthesis in curriculum in terms of an approach of ecological niche which are composed of 3 domains - diversity of conceptions, relevance and frequency rate of conceptions, and competition among conceptions. Open ended questionnaire was developed by 4 fields: photosynthetic place, photosynthetic products, photosynthetic materials needed and environment factors of photosynthesis. The subjects sampled in this study were 310 5th grade elementary students in 5 cites. Before and after classes in photosynthesis in science curriculum, students were asked to write down conceptions that they knew about the 4 fields of photosynthesis of questionnaire and to write down scales of relevance from 1 to 30 about how they think the conceptions are related to the field of photosynthesis. The results of this study showed the following: First, most students have had a variety of conceptions and commonly recognized 'light' and 'water' as concepts in photosynthesis. Second, students still recognized their preconceptions like 'soil' and 'root,' etc. that were far from scientific conceptions of photosynthesis although they took classes in photosynthesis. Third, students needed to take the various strategies of teachers because they did not recognized scientific conceptions appropriately about photosynthetic fields. Fourth, it appeared that photosynthetic conceptions recognized by students had status in terms of relevance and frequency rate of conceptions, and competition among conceptions, and that they looked like the niche of conceptions in their conceptual ecologies.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.204-220
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• 2011

This study was intended to develop an experimental module based on inquiry processes conducted by photosynthesis scientists. It was aimed to enhance scientific inquiry ability of the middle school students by applying the developed module. Developed module included some experiments conducted by earlier photosynthesis scientists such as Helmont, Woodward, Priestly, Hales and Ingen-Hausz. Inquiry process was involved in the developed module for instructing the inquiry methods. Rapid-cycling Brassica rapa known as a Fast Plant was used for the experimental material. Developed module was applied to the experimental group consisting 27 eighth grader, while experiments suggested in the science textbook was applied to the control group consisting 30 eighth grader. Developed module was more effective in improving students' scientific inquiry ability, especially measuring, forecasting and hypothesizing ability as its subordinate elements. When the result of post-test was compared to one of pre-test in the experimental group, their observing, forecasting, and generalization ability were improved. Experimental group showed that students' conception in photosynthesis and conceptual development related with the role of plants in the ecosystem and plant's food and movement of the water and nutrients were also improved. Before application, students in the experimental group did not have enough understanding of the abstract concept such as the existence or the role of the materials like $CO_2$ or $O_2$ or the energy accumulation. Developed module could help students to achieve the comprehensive concept regarding the role of plants as producers of organic matter and oxygen and to enhance their scientific inquiry ability and concepts regarding photosynthesis.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.304-322
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of student-centered instruction using analogies for middle school students' learning of the photosynthesis concept. Participants in this study were 8th grade students at a middle school in Seoul (N=132). The students were divided into two groups for implementation. In the experimental group the teaching materials containing analogies were used while the contents of a science textbook were taught in the control group. The results of this study indicated that student-centered instruction using analogies was more effective than traditional methods of instruction for understanding photosynthesis concepts and the students' attitude toward the science class. Analogies were also found to contribute to developing an understanding of the photosynthesis concept through activating students' prior knowledge, focusing on structural features of the target concept and elaborating knowledge. In addition, analogies play an important role in activating small group discussions, improving students' meta-cognitive skills, and revealing and revising of misconceptions about photosynthesis. Moreover, analogies can help improve students' interests and self-efficiency in science classes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.502-518
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• 2015

In order to find out Elementary pre-service teachers' reflective thinking and experiment performance ability related with Photosynthesis Experiment in the Korea Elementary School Science Textbook, the research is conducted targeting Elementary pre-service teachers. They are asked to carry out the experiment and write their own report about the difficulties and solutions of exploration process. This study aims to analyze Elementary pre-service teachers' reflection and experiment performance ability on Photosynthesis experiment based on 10 groups' reports and presentation materials. Reflective thinking extracts 108 statements which is associated with the four types of the sentence 'Knowledge, Procedure, Orientation, Attitude' in 10 reports. There are many sentences about reflective thinking acquired through analysis of the photosynthesis experiment. reflective thinking about the newly discovered type or changed concepts through experimentation in Knowledge is at the highest frequency. 56 sentences in relation to the ability to perform experiments are extracted by adding 4 different types of reflective thinking in 10 groups shown the highest frequency group and the lowest frequency group's report through analyzing 4 steps 'Experimental preparation and safety accident prevention', 'Experiments performance', 'Experimental results and generalization', and 'Experimental results and feedback.' Results of the analysis showed that there are the biggest difference between the two groups in 'experiment results supplement and feedback step.' In the lowest group's report, there's no contents related with 'Computer-assisted information processing' in the 'Experimental results summary and generalization stage', 'Alternative reagents and materials research', and 'Devising alternative experiment methods'.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.101-111
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• 1989

본 연구의 목적은 광합성과 관련하여 한국 국민학교 5학년과 중학교 2학년 학생들이 갖고 있는 오개념을 조사하고, 학생들의 개념이해 정도, 논리적 사고능력, 그리고 학생배경변수들 사이의 상호관계를 조사하는 것이다. 세가지의 도구들이 이 연구를 위해 개발되었다. 광합성 개념검사 (Photosynthesis Concepts Test)는 광합성과 관련된 개념들의 이해를 평가하기 위해, 삐아제의 논리적 사고력 검사(Piagetian Cogical Reasoning Test)는 PCT에 포함된 3종류의 논리적 사고들, 변인 통제, 조합적 사고력, 상관관계 사고능력을 평가하기 위해, 그리고 실문서는 학생들의 배경변수들에 대한 정보를 얻기 위해 개발되었다. 이 도구들은 20명 의 국민학교 5학년, 239명의 중학교 2학년 학생들에게 시행되었다. 이 연구의 결과는 두집단의 학생들이 "먹이를 만든다"는 의미, 먹이의 정의, 식물에 의한 빛의 사용, 식물 뿌리와 잎의 기능들, 광합성 산물, 그리고 광합성을 위한 조건들과 관련하여 오개념을 갖고 있음을 보여 주었다. 국민학교 5학년과 중학교 2학년 사이의 개념 이해의 향상은 식물에 의한 빛 이용의 본질, 한 체계내에서 생물들간의 물질 교환, 포도당, 지방, 단백질 등에 대한 지식에서 보여졌고, 그래프를 해석하는 능력에서 또한 중학교 2학년 학생들이 앞섰다. 향상을 보인 항목들은 교과서에서 보다 많은 강조점을 두거나 상위의 논리적 사고능력을 요구하는 것들이었다. 희귀분석 결과, 전년도 과학성적과 논리적 사고력이 PCT 성취도에 가장 예견력이 높은 두 변수이며 5학년의 경우 성취도의 약 22%의 변량을, 중2의 경우 성취도의 약 40%의 변량을 설명하였다. 후속연구로서 내용의 추상성, 적절성, 그리고 요구되는 논리적 능력면에서 교수조건의 변형을 통한 오개념의 변화와 감소에 대한 실험적 연구가 제시되었다.