• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.89-101
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• 2011

The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) initiated by the Thailand Astronomical Society in 2007 is an annual competition for high school students. One of its aim is to enhance the development of international exchange in the field of school education in astronomy and astrophysics. This paper first provides the overview of the IOAA in terms of key regulations based on its statutes, history and current status. Secondly, the published syllabus of the IOAA is used for content analysis according to subject areas regarding the exam questions of the IOAA in theoretical, observational and data analysis parts from 2007 to 2010. Also, a scientific inquiry framework is applied to the same questions for assessment based on scientific inquiry in the cognitive aspect with two sub-classes of scientific knowledge and scientific reasoning. Among a dozen astronomy subject areas listed on the syllabus, the theoretical part of the IOAA makes more frequent use of the Sun, the solar system, properties of stars, and concept of time. In content knowledge, a factor of scientific knowledge, the IOAA questions, especially in the theoretical part have a lesser degree in difficulty than the IAO (International Astronomy Olympiad) exam questions for the same period whose degree in difficulty is comparable to college level. With regard to scientific reasoning, the IOAA questions tend to involve convergent rather than divergent thinking. Lastly, in light of these findings, discussions are given on the outcome of Korean participation in the previous IOAAs and ways to help better in preparing Korean students for future astronomy Olympiads.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.835-842
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• 2006

The aims of this study are to investigate how Kepler found a scientific problem for the retinal image theory and how abductive reasoning was used in his theory development, and to find implications for teaching creativity in science class from his thinking processes in the scientific discovery. Through the analysis of the related literatures, it was found that Kepler's problem finding in his retinal image theory came from the critical analysis of contemporary theories of vision, based on his relevant knowledge of optics, as he formulated his own hypothesis to build a new theory in eye vision employing optical phenomenon in spherical lens, which is a kind of abductive reasoning. From the results, three suggestions are proposed, that: (a) in the development of creativity teaching material, the situations like Kepler's problem finding need to be included in the programs; (b) it should be taught that relevant scientific knowledge is important for problem finding and hypothesis formulating; and (c) the experience of successful problem solving by themselves could help them find new scientific problem(s).

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.195-205
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of scientific argumentation on argument tasks with incorrect alternative ideas in elementary science classes. The subjects were 41 fourth graders of 2 classes in an elementary school. In the experimental group, argument tasks with pictures including incorrect alternative ideas were suggested in order to facilitate argumentation. Students were asked to perform argumentation with the component of claim, evidence, and reasoning. In the control group, textbook-based traditional instruction was used. The results showed that scientific argumentation activities on argument tasks with incorrect alternative ideas had positive effects on students' science achievement and science-related affective domains. The analyses of students' argumentation revealed that argument tasks with incorrect alternative ideas could facilitate students' participation and exposure of their preconceptions. It also led students to find and connect evidence to support their claims. In some cases, students had difficulty in making appropriate argumentation because of unclear experimental data and/or invalid reasoning. Educational implications were discussed.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.426-446
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to analyze undergraduate students' reasoning for solving a problem about a rock and investigate the roles and importance of critical evidence (CE) and critical resource models (CRMs) in abductive reasoning. Participants were 20 senior undergraduate students enrolled in a science major course in a university of education. They were asked to abductively infer geologic processes of sedimentary rocks having a lot of holes and represent them with models. Their reasoning were analyzed according to a scheme for modeling-based abductive reasoning. As a result, successful student reasoning was characterized by using a diversity of grains and lots of holes as CE, activating the sedimentary rock formation and weathering as CRMs, and combining the CRMs into a scientifically sound explanatory model (SSEM). By contrast, in the reasoning unsuccessful in proposing a SSEM, students activated the igneous rock (basalt) formation and deposition as resource models (RMs) based on the evidence of the holes in the rocks and diverse grains, respectively, and used the RMs to construct their own explanatory models (EMs). It was suggested that to construct SSEMs to solve earth scientific problems about rocks, students need to know what could be CE in a particular problem situation, take an integrative or systemic approach to a rock problem, use multiple RMs, and evaluate RMs or EMs in light of evidence.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.458-469
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• 2003

Hypothesis is defined as a proposition intended as a possible explanation for an observed phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to generate a grounded theory on the process of undergraduate students' generating hypothesis-knowledge about scientific episodes. Three hypothesis-generating tasks were administered to four college students majored in science education. The present study showed that college students represented five types of intermediate knowledge in the process of hypothesis generation, such as question situation, hypothetical explicans, experienced situation, causal explicans, and final hypothetical knowledge. Furthermore, students used six types of thinking methods, such as searching knowledges, comparing a question situation and an experienced situation, borrowing explicans, combining explicans, selecting an explican, and confirming explicans. In addition, hypothesis-generating process involves inductive and deductive reasoning as well as abductive reasoning. This study also discusses the implications of these findings for teaching and evaluating in science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.253-266
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• 2009

This study was focused on analyzing students' informal reasoning patterns and their considerations in decision-making on socioscientific issues. This study involved 20 undergraduate students (10 biology majors and 10 non-biology majors) and showed how the two groups responded on socioscientific issues. Semi-structured interviews were conducted twice respectively based on six scenarios of gene therapy and human cloning. The result showed 93% of the total number of participants' decisions were made by rationalistic reasoning, whereas emotional reasoning was 49%, and intuitive reasoning was 27%. Students usually used two or three informal reasoning patterns together. Most of the students took more consideration on social factors. Some perceived ethical and moral implications of the issues, but they did not consider them seriously. They made their decisions depending on their own values, etc. 65% of the participants got their information on socioscientific issues from the mass media. Biology majors hardly used intuitive reasoning compared to non-biology majors. The Biology major group took into deep considerations on socioscientific issues while the non-biology major group seemed to interpret the given scenarios simply. This implied that the content knowledge was a significant factor of their decision-making. Therefore, it is necessary to develop proper science courses for non-major students to improve their decision-making on socioscientific issues. So, when we develop educational materials or programs, we should consider students' reasoning patterns, their considerations in decision-making, and their content knowledge. And because the mass media has the potential to play a key role for an effective education, we need to make a plan to make a practical application.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.19-37
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• 1989

The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of logical thinking and scientific reasoning pattern of Korean high school students. To carry out this study subjects were selected about 2,000 Junior high school students, and about 4,100 senior high school students throughout the nation. They were identified as concrete, transitional or formal operational stage with the use of TOLT(the Test of Logical Thinking) by Tobin and Capie(1980), and TOSR(the Test of Scientific Reasoning) by W.A Farmer(1986). This study turned out that more than 76% of Junior high school students were classified as the concrete operational stage and about 44% of senior high school students were classified as the formal operational stage, while about 26% of them were still in the concrete operational level. This study showed that the main factor of the intellectual development of students is learning by the gradual advancement of their grades and especially entrance into the senior high school rather than by the physical growth. This study also showed that there are the take-off stage of the development of logical thinking between fourteen and fifteen years of their ages. Less than 25% of junior high school students were in the formal operational stages which are capable of control of variables, probabilistic, correlation and combinational logic in problem-solving situation, while 33-54% of senior high school students were in the formal operational levels. 38% of junior high school students were in the formal operational stage which is capable of proportional logic, while about 55% of senior high school students were in the formal operational stage. Less than 20% of senior high school students were classified as group of highly capable of scientific reasoning, while more than 23% of them were classified as group of poor capability. It also turned out that there are differences or no differences between male and female students of each school in problem-solving situation regarding each logic approach. These differences were proved to be fluctuating depending on the situations and their grades. The other results of this study is similar to those of other researches such as Tomlinson-Keasey 1972, Coleman 1973, Lawson 1973, Lawson and Renner 1974, Neimark 1975, Han 1982, and Kim 1989.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.69-76
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• 2009

Probabilistic reasoning and combinational reasoning are essential to build a logical thinking and a process of thinking dealing with everyday life as well as scientific knowledge. This research aims at finding the optimal period to teach reasoning to the students who haven't developed probabilistic reasoning and combinational reasoning. The treatment program was performed for 20 students from each grade who couldn't develop two parts of reasoning. The treatment program using baduk stones and cards was performed repeatedly, focusing on the specific activities. After four weeks of treatment program, the test to check the development of probabilistic reasoning and combinational reasoning was performed again and the changes of reasoning development were identified. After giving treatment program for reasoning development, 15.0%, 25.0% and 40.0% of improvement in the 4th, the 5th, the 6th graders respectively were shown. With regard to the combinational reasoning, the results showed the improvement of 20.0% in the 4th grades, 25.0% in the 5th graders and 63.2% in the 6th graders. As a result of research in the above, students, who were not formed probabilistic reasoning and combinational reasoning, could be known to be enhanced through learning, but to fail to be formed the qualitative change like the cognitive development. It is expected that this research can contribute to the improvement of students' cognitive level and there would be more active researches in different fields to improve the cognitive level of the 6th graders who are in their optimal periods to learn two parts of reasoning.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.32-40
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• 2007

The scientific creativity problem solving ability of children has been greatly emphasized in recent years, because it has been regarded as an example of highly developed reasoning and thinking skills. This study aimed to identify the relationships between scientific aptitude, creativity, and scientific creative problem solving abilities in children. The subjects were 100 5th graders residing in Seoul and a small city in Choongnam. Data was analyzed by t-test and by correlation using spss program packages. The main results of this study were as follows: first, a significant difference was found in the scientific creative problem solving ability of children by their respective levels of science aptitude. Secondly, the scientific creative problem solving ability of the children by their levels of creativity was found to be insignificant. Thirdly, no significant difference was found between creativity and scientific creative problem solving ability among the children examined; however there was a significant difference found between the science aptitude and scientific-creative problem solving ability and between science aptitude and creativity in the children who participated in this study.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.522-537
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• 2013

This study analyzed the relationship among the construct level of analogical reasoning, prediction and uncertainty, and the construction of an explanatory model that were produced during small group discussions for scientific problem solving. This study was participated in by 8 students of K University divided into 2 teams conducting scientific problem solving. The participants took part in discussions in groups after achieving scientific problem solving individually. Through individual interviews afterwards, changes in their thinking through discussion activities were looked into. The results are as follows: The analogy at the Entities/Attributes level was used to make people clearly understand the characteristics of certain objects or entities in the discussions. The analogy at the Configuration/Motion level that was produced during the discussions ensured other participants to predict the results of problem solving. The analogy at the Mechanism/Causation level changed the structure of problem situations either to help other participants to reconstruct the explanatory model or to come up with a new situation that was never been through before to justify the created mechanism and through this, the case of creating Thought Experiments during the discussions were observed. if looking into the changes of analogies, each individual's analogic paradigm during the discussions were shown as production paradigm, reception-production paradigm, production-reception paradigm, and reception paradigm. The construction and reconstruction of the explanatory model were shown in analogic production paradigm, and in the reception paradigm of an analogy, participants changed their predictions or their certainty.