• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.58-71
• /
• 2015

Ability of understanding students' ideas and thinking is critical to teachers' professional growth. In this study, 'pedagogical reasoning' was conceptualized as teachers' reasoning ability of students' misconceptions and possible causes of misconceptions when they hear and observe students' science discourses. To investigate elementary pre-service teachers' pedagogical reasoning levels, children's science discourses on light reflection and electric circuit were video recorded and 43 pre-service elementary teachers were asked to identify children's misconceptions and possible causes of misconceptions after watching the video clips. In conclusion, pedagogical reasoning levels of pre-service elementary teachers were not high enough, showing significant difference in light reflection and electric circuit. Possible explanations of this difference and educational implications were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.231-243
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate misconceptions regarding the structure of flowers and the function of the course based on the 'Flower' section of 5th grade elementary school science courses. It also sought to investigate how misconceptions are changed before and after the application of a Driver learning model, and finally analysing any differences in the correction of misconceptions. A questionnaire was created for 199 5th grade elementary school pupils. The major results before and after using an applied Driver learning mode teaching plan are as follows: In the response for questions, 13.6% and 14.5% of misconceptions were corrected for male and female pupils, respectively. For rural and urban pupils, 14.8% and 11.2% of misconceptions were corrected, respectively. In the comparison of male and female pupils according to the reasons for selection of responses before and after using an applied Driver learning model teaching plan, 27.8% of male and 30.0% of female pupils scientific conceptions showed improvement. For rural and urban schools, 26.6% and 32.2% of scientific conceptions were improved, respectively. Data from this study may help teachers to reconsider their own conceptions regarding the study of the flower as it is presently conducted in elementary school.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.191-200
• /
• 1997

The purpose of this study is to investigate the misconceptions and the understanding of students on diffusion and osmosis, and to examine the shifts in concept development that result from maturation and additional instruction. In addition, the textbooks were assessed for the sources of the misconceptions. The subjects of this study were 195 students in middle school, 191 students in high school and 195 students in university in Seoul. And the multiple-choice test developed by Odom and Barrow(1995) was used. The results were analyzed by two-way ANOVA in the statistical packages SAS. The major findings of this study are as follows. 1. The mean score of the understanding on the concepts of diffusion and osmosis of junior high school students was 31, that of high school students was 51 and that of university students was 67. In this study, the higher grade students got the higher scores, and it showed significant difference(p<0.01). 2. The mean score of girls was higher than that of boys in all grades. And the difference of the score according to gender showed great difference in high school(p<0.01). 3. An analysis of the patterns of misconceptions about diffusion and osmosis indicated that certain misconceptions prevail across grade levels. 4. An analysis of the contents of textbooks indicated that textbooks may be the source of students' misconceptions about diffusion and osmosis.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.1139-1153
• /
• 2013

Misconceptions are one of the most important and long-lasting studied themes on science education. It is because their nature is obstinate and settled as well as they corrupt students' understanding of science concepts. This study examines whether preservice elementary school teachers enrolled in biology teaching material research course changed positively on science teaching efficacy and correcting life science misconceptions when they used the handbook developed for this study. The handbook comprises 203 life science concepts surveyed among preservice teachers holding from advanced researches and arranged by 2007 Revised Science Curriculum. 107 preservice elementary school teachers participated in the study. Forty-six (46) of them were assigned to the experimental group and the other 61 to the control group. ANOVA was conducted for analyzing data. Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI) and the life science misconception test which was developed for this study, were administrated as assessing instruments for pretest and posttest. The experimental group, using the handbook, acquired higher scores in both tests on statistical significance level than the control group who were not using the handbook. The results indicate the handbook developed for correcting life science misconceptions for this study is effective in enhancing science teaching efficacy and correcting life science misconceptions.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.351-359
• /
• 2005

The aims of this research are to analyze elementary preservice teacher's conception and causes of their misconceptions on biological reproduction and inheritance. In future, it would be also to provide useful data for the effective teaching-teaming method in the elementary school as well as opportunities to correct their misconceptions, which help elementary preservice teachers have the appropriate scientific conceptions. Thirty kinds of test questions were designed in science curriculum for elementary students and biology textbook for university students in order to develop reproduction and inheritance's concepts. The questionnaire was given to 166 junior students of university of education in a local city. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 10.0 program. The major results are as follows: Among 30 test questions, 2 questions in plants, 5 questions in animals and 2 questions in gene were appeared as misconceptions over $50\%$. The major reason to hold the misconceptions was influenced by 'learning up to now' category. The selection reasons of response were significantly different between scientific conceptions and misconceptions in 10 questions by analysis of variance. The gender also showed statistically significant differences between scientific conception and misconception in 3 questions by $\chi^2$ test. The selection reasons according to gender were significantly different between male and female students in 5 questions. For the reasons in forming misconceptions, they may cause by stereotype, conscious priority, differences of experiences, interest or attention, lack of professional Knowledge, and so on. Therefore, it was concluded that this research may help elementary preservice teachers to reconsider their conception for reproduction and inheritance and to be successful in science instructions fur elementary students.

• Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.53-59
• /
• 2002

This paper presents a model for diagnosing students'learning misconceptions in the domain of heat and temperature using fuzzy cognitive maps(FCM) and fuzzy associative memory(FAM). In a model for diagnosing learning misconceptions. an FCM can represent with cause and effect between preconceptions and misconceptions that students have about scientific phenomenon. An FAM which represents a neurallike memory for memorizing causal relationships is used to diagnose causes of misconceptions in learning. This study will present a new method for more autonomous and intelligent system than a model to diagnose misconceptions that was being done with classical methods in learning and may contribute as an intelligent tutoring system for learning diagnosis within various educational contexts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.101-109
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this research is to provide useful data in forming sound scientific concepts by investigating elementary students' non-scientific concepts related to their concepts of biological adaptation, and by analyzing the general inclinations and causes of some misconceptions. Twenty-four objective questions were designed to be given to 5th and 6th grade elementary students in order to investigate their concepts of biological adaptation. According to the test results, they formed scientific concepts in most questions. But they appeared to have many misconceptions in some parts which should be guided by the teacher's additional explanations rather than by the education curricula's focus. There are some cases where the 6th grade students had more misconceptions than the 5th grade students who were not systemically taught the concepts of biological adaptation, for the reasons of strengthening or maintaining the misconceptions by confusing the contents of learning. Male and female students have different scientific concepts of different questions according to their interest and attention. Therefore, it is necessary to develop various teaching-learning data which can help the teachers' additional explanations about the concepts of biological adaptation and invoke students' interest and attention, and to seek appropriate measures to form sound scientific concepts among teachers as well as students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.105-119
• /
• 2007

Several studies have attempted to test students' misconceptions of physics and to provide teaching strategies in order to repair them. The results from these studies have revealed that the diagnosis of students' misconception is crucial, although they often failed to grasp the practice of its implementation. In terms of being a type of methodology for science education, the Internet allows large-scale surveys and investigations to be carried out in a relatively short period of time. This paper reports the results of the development, implementation, and evaluation of a WEb-based SYStem for TEsting students' Misconceptions in physics (WEBSYSTEM) aimed at three groups (science educational researchers who study students' physics conceptions using the system as a detector, school science teachers who practice it as an instructional material, and students who benefit from it for their self-directed learning). The web-based testing system is based on a review of the instructional development strategies of ADDIE (Gustafson, Branch, 2002; Rha, Chung, 2001). Results showed that WEBSYSTEM could work effectively as a multi-purposed tool for the three target groups with a further partial revision, providing educational researchers with resourceful data to study students' misconceptions in physics. Issues of administrative strategies, reexamination of questionnaires, and international collaboration via WEBSYSTEM are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.5
• /
• pp.449-457
• /
• 2014

Recent studies have shown that teachers should have be aware of and understand students' misconceptions, which is one of the major components of PCK. However, teachers often have difficulties in understanding misconceptions and in applying appropriate instructional strategies to change misconceptions. Thus, we designed a method course for pre-service teachers (PSTs) adapting the concept of "teacher as researcher". In the course, PSTs conducted research to investigate students' misconceptions in physics. Twenty-five female PSTs participated in the study. They went through the research process including creating question items, administering items to their target populations, collecting and analyzing student responses, and writing a research paper. Data source included individual interviews with the PSTs, field notes during classroom observation and PSTs' research papers. The results were as follows. First, the PSTs confirmed students' misconceptions and learning difficulties in physics. They experienced discrepancies between their conjecture and research findings. Second, PSTs developed the sophisticated understanding of students' misconceptions and appropriate teaching strategies. Third, the research experience provided the PSTs opportunities to reexamine their physics content knowledge while creating items and explaining scientific concepts. They realized that physics teachers should develop sound understanding of physics concepts for guiding students to have less misconception. Lastly, they realized the necessity of being a teacher as a researcher.

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