• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.32-46
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice elementary teachers' understandings and instructional strategies about children's science misconceptions. The participants were sixty senior students from a national university of education located in the midwestern area of Korea. A questionnaire, developed on the basis of Gomez-Zwiep's semi-structured interview questions, was used. The results of this study are as follows: first, many of the preservice teachers showed appropriate understanding of 'definition of misconceptions' (96.67%), 'examples of misconceptions' (78.33%), 'resistance to change of misconceptions' (71.67%), and 'impact on instruction of misconceptions' (91.67%), except for 'sources of misconceptions' (45.00%); second, although almost all the preservice teachers (96.67%) appreciated the necessity of identifying children's misconceptions before instruction, 43.33% of the preservice teachers did not show appropriate understandings on when and how to identify children's misconceptions; third, most of the preservice teachers (81.67%) were generally aware of instructional strategies to address children's misconceptions.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.425-439
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate what elementary teachers know about students' science misconceptions and how the teachers plan for and address their students' misconceptions in instruction. The sample included 61 teachers who participated in a teacher training program irrelative to science education. A questionnaire into which Gomez-Zwiep's semi-structured interview questions was transformed was used to examine the teachers' understandings of definition, origin, examples, and so on of science misconceptions, and their instructional strategies for addressing their students' misconceptions before and while instruction. The results showed that many teachers (about 60%) did not have appropriate understanding of students' misconceptions, that the majority of the teachers (about 75%) did not consider misconceptions at all before teaching science lessons, and that almost all the teachers (about 90%) did not know particular strategies specifically designed for misconceptions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.35-42
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• 1986

Recent studies on the learning of the science concepts indicate that most students have misconceptions of the science concepts. The misconceptions have their roots in the various aspects of teaching and learning situations. The textbooks used in schools have been substantiated as one of the sources of the misconceptions. Genetics has been recognized as one of the most difficult areas for high school students to learn. Therefore, this study had its objective to identify the misconceptions of genetics held by high school students and analyze the high school biology textbook as the source of the misconceptions. In order to indentify the misconceptions of the genetic concepts, the volunteer students were interviewed and genetic content and its sequence in the high school biology textbooks were analyzed. The misconceptions identified in this study are as follow: gamete formation, mitosis, trait expression, and allele and gene behavior in meiosis. This study found that the high school biology textbooks might be the source of those misconceptions. Based on the misconceptions identified, this study proposed direction for efficient instruction of genetics in high schools.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-105
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• 2000

The purpose of the study is to find out students' misconceptions and the stability of misconceptions in the domain of mechanics. According to the incorrect choices by grades, three different kinds of conceptual change were identified ; (1) easily overcome misconceptions, (2) stable misconceptions, and (3) reinforced misconceptions. The analyses of the results showed that easily overcome misconceptions occurred in simple or visual concepts, stable misconceptions occurred in the concepts involving EGC(experiential gestalt of causation) or in the concepts overgeneralized in school teaming, and finally, reinforced misconceptions as grade level increases occurred in the concepts EGC with scientific logical procedures. The results on the type of conceptual changes may provide significant cognitive theoretic evidences on the sources of misconceptions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.34-43
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• 1984

Since the study of student's preconceptions and their effects on the learning of relevant subjects became an influential research area with high significance, the research area bas mainly been concerned by science educators. However, it was not until the year of 1983 that the area received recognition of various fields other than science education. The recognition was given by the Scientific American when it published a paper reporting a misconceptions in mechanics. Studies concerning misconceptions primarily interested in the following questions: What kinds of theoretical bases do preconceptions or misconceptions have? What are the sources of those conceptions? How are the misconceptions changed into or improved to scientific concepts? What are the efficient teaching methods appropriate for reducing the number of the misconceptions after instruction? Those questions are partly answered by experimental psychology and by philosophy of science, especially epistemology. Therefore, the paper will examine the theoretical background for and the sources of the misconceptions through literature review. Then, a few learning and teaching theories currently carrying great prestige in educational practice will be interpreted in terms of the knowledge of preconceptions or misconceptions.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.474-483
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated preservice elementary school teachers' awareness of students' misconceptions about several science topics, and the variables influencing their awareness. Seniors (N=106) from an university of education were asked to predict elementary school students' misconceptions on science topics such as phase changes and dissolution. Their conceptions about teaching and learning were also measured. The results indicated that the preservice teachers' predictions about the kinds and/or the ratios of students' misconceptions were different from those reported in previous studies. The low level preservice teachers in terms of the degrees of possessing traditional conception about teaching and learning predicted more students' common misconceptions. The degrees of preservice teachers' constructivist conception about teaching and learning and their major, however, did not significantly influence the numbers of common misconceptions predicted.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 1987

The rectnt studies on the learning of the scientific concepts have suggested that most students have misconceptions related to the contents to be learned and that those misconceptions exert their influences on the subsequent learning of the content Those facts necessitate the identification of the misconceptions before the instructions and the preparation of the instructional materials based on those misconceptions identified. Several studies also revealed that such biological areas as cell division, reproduction and fertilization were ranked among the most difficult areas for high school students to learn. Therefore, this study had its triple objectives as follows: (1) Identification of misconceptions in such areas as cell division, reproduction and fertilization. (2) Investigation of the current high school biology textbook I's as the sources of those misconceptions. (3) Development of teaching materials based on the misconceptions identified and the problems in the textbooks analyzed. This study identified several misconceptions held by high school students of biological concepts related to the conceptual areas of life-continuity, and found the problems in learning of the high school biology textbooks. Based on the misconceptions and the problems, a teaching/learning model and its content material were developed at the final course of this study.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.42-53
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• 2010

Identifying students' misconceptions by teachers is the primary step in using constructivist teaching strategies. We investigated how secondary science teachers were aware of students' misconceptions about the particulate nature of matter and analyzed the total number of differences of predicted misconceptions by their background variables. We also investigated how they addressed students' misconceptions in their instruction, and how necessary they thought it was to identify students' misconceptions for teaching science concepts. A survey was administered to 87 science teachers at 28 middle schools in Seoul. Teachers' predictions were compared with the misconceptions of 240 seventh-grade students. The teachers, as a group, identified almost all the misconceptions held by the students. However, they were unable to predict which types of misconceptions were more frequent. The total number of misconceptions predicted by the teachers who had careers of less than 10 years, possessed Master's degrees, or majored in chemical education was significantly higher. Although most teachers stated that knowing students' misconceptions was needed for their instruction, they rarely and simply addressed them in their instructions. Many techers faced misconceptions in classroom activities, and only few teachers found them through publications relating to students' misconceptions, teacher preparation courses and/or in-service training programs. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.185-193
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• 1995

The purpose of this article is to find out psychological mechanism on the core of misconceptions. Theoretical frame to search for the core of misconceptions is based on the Pascual-Leone's neo Piagetian theory. Although Pascual-Leone's theory is a cognitive developmental theory, its psychological mechanism gives us new insights on misconception. According to the comparison between Pascual-Leone's psychological mechanism and the common specifics of misconceptions and their items, conclusions could be summarized as follows: 1) Children's misconceptions and LC learning structures have the same nature. 2) Structures in items of misconceptions and misleading factor structures in cognitive tasks affect mental process with the same mechanism. 3) LC learning structures was activated preferentially in knowledge structures by F operator, with the same activation mechanism, the process children's misconceptions was activated firstly among other conceptions could be explained.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.87-109
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• 2003

This paper aims to review the overall development of constructivist approaches in science education research from two different perspectives, that is a summary of the past development in science education in general and a report of the outline of a recent research project on students' physics misconceptions in particular. In the summary of the past development of constructivist science education the introduction of constructivism as well as its psychological and philosophical backgrounds are briefly reported. Then main findings of the researches of constructivist approach are discussed in terms of the features of students' misconceptions, of the ways of effective conceptual change, of the implications toward school science education, and of the criticisms given to the constructivist approach. In the report of a recent development in addition to its background necessity and implications, the research structure and the format of the data analysis of the study on the map of students' physics misconceptions are presented. It is particularly emphasized that the practical informations and suggestions for actual teaching of school science, such as the database(DB) of students' misconceptions and teaching guides, are of most practical and effective values in order to maximize the advantage of the constructivist approach to science education.