• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.214-225
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• 2014

This study aimed to investigate the high school students' conceptions about the plate tectonics through visual representation. For this purpose, the subjects were 67 students in 11th-grade high schools in Chungbuk. In order to in-depth understand the students' conceptions about plate tectonics, so the investigator conducted a semi-structured interview. The conclusions were as in the following. After learning the plate tectonics, the students had the alternative conceptions associated with terminology, colors' meanings, plate-related melting, plate's movement, plates' boundaries, mantle's physical conditions, driving forces for plate movement, and they had the organic relations about colors' meanings, mantle's physical conditions, and driving forces of plate movement. Also, the visual representation used to teach plate tectonics influenced on the students' responses about terminology, plates' boundaries, plate-related melting and the mantle's physical features, also this study found the factors of visual representation causing the learners to create alternative conceptions. These results implicated the importance of teacher's role in identifying the students' interpretation process on visual representation, and it needed to improve the factors creating students' alternative conceptions about visual representation and to study the factors further.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.484-497
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• 2014

This study aimed to investigate high school students' conceptions of plate tectonics. Seventy students (N=70) in their 2 year of high schools in the province of Chungcheong-do participated in this study, and they took a conception test of visual representation. We conducted a semi-structured interview with 10 volunteering participants out of seventy. After learning about the concept of plate tectonics, this study found that participants ended up having alternative conceptions relating to terminology, meaning of colors, plates' movement, plates' boundaries, position and cause of melting, mantle's physical conditions, and driving forces of plate motion. The conceptions that the participants held after class were organically related, which included the meaning of colors, mantle's physical characteristic, and driving forces of plate movement. In addition, the visual representation used for teaching plate tectonics influenced the students' understanding about terminologies, plates' boundaries, position of melting, and the physical characteristic of mantle. The study found that there were the factors of visual representation that caused the learners to create alternative conceptions in learning about plate tectonics.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.62-77
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• 2016

In the early model of plate tectonics, the plate was depicted as a passive raft floating on the convecting mantle and carried away by the mantle flow. At the same time, ridge push at spreading boundaries and drag force exerted by the mantle on the base of lithosphere were described as the dominant driving forces of plate movements. However, in recent studies of plate tectonics, it is generally accepted that the primary force driving plate motion is slab pull beneath subduction zones rather than other forces driven by mantle convection. The current view asserts that the density contrast between dense oceanic lithosphere and underlying asthenosphere is the substance of slab pull. The greater density of oceanic slab allows it to sink deeper into mantle at trenches by gravitational pull, which provides a dominant driving force for plate motion. Based on this plate tectonics development, this study investigated the contents of plate tectonics in high school Earth Science textbooks and how they have been depicted for the last few decades. Results showed that the early explanation of plate movement driven by mantle convection has been consistently highlighted in almost all high school textbooks since the 5th curriculum, whereas most introductory college textbooks rectified the early theory of plate movement and introduced a newly accepted theory in revised edition. Therefore, we suggest that the latest theory of plate tectonics be included in high school textbooks so that students get updated with recent understanding of it in a timely manner.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.37-52
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• 2015

In this study, assessment items to examine geocognition on plate tectonics were developed and applied to middle and high school students and college students. Conceptual constructs on plate tectonics are Earth interior structure, specific geomorphology, and geologic phenomena at each plate boundary. Construct for geocognition included temporal reasoning, spatial reasoning, retrospective reasoning, and system thinking. Pictorial data in each item were all obtained from GeoMapApp. Students' responses to the items were analyzed and measured cross-sectionally by Rasch model, which distinguishes persons' ability levels based on their scores for all items and compared them with item difficulty. By Rasch model analysis, Wright maps for middle and high school students and college students were obtained and compared with each other. Differential Item Functioning analysis was also implemented to compare students' item responses across school grades. The results showed: 1) Geocognition on plate tectonics was an assessable construct for middle and high school students in current science curriculum, 2) The most distinguished geocognition factor was spatial reasoning based on cross sectional analysis across school grades, 3) Geocognition on plate tectonics could be developed towards more sophisticated level through scaffolding of relevant instruction and earth science content knowledge, and 4) Geocognition was not a general reasoning separated from a task content but a content-specific reasoning related to the content of an assessment item. We proposed several suggestions for learning progressions for plate tectonics and national curriculum development based on the results of the study.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.762-774
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate misconceptions about plate tectonics which spread widely among freshmen at high school with drawing. For this, we chose 6 conceptions about plate tectonics by analysis of 7th curriculum and of 11 kinds of science textbooks. Questionnaire of drawing about plate tectonics were developed depending on them. Data was collected from 134 students who was freshmen at high school in Daegu. The result of this study was as follows. First, In structure of plate, 'upper mantle type' and 'crust type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Second, In distribution of plate, 'cracked earthquake zone type' and 'earthquake frequency type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Third, In formation of ocean ridge at oceanic crust- oceanic crust divergent plate boundary, 'divergence type' and 'collision type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Fourth, In formation of mountain ridge at continental crust- continental crust convergent plate boundary, 'collision type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Fifih, In formation of mountain ridge at oceanic crust- continental crust convergent plate boundary, 'subduction type' and 'fault type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Sixth, In transform-fault at oceanic crust- oceanic crust transform-fault boundary, 'direction type' and 'section type' misconceptions were almost half of the respondents. In this study, students' drawings about plate tectonics showed similar misconceptions. This imply that drawing conceptions can be used by the strong evidence of misconceptions which spread widely among students. Furthermore, this study has a significance that this conclusion is useful to teachers as basic teaching-teaming materials of plate tectonics.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.267-276
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of problem-solving inquiry teaching using concept sketches on conceptual changes about plate tectonics and science-related attitudes. The subjects of this study were two classes of second-year students of K high school located at Anseong in Gyeonggi Province. Before instruction, a conceptual test was conducted to survey student's preconceptions about plate tectonics. The control group took a traditional lesson, while the experimental group was applied to problem-solving inquiry teaching using concept sketches. After the inquiry instruction, TOSRA (Test of Science-Related Attitudes) was administered to find out changes in science-related attitudes of the two groups. The results of this study are as follows. The experimental group understood concepts of plate tectonics better than the control group, which means that problem-solving inquiry teaching using concept sketches was more effective in students' conceptual understanding. Science-related attitudes of the experimental group showed a significant change in the categories of 'normality of scientists', 'pleasure of science lessons', and 'interests on science as a hobby'. In conclusion, the instruction of problem-solving inquiry using concept sketches produced students' positive changes in conceptual understanding about plate tectonics and science-related attitudes.

• 한국해양학회지
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.94-102
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• 1984

The origin of the East sea is discussed in the light of modern geophysical theories such as plate tectonics and sea-floor spreading. The origin of the East Sea was due to the tensional force of the back-arc spreading which was initiated as early as late Cretaceous time of Paleocene. The spreading was asymmetric with a fast movement of eastward or southeastward and a slow westward motions. The spreading, however, was confined to the East Sea due to the change of the Pacific Plate north-northwest to west-northwest during Eocene time. Further intensifying research based on more accurate seismic data as well as on geophysical and geological informations should be carried out continuously to understand if the spreading of the Japan Sea died out due to triple junction formed by mention of the Pacific, the Eurasian, and the Philippine plates since the Quaternary.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.734-744
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify middle school students' mental models on plate tectonics and to compare the mental models of verbal-learning-style students with those of visual-learning-style students. 94 student participants in 9th grade were requested to draw and explain three topics; generation of magma, the formation of the mountain range and the interior of the Earth. The criterions for analyzing the mental models are derived from the data of the drawing task. The research results were as follows: The mental models on the generation of magma were classified as 'unstable model,' 'partial casual model,' 'causal model,' and 'conceptual model.' On the other hand, the mental models on the interior of the Earth were classified as 'static unstable model,' 'dynamic unstable model,' and 'conceptual model.' Students holding 'unstable model' were unable to relate the plate collision and the magma generation. They showed a variety of alternative conceptions of study areas, such as 'magma is generated from the core' and 'the mountain is formed by rising of the plates themselves.' Also, visual-learning-style students showed higher proportion of conceptual models and lower proportion of unstable mental models than verbal-learning-style students on three topics. The findings revealed that the students tend to have different concepts on the plate tectonics depending on their learning style.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.121-145
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• 2008

The purposes of this study were to identify the misconceptions that students have on the magma and plate tectonics and to present the implications in developing textbooks as well as related curriculum of high school textbooks. Data were collected through questionnaire, consisting of some questions, short essays, and descriptive drawings, developed by the research team. A total of 140 high school students(9th graders) responded to those questionnaires and were interviewed for further information. It was reported that participants displayed various misconceptions related to magma and plate tectonics. The identified misconceptions are as follows: For the definition of magma, the 31% of participants misunderstood magma as lava. In respect to the generative mechanism of magma at subduction zone, over 90% of students responded that it is generated by frictional heat. The source of misconceptions were identified as a result from textbooks and related reference-books. For the concept of plates, 87% of students conceived 'crust or a lower part of the plates' as 'plates'. Most participants hold the right concept of oceanic ridge, whereas, 66% of them considered 'rift valley' as either 'divergence of continental plates' or 'converging boundary'. 63% of them defined 'collision boundary of continental plate' as either 'subduction zone' or 'diverging boundary'. For the definitions of the trench and Benioff zone, 86% of students responded them as the place of subduction or differing density between two converging plates. The students' misconceptions were resulted from the errors and insufficient explanation, inappropriate figures, and data presented in textbooks, reference-books, lecture, and web sites. The results of this study are implied to contribute the improvement of students' misconceptions.

• 한국지구과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.245-245
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• 2005