• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to understand students' representational competence while they engaged in learning in geological field trips with scientific models and modeling(Mt. Gwanak and the Hantan-river were formed). Ten students agreed to participate in this study voluntarily. They were attending the Institute of Gifted Education in the Seoul Metropolitan area. The data were collected for all students' activities during field trips and modeling activities using simultaneous video and voice recording, the interview after classes, written data(note) made by the students. The analysis framework that distinguished levels of representational competence and added the resulting interpretation with the final models in the process of scientific models. Results suggested that representational competence levels varied from one to six. However, students showed relatively low levels of representational competence in outdoor learning environments than indoor learning environments. In other words, it began with a relatively low level of representational competence in outdoor class. Then students developed a higher level of representational competence indoor class. Ultimately, we need to understand students' representational competence implies a tool to explain phenomena in the process of modeling activities.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.97-116
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• 1994

This study investigated the effect of young children's interaction with a teacher and computer environments on their development of representational competence cf replay, the children's ability to construct and reconstruct actions. A pretest-posttest design with one experimental group and one control group was used; quantitative analyses, including interview assessments and coded observations of children's work in the context of educational interventions were supplemented by qualitative analyses of this work. Thirty-nine children (2-5 years of age) were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group. The educational intervention provided to the experimental group involved a sequence of twenty sessions incorporating a series of three computer environments. A teaching strategy, based on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Sigel's distancing theory, was used to mediate children's interaction with these computer environments. Results indicated that children's representational competence kept developing and reached a higher stage and the educational intervention fostered the development of representational competence, with strong evidence of near transfer but no evidence of far transfer. These results suggest that representational competence is a teachable concept and that a complex mediating structure allows children to reconstruct their previous experiences and apply them to problem situations.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.83-96
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• 2001

This study examined the links among parents' interaction styles, their children's representational models of parents and peers, and children's peer acceptance and friendship quality. Forty-seven fourth grade children and their parents (47 mothers and 47 fathers) were observed during discussion interaction, and, one year later, 119 children (63 boys, 56 girls), including the original sample, were interviewed to assess representational models and peer competence. Parents' interaction styles predicted children's representations of parents, moderating the effect of each parent's style, children's representations of peers mediated the relations between the representational models of mothers and their peer acceptance.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.152-165
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• 2017

The magnetic field due to a current is one of the core concepts in electromagnetism which has been taught in secondary science education. In addition, it is a representative example of using visual representations to explain the relation between invisible physical quantities; current and magnetic field. In this study we investigated middle school students' representational competence into three components; interpretation, construction, and application of visual representations. According to the analysis, more than 75 % of the respondents interpreted the meaning of the arrows for current and magnetic field correctly. However, half of them confused the movement of electric charges with the direction of magnetic field. Over 60 % of the students constructed the magnetic field representation as circular closed curves, but many of them could not express the density of field lines properly. In application of visual representations, more than half failed to draw the direction of compass needle correctly. The scores were in order of interpretation, construction and application. There were also significant correlations among three components of representational competence. More attention and research on students' representational competence and effective use of visual representations is needed to better support science learning and teaching.