• Title/Summary/Keyword: qualitative methods

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A Systematic Review on the Effects of Virtual reality-based Telerehabilitation for Stroke Patients (뇌졸중 환자를 위한 가상현실 기반의 원격재활 효과에 관한 체계적 고찰)

  • Lim, Young-Myoung;Lee, ji-Yong;Jo, Seong-Jun;Ahn, Ye-Seul;Yoo, Doo-Han
    • The Journal of Korean society of community based occupational therapy
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.59-70
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    • 2017
  • Objective : The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of virtual reality-based remote rehabilitation on stroke patients systematically and to look for its effect and how to apply it domestically. Methods : In order to search data, EMBASE and CINAHL database were used. Relevant research used those terms of virtual reality, telerehabilitation, and stroke. A total of 10 studies satisfying the selection criteria was analyzed according to their qualitative level, general characteristics, and PICO method. Results : Based on the selected 10 studies, virtual reality-based telerehabilitation system was applied. Sensory and motor feedback was provided with inputting visual and auditory senses through a video in the home environment, and it stimulated changes in the client's nervous system. Tools to measure the results were upper extremity function, balance and gait, activities of daily living, etc. Those virtual reality-based telerehabilitation method had an effect on upper extremity function and ability of sense of balance in all studies, and on the activities of daily living partially. Telerehabilitation service to make up environmental specificity improved satisfaction of client. That meaned the effect of the intervention to maintain the function. Conclusion : The virtual reality-based telerehabilitation system was applied to upper extremity function, sense of balance, and activities of daily living largely, and it showed that it helped to improve functions through intervention, supervision, and training of therapist in the home environment as well. This study suggests the basis and possibility of clinical application on virtual-reality based telerehabilitation. Additional research is needed to diverse virtual reality intervention methods and the effect of telerehabilitation in the future.

A Study on a Korean-Translated Version of the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ) (Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire의 국내적용을 위한 번역연구)

  • Ra, Dae-Yeop;Chang, Ki-Yeon;Kong, Myung-Ja;Lee, Sun-Wook
    • The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.34-49
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    • 2018
  • Objective : This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of Korean version of Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ-K) using classical test theory. Methods : For the translation of Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ), as recommended in the literature, four-stage translation method was used. For the psychometric properties of Korean version of the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ-K), internal consistency reliability, content validity, and construct validity of the test using the known groups method and convergent and divergent methods were examined. For the recruitment of participants, a convenience sampling method is used. Participants of this study were 10 children with neuro-developmental disabilities hospitalized two different rehabilitations center and 10 children with typical development living in Daejeon, South Korea. All 20 participants were in aged from two to five years. Results : In terms of the content validity index, it was over 0.78, confirmed by nine experts of children development. PVQ-K successfully discriminated the scores of children with typical development from those with neurodevelopmental disabilities (p < .05). It is found that there is significant correlations between achievement stage of PVQ-K and the Korean Developmental Screening Test for Infants & Children (K-DTS)(.652 ~ .799 for subcategory, .706 for total scale). The internal consistency was .944 (Cronbach's ${\alpha}$). In qualitative content analysis, it was examined that how Korean children behave and respond in the environment, and how children's volition was strengthened or weakened by the environment. Conclusion : The results propose that PVQ-K can be a useful occupation-focused measure. This study recommend further study on PVQ-K with larger samples combined with the item-response theory approach.

Comparison of Microscopy and Pigment Analysis for Determination of Phytoplankton Community Composition: Application of CHEMTAX Program (식물플랑크톤 군집조성 파악을 위한 현미경관찰법과 지표색소분석법 비교 연구: CHEMTAX 프로그램 활용)

  • Kim, Dokyun;Choi, Jisoo;Oh, Hye-Ji;Chang, Kwang-Hyeon;Choi, Kwangsoon;Shin, Kyung-Hoon
    • Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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    • v.54 no.4
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    • pp.303-314
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    • 2021
  • To understand how to efficiently observe the biomass and community of phytoplankton, phytoplankton sampling was carried out from June to October 2019 at the Yeongju dam sediment control reservoir(YJ) and Bohyeonsan dam reservoir(BH1 and BH2). The results derived from microscopic observation, such as the conventional phytoplankton qualitative/quantitative analysis, and from the CHEMTAX method based on the pigments, were compared. The relative contribution of phytoplankton, calculated by the microscopy and CHEMTAX methods, showed a significant difference in all four classes: cryptophyta, chlorophyta, cyanobacteria, and diatoms. In addition, the correlation between the two observation methods was poor. This might be caused by methodological differences in microscopy that do not consider the varying cell sizes among phytoplankton species. In this study, by converting the cells into carbon, the slope between both carbon biomasses based on microscopy and CHEMTAX was improved close to the 1 : 1 line, and the y-intercept was closer to 0 for cryptophyta and diatoms. For cyanobacteria, the slope increased, the y-intercept decreased, and the plot approached 1 : 1 although the correlation coefficients were not improved in all classes. The present study suggests that application of CHEMTAX based on pigment analysis could be a possible approach to efficiently determine the relative carbon proportions of individual classes of phytoplankton community composition.

Analysis of Intervention in Activities of Daily Living for Stroke Patients in Korea: Focusing on Single-Subject Research Design (국내 뇌졸중 환자를 대상으로 한 일상생활활동 중재 연구 분석: 단일대상연구 설계를 중심으로)

  • Sung, Ji-Young;Choi, Yoo-Im
    • Therapeutic Science for Rehabilitation
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    • v.13 no.1
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    • pp.9-21
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    • 2024
  • Objective : The purpose of this study was to confirm the characteristics and quality of a single-subject research that conducted interventions to improve activities of daily living (ADL) in stroke patients. Methods : 'Stroke,' 'activities of daily living,' and 'single-subject studies' were searched as keywords among papers published in the last 15 years between 2009 and 2023 among Research Information Sharing Service, DBpia, and e-articles. A total of nine papers were examined for the characteristics and quality before analysis. Results : The independent variables applied to improve ADL included constraint-induced therapy, mental practice for performing functional activities, virtual reality-based task training, subjective postural vertical training without visual feedback, bilateral upper limb movement, core stability training program, traditional occupational therapy and neurocognitive rehabilitation, smooth pursuit eye movement, neck muscle vibration, and occupation-based community rehabilitation. Assessment of Motor and Process Skills was the most common evaluation tool for measuring dependent variables, with four articles, and Modified Barthel Index and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure were two articles each. As a result of confirming the qualitative level of the analyzed papers, out of a total of nine studies, seven studies were at a high level, two at a moderate level, and none were at a low level. Conclusion : Various types of rehabilitation treatments have been actively applied as intervention methods to improve the daily life activities of stroke patients; the quality level of single-subject studies applying ADL interventions was reliable.

The Impacts of Social Support and Psychological Factors on Guild Members' Flow and Loyalty in MMORPG (MMORPG에서 길드 구성원들의 사회적 지지와 심리적 요인들이 플로우 및 충성도에 미치는 영향)

  • Kang, Ju-Seon;Ko, Yoon-Jung;Ko, Il-Sang
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.69-98
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    • 2009
  • We investigated what factors motivate gamers to participate in a guild and why they continue to be engaged as members of the guild. We find that, based on the result of focus group interviews with MMORPG gamers, social support and self-esteem factors play important roles. Considering both prior research and the focus group interviews we have conducted, we define social support and character control as independent variables. Character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem are proposed as mediating variables while guild flow and game loyalty as dependent variables. Accordingly, we develop the research model and hypotheses, and verify them empirically. Based on our experiences of playing the WoW game, we proposed a research model and conducted focus-group interviews (FGIs). FGIs involve formulating a hypothesis and then collecting some relevant data. FGIs were conducted face-to-face with students of C University in Korea. We formulated structured interview schedules, and the questions were based on our research variables and personal experiences. The questions for the interviews encompassed the following areas: (a) the demographic characteristics of the focus group; (b) the number of years for which respondents had played online games; (c) the motive for starting a game; (d) the number of game-characters assumed by each gamer; (e) the type of game played; and (f) other issues such as the reasons for involvement in the play, the willingness to reuse the game in case new versions were released, etc. On average, it took two hours to interview each of three groups. A primary set of FGIs was conducted with three groups on the premise that there would be some differences caused by character race (Horde vs. Alliance) or by playable server (Normal vs. Combat). With respect to the manner of playing, we found that guild members shared information, felt a sense of belonging, and played computer games for quite a long time through the guild; however, they did not undergo these experiences when playing alone. Gamers who belonged to a specific guild helped other players without expecting compensation for that, freely shared information about the game, gave away items for free, and more generous with other members who made mistakes. The guild members were aware of the existence other members and experienced a sense of belonging through interactions with, and evaluations from, other players. It was clear that social support was shown within the guild and that it played an important role as a major research variable. Based on the results of the first FGIs, a second set of in-depth FGIs was carried out with a focus on the psychology of the individual within the guild and the social community of the guild. The second set of FGIs also focused on the guild's offline meetings. Gamers, over all, recognize the necessity of joining a community, not only off-line but also online world of the guild. They admit that the guild is important for them to easily and conveniently enjoy playing online computer games. The active behavior and positive attitudes of existing guild members can motivate new members of the guild to adapt themselves to the guild environment. They then adopt the same behaviors and attitudes of established guild members. In this manner, the new members of the guild strengthen the bonds with other gamers while feeling a sense of belonging, and developing social identity, thereby. It was discovered that the interaction among guild members and the social support encouraged new gamers to quickly develop a sense of social identity and increase their self-esteem. The guild seemed to play the role of socializing gamers. Sometimes, even in the real world, the guild members helped one another; therefore, the features of the guild also spilled over to the offline environment. We intend to use self-esteem, which was found through the second set of FGIs, as an important research variable. To collect data, an online survey was designed with a questionnaire to be completed by WoW gamers, who belong to a guild. The survey was registered on the best three domestic game-sites: 'WoW playforum,' 'WoW gamemeca,' and 'Wow invent.' The selected items to be measured in the questionnaire were decided based on prior research and data from FGIs. To verify the content of the questionnaire, we carried out a pilot test with the same participants to point out ambiguous questions as a way to ensure maximum accuracy of the survey result. A total of 244 responses were analyzed from the 250 completed questionnaires. The SEM analysis was used to test goodness-of-fit of the model. As a result, we found important results as follows: First, according to the statistics, social support had statistically significant impacts on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Second, character control had significant effects on character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity shows its clear impact on self-esteem and game loyalty. Fourth, guild identity affected self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Fifth, self-esteem had a positive influence on the guild flow. These days, the number of virtual community is rising along with its significance largely because of the nature of the online games. Accordingly, this study is designed to clarify the psychological relationship between gamers within the guild that has been generally established by gamers to play online games together. This study focuses on the relationships in which social support influences guild flow or game loyalty through character control, character identity, guild identity, and self-esteem, which are present within a guild in the MMORPG game environment. The study results are as follows. First, the effects of social support on character control, character identity, guild identity and self-esteem are proven to be statistically significant. It was found that character control improves character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Among the seven variables, social support, which is derived from FGIs, plays an important role in this study. With the active support of other guild members, gamers can improve their ability to develop good characters and to control them. Second, character identity has a positive effect on self-esteem and game loyalty, while guild identity has a significant effect on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Self-esteem affects guild flow. It was found that the higher the character and guild identities become, the greater the self-esteem is established. Contrary to the findings of prior research, our study results indicate that the relationship between character identity and guild flow is not significant. Rather, it was found that character identity directly affects game players' loyalty. Even though the character identity had no direct effect on increasing guild flow, it has indirectly affected guild flow through self-esteem. The significant relationship between self-esteem and guild flow indicates that gamers achieve flow, i.e., a feeling of pleasure and excitement through social support. Several important implications of this study should be noted. First, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to conduct this study. Through FGIs, it was observed that both social support and self-esteem are important variables. Second, because guilds had been rarely studied, this research is expected to play an important role in the online community. Third, according to the result, six hypotheses (H1, H5, H6, H7, H8, and H11) setup based on FGIs, were statistically significant; thus, we can suggest the corresponding relationships among the variables as a guideline for follow-up research. Our research is significant as it has following implications: first, the social support of the guild members is important when establishing character control, character identity, guildidentity and self-esteem. It is also a major variable that affects guild flow and game loyalty. Second, character control when improved by social support shows notable influence on the development of character identity, guild identity and self-esteem. Third, character identity and guild identity are major factors to help establish gamers' own self-esteem. Fourth, character identity affects guild flow through self-esteem and game loyalty. The gamers usually express themselves through characters; the higher character identity is, the more loyalty a gamer has. Fifth, guild identity, established within the guild, has clear effects on self-esteem, guild flow and game loyalty. Sixth, qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to conduct this study. Based on the results of focus group interviews and SEM analysis, we find that the social support by guild members and psychological factors are significant in strengthening the flow of guild and loyalty to the game. As such, game developers should provide some extra functions for guild community, through which gamers can play online games in collaboration with one another. Also, we suggest that positive self-esteem which is built up through social support can help gamers achieve higher level of flow and satisfaction, which will consequently contribute to minimizing the possibility for the players to develop negative attitude toward the guild they belong to.

Antioxidant activity of partially purified extracts isolated from Acanthopanax sessiliflorum Seeman (오가피 분획 추출물의 항산화효과)

  • Im, Kyung-Ran;Kim, Mi-Jin;Jung, Teak-Kyu;Yoon, Kyung-Sup
    • KSBB Journal
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    • v.23 no.4
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    • pp.329-334
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    • 2008
  • The antioxidant activity and the qualitative analysis of Acanthopanax sessiliflorum Seeman were studied by partially purified extract using various methods: extraction by using ethanol solutions and temperatures, and absorption to Diaion HP20 column chromatography using 10%, 20%, 40%, 60% ethanol solutions. Major constituents, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, eleutheroside E, was determinated by HPLC method in Acanthopanax sessiliflorum S. 10% and 20% ethanol solutions contain chlorogenic acid (3.020$\pm$0.080%, 20.500$\pm$1.150%, respectively). 40% ethanol solution contains caffeic acid and eleutheroside E (12.270$\pm$0.360%, 1.670$\pm$0.140%, respectively). Diaion HP20 fractions (10%, 20%, 40%, 60% ethanol solutions) showed the scavenging activity of radicals and reactive oxygen species with the $IC_{50}$ values of $81.534{\pm}0.992{\mu}g/ml$, $1.748{\pm}0.098{\mu}g/ml$, $11.487{\pm}1.768{\mu}g/ml$, $21.960{\pm}0.547{\mu}g/ml$ against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazly radical and $1713.548{\pm}34.565{\mu}g/ml$, $131.419{\pm}2.235{\mu}g/ml$, $200.681{\pm}2.444{\mu}g/ml$, $757.897{\pm}6.868{\mu}g/ml$ against superoxide radicals in the xanthine/xanthine oxidase system, respectively. Especially, 20% and 40% ethanol fractions showed more antioxidant activity than dl-$\alpha$-tocopherol. These results suggest that Acanthopanax sessiliflorum S. extract and Diaion HP20 fractions may be useful as a potential source of nutraceutical and cosmetic products.

The Evaluation of Clinical Usefulness on Application of Myocardial Extract in Quantitative Perfusion SPECT (QPS 프로그램에서 Myocardial extract 적용에 따른 임상적 유용성 평가)

  • Yun, Jong-Jun;Lim, Yeong-Hyeon;Lee, Mu-Seok;Song, Hyeon-Seok;Jeong, Ji-Uk;Park, Se-Yun;Kim, Jae-Hwan;Kim, Jeong-Uk
    • The Korean Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
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    • v.15 no.2
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    • pp.88-93
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    • 2011
  • Purpose: As to analytical method of data, the AutoQUANT software in which it is used quantitative rating of the myocardial perfusion SPECT are reported that there is a difference. Therefore the measured value error of the mutual program is expected to be generated even if the quantitative analysis is made data of the same patient. The purpose of this study is to offer the comparative analysis of myocardial extract method in Quantitative Perfusion SPECT. Materials and methods: We analyzed the 51 patients who were examined by Tc-99m MIBI gated myocardial SPECT in nuclear medicine department of Pusan National University Hospital from June to December 2010(34 men, 17 women, mean age $66.5{\pm}9.9$). We acquired the extracted image in myocardial extract protocol. QPS program that uses the AutoQUANT software measured TID(Transient Ischemic Dilation), ESD(Extent of Stress Defect), SSS(Summed Stress Score). Then analyzed the results. Results: The correlation of appyling myocardial extract is TID(r=0.98), ESD(r=0.99), SSS(r=0.99). In the 95% confidence limit, there was no satistically significant difference(TID p=0.78, ESD p=0.31, SSS p=0.19). After blinding test with a physician for making a qualitative analysis, there was no difference. Conclusion: Quantitative indices in QPS program showed good correlation and the results showed no statistically signigicant difference. The variance between method was small. therefore, the functional parameters by each method can be used interchangeably. Also, we expect patient's satisfaction.

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Comparisons of Popularity- and Expert-Based News Recommendations: Similarities and Importance (인기도 기반의 온라인 추천 뉴스 기사와 전문 편집인 기반의 지면 뉴스 기사의 유사성과 중요도 비교)

  • Suh, Kil-Soo;Lee, Seongwon;Suh, Eung-Kyo;Kang, Hyebin;Lee, Seungwon;Lee, Un-Kon
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.191-210
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    • 2014
  • As mobile devices that can be connected to the Internet have spread and networking has become possible whenever/wherever, the Internet has become central in the dissemination and consumption of news. Accordingly, the ways news is gathered, disseminated, and consumed have changed greatly. In the traditional news media such as magazines and newspapers, expert editors determined what events were worthy of deploying their staffs or freelancers to cover and what stories from newswires or other sources would be printed. Furthermore, they determined how these stories would be displayed in their publications in terms of page placement, space allocation, type sizes, photographs, and other graphic elements. In turn, readers-news consumers-judged the importance of news not only by its subject and content, but also through subsidiary information such as its location and how it was displayed. Their judgments reflected their acceptance of an assumption that these expert editors had the knowledge and ability not only to serve as gatekeepers in determining what news was valuable and important but also how to rank its value and importance. As such, news assembled, dispensed, and consumed in this manner can be said to be expert-based recommended news. However, in the era of Internet news, the role of expert editors as gatekeepers has been greatly diminished. Many Internet news sites offer a huge volume of news on diverse topics from many media companies, thereby eliminating in many cases the gatekeeper role of expert editors. One result has been to turn news users from passive receptacles into activists who search for news that reflects their interests or tastes. To solve the problem of an overload of information and enhance the efficiency of news users' searches, Internet news sites have introduced numerous recommendation techniques. Recommendations based on popularity constitute one of the most frequently used of these techniques. This popularity-based approach shows a list of those news items that have been read and shared by many people, based on users' behavior such as clicks, evaluations, and sharing. "most-viewed list," "most-replied list," and "real-time issue" found on news sites belong to this system. Given that collective intelligence serves as the premise of these popularity-based recommendations, popularity-based news recommendations would be considered highly important because stories that have been read and shared by many people are presumably more likely to be better than those preferred by only a few people. However, these recommendations may reflect a popularity bias because stories judged likely to be more popular have been placed where they will be most noticeable. As a result, such stories are more likely to be continuously exposed and included in popularity-based recommended news lists. Popular news stories cannot be said to be necessarily those that are most important to readers. Given that many people use popularity-based recommended news and that the popularity-based recommendation approach greatly affects patterns of news use, a review of whether popularity-based news recommendations actually reflect important news can be said to be an indispensable procedure. Therefore, in this study, popularity-based news recommendations of an Internet news portal was compared with top placements of news in printed newspapers, and news users' judgments of which stories were personally and socially important were analyzed. The study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, content analyses were used to compare the content of the popularity-based news recommendations of an Internet news site with those of the expert-based news recommendations of printed newspapers. Five days of news stories were collected. "most-viewed list" of the Naver portal site were used as the popularity-based recommendations; the expert-based recommendations were represented by the top pieces of news from five major daily newspapers-the Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo, the Dong-A Daily News, the Hankyoreh Shinmun, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun. In the second stage, along with the news stories collected in the first stage, some Internet news stories and some news stories from printed newspapers that the Internet and the newspapers did not have in common were randomly extracted and used in online questionnaire surveys that asked the importance of these selected news stories. According to our analysis, only 10.81% of the popularity-based news recommendations were similar in content with the expert-based news judgments. Therefore, the content of popularity-based news recommendations appears to be quite different from the content of expert-based recommendations. The differences in importance between these two groups of news stories were analyzed, and the results indicated that whereas the two groups did not differ significantly in their recommendations of stories of personal importance, the expert-based recommendations ranked higher in social importance. This study has importance for theory in its examination of popularity-based news recommendations from the two theoretical viewpoints of collective intelligence and popularity bias and by its use of both qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative methods (questionnaires). It also sheds light on the differences in the role of media channels that fulfill an agenda-setting function and Internet news sites that treat news from the viewpoint of markets.

Perceptions of school meal services of middle school students and dieticians/dietetic teachers in Gwangju area according to the conversion of free meal services (무상급식 전환에 따른 광주지역 중학생과 영양(교)사의 학교급식에 대한 인식)

  • Kim, Sook-Wha;Heo, Young-Ran;Ro, Hee-Kyong
    • Journal of Nutrition and Health
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    • v.48 no.1
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    • pp.113-121
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    • 2015
  • Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate satisfaction with and perception of the school meal service according to middle school students and dieticians/dietetic teachers in Gwangju area who experienced change to the free meal service and the main contents were as follows. Methods: The research subjects were 197 students (99 boys and 98 girls) and 42 dieticians/dietetic teachers were recruited. Results: Compared to the free meal service before, satisfaction of students was high (53.8%), and 69.9% of students said there was no change in the school meals, however a significant difference was observed between gender. Overall 80.2% of middle school students said that there was no change in menu, 70.6% were no change in the frequency of food with high preference, and 64.0% were no change in leftover of meals. 85.7% of dieticians/dietetic teachers said that there was no change in the student's satisfaction according to the conversion of free meal services; 59.5% of dieticians/dietetic teachers said that there was no change in the frequency of foods with high preference, the variety of vegetables was increased in the qualitative change item of food materials, and 95% of them were not aware of change in the amount of students' leftover foods. Dieticians/dietetic teachers had limitations in selecting menus with purchase and costs of food materials (26.2%) by conversion of the free meal service and their priority considered was the food cost (45.2%) when they selected menus. Change in feeding affairs was office work management (26.2%) and recipe research and development (19.0%). Conclusion: With the results of this study, the satisfaction with the school meal service was not changed in the awareness of students and dieticians/dietetic teachers. Therefore further study is needed to determine the middle school's satisfaction with school meals based on a variety of factors including the environmental food meal services.

A Survey of Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers on the Small-Scale Chemistry (미량화학(Small-Scale Chemistry)에 대한 초등학교 교사들의 인식)

  • Kim, Sung-Kyu;Kong, Young-Tae
    • Journal of Science Education
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    • v.34 no.2
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    • pp.291-305
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    • 2010
  • The aim of this study was to survey the perceptions of the elementary school teachers on the smallscale chemistry(SSC) following its training session. The teachers participating in the survey were 266 teachers in the Gyeongnam province. They were given a questionnaire that focused on the nine areas of the SSC: Needs for the teacher training and its application, its benefits, issues of safety and danger as well as treatment of environmental pollution, its economic efficiency and the development of investigative skills. The designed questionnaire was checked by an authority, and the responses to each question were tallied and analyzed. The results are as follows. The biggest problems of the traditional experimental methods as rated by the teachers were, in the order of importance, the preparation time, the legal liability of teachers for the safety and accidents, financial issues, disposal of the experimental wastes and the lack of relevant data. Since most of the teachers had not experienced the SSC lab programs in the field, they responded positively to the questions of need for its introduction and training. The implementation of the experimental SSC lab programs should proceed in the following order: introduction into the textbook, teacher training program, after-school education and the invitation of instructors. The most useful materials for the SSC program were CDs, videos, books and various printed materials, in that order. The responses regarding benefits of the SSC program included its simplicity, convenience, time savings, diversity, qualitative and quantitative aspects, integration into the regular class and use of toys. In particular, the teachers mentioned the increased safety due to the small amount of experimental reagents needed and the durability of plastic instruments. The familarity from the use of everyday tools as well as easy access to and the low-cost of the instruments were other important benefits. The teachers in general rated the educational content of the program highly, but many also found it to be average. Some pointed out the lack of sufficient discussion due to the individual or pair groupings as a potential shortcoming. The potential for development of problem solving ability and improvement of skills was rated positively. The number of teacher who rated the development of creativity positively was just over the half. As for the area of improving investigative skills, many found its assessment difficult and confusing because of the lack of its systemic definition and categorization. Based on the findings of this study, I would like to recommend the application and a wider dissemination of the small-scale chemistry lab program into the elementary school science curriculum.

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