• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.293-305
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• 2016

Objective: This study aims to measure cognitive load levels by analyzing the EEG of Koreans and foreigners, when they read a Korean text with care selected by level from the grammar and vocabulary aspects, and compare the cognitive load levels through quantitative values. The study results can be utilized as basic data for more scientific approach, when Korean texts or books are developed, and an evaluation method is built, when the foreigners encounter them for learning or an assignment. Background: Based on 2014, the number of the foreign students studying in Korea was 84,801, and they increase annually. Most of them are from Asian region, and they come to Korea to enter a university or a graduate school in Korea. Because those foreign students aim to learn within Universities in Korea, they receive Korean education from their preparation for study in Korea. To enter a university in Korea, they must acquire grade 4 or higher level in the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK), or they need to complete a certain educational program at each university's affiliated language institution. In such a program, the learners of the Korean language receive Korean education based on texts, except speaking domain, and the comprehension of texts can determine their academic achievements in studying after they enter their desired schools (Jeon, 2004). However, many foreigners, who finish a language course for the short-term, and need to start university study, cannot properly catch up with university classes requiring expertise with the vocabulary and grammar levels learned during the language course. Therefore, reading education, centered on a strategy to understand university textbooks regarded as top level reading texts to the foreigners, is necessary (Kim and Shin, 2015). This study carried out an experiment from a perspective that quantitative data on the readers of the main player of reading education and teaching materials need to be secured to back up the need for reading education for university study learners, and scientifically approach educational design. Namely, this study grasped the difficulty level of reading through the measurement of cognitive loads indicated in the reading activity of each text by dividing the difficulty of a teaching material (book) into eight levels, and the main player of reading into Koreans and foreigners. Method: To identify cognitive loads indicated upon reading Korean texts with care by Koreans and foreigners, this study recruited 16 participants (eight Koreans and eight foreigners). The foreigners were limited to the language course students studying the intermediate level Korean course at university-affiliated language institutions within Seoul Metropolitan Area. To identify cognitive load, as they read a text by level selected from the Korean books (difficulty: eight levels) published by King Sejong Institute (Sejonghakdang.org), the EEG sensor was attached to the frontal love (Fz) and occipital lobe (Oz). After the experiment, this study carried out a questionnaire survey to measure subjective evaluation, and identified the comprehension and difficulty on grammar and words. To find out the effects on schema that may affect text comprehension, this study controlled the Korean texts, and measured EEG and subjective satisfaction. Results: To identify brain's cognitive load, beta band was extracted. As a result, interactions (Fz: p =0.48; Oz: p =0.00) were revealed according to Koreans and foreigners, and difficulty of the text. The cognitive loads of Koreans, the readers whose mother tongue is Korean, were lower in reading Korean texts than those of the foreigners, and the foreigners' cognitive loads became higher gradually according to the difficulty of the texts. From the text four, which is intermediate level in difficulty, remarkable differences started to appear in comparison of the Koreans and foreigners in the beginner's level text. In the subjective evaluation, interactions were revealed according to the Koreans and foreigners and text difficulty (p =0.00), and satisfaction was lower, as the difficulty of the text became higher. Conclusion: When there was background knowledge in reading, namely schema was formed, the comprehension and satisfaction of the texts were higher, although higher levels of vocabulary and grammar were included in the texts than those of the readers. In the case of a text in which the difficulty of grammar was felt high in the subjective evaluation, foreigners' cognitive loads were also high, which shows the result of the loads' going up higher in proportion to the increase of difficulty. This means that the grammar factor functions as a stress factor to the foreigners' reading comprehension. Application: This study quantitatively evaluated the cognitive loads of Koreans and foreigners through EEG, based on readers and the text difficulty, when they read Korean texts. The results of this study can be used for making Korean teaching materials or Korean education content and topic selection for foreigners. If research scope is expanded to reading process using an eye-tracker, the reading education program and evaluation method for foreigners can be developed on the basis of quantitative values.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.594-603
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• 2013

In this study, we analyzed the needs of open university students for e-textbooks by conducting focus group interviews (FGIs) and surveys in order to develop an e-textbook that is suited to their needs. The FGIs revealed that readability and portability of e-textbooks were the most important features for students. The surveys showed that of the 276 respondents who participated in the study, only a small number owned smartpads; however, a sizeable number of students intended on purchasing the device in the future. In addition, students' smartpad utilization, time spent reading e-books, and time allotted for studying as opposed to leisure and commercial use of social network services on the smartpad were examined. Students attached importance to the portability, weight, and price of the e-textbook; moreover, they considered the device's ability to support interaction in a variety of ways and rich multimedia resources to be an advantage. Finally, students also felt that e-textbooks should be less expensive than print textbooks; however, they were willing to pay a higher price, depending on the quality of the content.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.599-611
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to analyze creativity-personality activities given in the high school science textbooks, which developed according to 2009 Revised Science Curriculum, and to examine how goals of new science curriculum were reflected in sceince the textbooks. An analysis shows that the proportion of inquiry is the best high among the types of creativity-personality activities. Also it is organized for a various activities such as reading, writing and debate. As a result of analyzing creativity-personality activities regarding creative thinking and personality element, a variety of creative thinking and personality element was not composed. The creative thinking is primarily divergent thinking, convergent thinking and associative thinking appears in order. In addition, the caring of personality elements is the most, and then honesty, cooperation and responsibility appears in order. Thus, it is necessary to structure a variety of activities for edification of creativity-personality in high school science textbooks. As an analysis of creativity-personality activities regarding elements of the decision-making, the review process do not appear at all, and there are few decision points generally. Therefore, a rational decision making for the sake of edification should be provided with specific decision-making factors.

• Journal of vocational education research
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.155-176
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• 2016

This study analyzed content of and recognition on occupations shown from Technology Home Economics textbooks of the high school elective subject having a higher connection with the career development capability for the occupational world as shown from a curriculum analysis. Hence, this study selected 3 kinds of high school Technology Home Economics textbooks with a higher share from 6 in the 2007 revised curriculum and analyzed a frequency by characteristic of occupational content and recognition on description of a occupation. Content analyzed by researchers was examined by 2 school teachers to ensure the validity and objectivity of research findings. Research findings show that there is a great deal of frequency difference in occupations suggested by publisher and unit in the Technology Home Economics subject. Also suggestion frequency of the occupational classification by level from Korean standard industrial classification did not correspond to an actual situation of employment. Occupation names suggested from textbooks occupied 3.3% of those by Korean Occupation Dictionary, showing a higher suggestion ratio at occupations preferred by adolescents. In the textbooks, occupations were suggested from reading materials, photos and illustrations more than from texts. Recognition on descriptions of occupations showed for the most part the neutral(82.8%) and the positive16.2%)', and there was no biased intention even from some negative cases(1.0%). Based on research findings, this research has significance in that it suggested things to be considered for teaching career development capability in the high school Technology Home Economics subject and need for cultivating teachers' specialty to understand occupations and instruct career development. It also suggested improvements to be required for a new curriculum textbook.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.585-597
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• 2014

This study surveys how teachers can improve their understanding about the concept of declination only through reading the material presented as non-dipole magnetic model. This study also investigates a difference between the content of declination presented in "Earth Science II" textbook under the 2009 revised National Curriculum and that of the past one. Thirty teachers in Gyeonggi province and thirty three in the city of Seoul are surveyed; they are selected from the participants of required training that provides their first grade regular teaching certification. Findings of this study are as follows. First, the study finds that teacher participants possess several misconceptions about the declination. Their typical misconception show that a compass needle directly indicates the magnetic north pole. This type of misconception is not corrected only by a reading the material. Second, the study shows that the degree of teachers' understanding about the concept of declination improves through the reading the material of a non-dipole magnetic model. Third, the study reveals that the material of nod-dipole magnetic model is more effective with teachers than students. Finally, the study suggests that explanations including non-dipole magnetic model be revised in the current textbooks.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.515-524
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• 2012

This paper studied the statistics such as the total number of syllables, the kinds of syllables, the frequency of syllables, the number of eojeols(word phrases unique in Korean language), the kinds of eojeols, average length of eojeols, the frequency of eojeols and the parts of speech in four different Korean textbooks for 6th-grade students(6-1 Korean Reading, 6-1 Korean Speaking Listening Writing, 6-2 Korean Reading and 6-2 Korean Speaking Listening Writing). The results of the statistical survey are as follows: the number of Hangul syllables was 194,683; the kinds of syllables were 1,290; the average frequency of syllables was 150.9; the number of eojeol was 70,185; the kinds of eojeol were 22,647; the average frequency of eojeol was 3.1; the average length of eojeols was 2.8 syllables, the longest one consist of 10 syllables. In parts of speech, nouns are used more in the Korean Reading textbook, and verbs are used more in Korean Speaking Listening Writing.

• Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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• 1996.10a
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• pp.168-168
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• 1996

In this paper I will examine some concrete examples of the obstacles faced by non-native speakers of Japanese when learning the language. I will go on to suggest ways in which these obstacles may be overcome. Nowadays there are numerous Japanese language books available for non-native speakers. However, most of these introductory Japanese language books focus on topics such as pronunciation, accent and intonation. Notable, these introductory textbooks provide insufficient emphasis on prosodic features of the Japanese language. The Japanese language has been considered by many teachers as relatively easy compared to other languages, due to its simple phonetic structure. This may be a partial explanation of the reason why the teaching of prosodic features has generally been given insufficient emphasis. To teach Japanese efficiently at a university level I have combined an emphasis on the teaching of prosodic features together with my experience of television announcing. This has entailed using television news programmes and contemporary reading materials in my class. Using taped material I intend to describe a case-study of teaching of Japanese articulation.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.211-231
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• 2014

Although Monty Hall dilemma is used in many areas including philosophy, economics, and psychology, it is used in the current mathematics textbooks only as a material for reading or one of probability questions. The present study tries to explore students' understanding of Monty Hall dilemma through a class case. In this study, a group of high-school students participated in group activities, in which they read an argument about Monty Hall dilemma, and tried to resolve it through small-group and whole-class discussions, and then studied the conditional probability. The analysis supports the studies in psychology that intuitive understandings on probability do not change easily, and that counter-intuitivity in Monty Hall dilemma induces confusion and offers a basis for discussions among students. Similar results are anticipated when other dilemmas on probability are used.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.1
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• pp.227-236
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• 1997

How do aphasics deal with the inflectional marking occurring in agglutinative languages like Korean? Korean speech repetition, comprehension and production were studied in 3 Broca's aphasic speakers of Korean. As experimental materials, 100 easy sentences were chosen in 1st grade Korean elementary school textbooks about reading writing and listening, and two pictures were made from each sentence. This study examines the use of three kinds of inflectional markings--past tense, nominative case, and accusative case. The analysis focuses on whether each inflectional marking was performed well or not in tasks such as repetition, comprehension and production. In addition, morphological errors concerned with each inflectional marking were analyzed in view of markedness. In general, the aphasic subjects showed a clear preservation of the morphological aspects of their native language. So the view of Broca's aphasics as agrammatical could not be strongly supported. It can be suggested that nominative case and accusative case are marked elements in Korean.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.45-61
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• 2020

The concept of equality is given as a way of reading the equal sign without dealing it explicitly in elementary school mathematics. The meaning of the equal sign can be largely categorized as operational and relational views. However, most elementary school students understand the equal sign as an operational symbol for just writing the required answers. It is essential for them to understand a relational concept of the equal sign because algebraic thinking in middle school mathematics is based on students' understanding of a relational view of the equal sign. Recently, the relational meaning of the equal sign is emphasized in arithmetic. Hence it is necessary for elementary school students to have some activities so that they experience a relational meaning of the equal sign. In this study, we investigate the meaning of the equal sign and contexts of the equal sign in elementary school mathematics to discuss explicit ways to emphasize the concept of equality and relational views of the equal sign.