• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.151-162
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• 2008

This study quantitatively investigated the actual situations and perceptions of gifted students and their teachers during small group inquiry activities in Korea. Some 1,670 gifted math students and 1,732 gifted science students as well as 614 of their teachers were selected through random sampling to participate in this study. Data were collected by means of a survey developed by the researchers of this study, based on reviews of literature related to inquiry and small group cooperative learning. The results were as follows: (1) In Korean gifted education, small group inquiry activities were frequently used as teaching and learning strategies, and both the students and teachers perceived its effects to be very positive in terms of cognition and affection. (2) Gifted education teachers emphasized the development of students' procedural inquiry skills as well as logical thinking skills, whereas they were indifferent to the essential elements of small group cooperative learning and therefore the lessons did not surpass the level of traditional group activities. (3) The fact that the actual small group inquiry activities did not reflect the characteristics of well-organized small group activities is due to a lack of knowledge on the teacher's part as to effective teaching strategies concerning cooperative learning. This study implies that gifted education teachers require the opportunity to reflect on and develop their knowledge and understanding of small group inquiry activities through professionally developed programs in order to maximize the effectiveness of small group inquiry activities in gifted education.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to examine what effects the experiment class to stress discussion of small groups in scientific experiment class of the elementary school has on scientific achievement and attitude on the science of the students comparing to the usual scientific experiment class. For that purpose, this study has divided 49 students at the 6th grade of the M elementary school in P City into test groups of 24 students and control groups of 25 students. Classes have been progressed by giving sufficient time to the test groups for discussion by each small groups after experiment while by allowing the control groups to finish the experiment with arrangement of the experiment results. Conclusions of this study include: First, the more familiar the experiment materials are and the easier the experiment procedures are to be operated by the students, the more actively the small group discussion activities have been deployed. It shows that the students need a certain level of background knowledge before experiment for vital discussing activities. Second, it is appeared that the test groups given the scientific experiment class stressing small group discussing activity have significantly high scores comparing to the control groups given the existing scientific experiment class. It shows that the small group discussing activities have effects on promoting understanding of the students on the scientific achievement for the scientific experiment class. Third, it is appeared that the test groups given the scientific experiment class stressing small group discussing activity significantly high scores on attitude about the science comparing to the control groups given the existing scientific experiment class. It is considered that the students could have opportunities to compare their own thoughts with others and to have reflective thought to change their thoughts through the small group discussing activity. As shown above, it shows that the experiment class to stress discussing activities is more effective to increase scientific achievement and attitude about the science than the scientific experiment class to get and arrange the experiment results from the existing experiment classes.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.69-86
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• 2017

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of small-group arithmetic word problem activities with concrete materials on 5 year old children's mathematical ability and attitude. Methods: A total of 34 five-year-old children (control group 16 children, experimental group18 children) attending two kindergartens in P city participated in this study. Fifteen small-group arithmetic word problem activities with concrete materials were conducted in the classroom of the experimental group twice a week for eight weeks. Before and after the activities, all the participants individually took a basic arithmetic test, mathematical word problem solving test, and mathematical attitudes test. Results: First, we observed that the children in the experimental group achieved significantly higher scores on the mathematical ability tests, including the basic arithmetic test and mathematical word problems solving test when compared to the children in the control group. Second, we also found that children in the experimental group showed higher improvement in the mathematical attitudes test than their counterparts. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study suggest that small-group arithmetic word problem activities with concrete materials are effective in improving children's mathematical ability and attitudes.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.509-521
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to find the correlation between elements of resilience and small group activities in the university, and to explore small group activities as a protective and a positive factor in controlling the stress of college students. As the first part of the study, positive roles of resilience to the stress of college students and the elements that promote the efficiency of resilience are analyzed. The study precedent in detail and four elements of resilience are presented as following; optimistic realism, vitality, ability to control emotion, and interpersonal ability, addressing the faith in God is one of the strong positive factors for developing resilience. Then, this study deals with how the four elements of resilience relates to the characteristics of small group activities. In conclusion, this study suggests Christian universities to develop small group activities because they can develop each of the four elements of resilience of college students. Christian universities have a missional duty and the responsibility to help college students experience real happiness in their lives. Therefore, if Christian universities understand the effectiveness of resilience of college students and find out the correlation between resilience and faith, they can help students not only to live a positive life in their generation, but also to experience the authentic happiness.

• IE interfaces
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.135-143
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• 2009

Six sigma innovation activities have been deployed in the engineering, management, and R&D sectors in an aerospace production company. For the success of total innovation, the company realized that it is necessary to involve the field workers in the six sigma innovation activities. In this paper small group activities in the aerospace production company is introduced. The implementation system, project evaluation and compensation system, and future directions are presented.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2007

An abundant emotional experience in childhood can be a basis of success of their life. In this research, I set up a hypothesis as follows to see if a group plastic activities are effective for the improvement of children's emotional intelligence and self-emotion awareness ability, self-emotion management ability, self-motivation ability, other's emotion awareness ability and personal relationship skill ability. The research subjects were 40 children of 5 years old(experimental Group: 20, controlled group: 20) in Y kindergarten located in Ulsan. In pretest, we confirmed homogeneity between experiment and control group using child emotional checklist and then applied small group plastic artistic activities to the experiment group. Data analysis was performed with population, percentage, t-test and Cronbach a. The findings of this study were: First, the group plastic artistic activities was effective for the emotional intelligence of children. Second, the small group plastic activities was effective for the self-emotion awareness, self-emotion control and self motivation ability of children. Third, the small group plastic activities was effective for the awareness ability about other's emotion and personal relationship skill ability. The result of this study implies that the small group plastic artistic activities are effective children's emotion and we need to develop the various activity program and practice for children's emotion development.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.257-286
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• 2006

This paper investigates the effects of small group collaborative transcription activities on the improvement of university students' English listening ability. Based on the results of pre-tests, a class of 42 students was subdivided into 11 small homogeneous groups of three to four students. Each group was provided with 7 different news items to be transcribed. Means were compared between pre-test and post-test scores, followed by comparison of transcription errors in content and function words. Finally, students' perception and attitudes about the use of small group transcription for improving listening skills were qualitatively analysed and compared with pre- and post test results. It was found that post test scores highly correlated with improvement of listening ability. It was also found that groups of high degree of collaboration showed improvement in listening ability while lack of collaboration contributed to loss of interests in listening. Students who see process more important were found to make more contribution to the group success than those who place more emphasis on the results.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.251-260
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• 1997

The instructional influences of cooperative learning strategies, which emphasize mutual interdependency of learners, group goal, and individual accountability, upon students' achievement, the attitude toward science instruction and the perception of learning environment were investigated. Before instruction, the prior knowledge test about atoms and molecules, the test of attitudes toward science instruction, and the perception questionnaire of learning environment were administered, and the grade in the previous mathematics course was obtained. These scores were used as covariates. Mid-term examination score was used as blocking variable. For instruction, three different strategies-traditional individual learning, small group learning, and cooperative learning-were used and teaching materials for the units of mole and stoichiometry were also prepared. After instruction, the researcher-made achievement test, the test of attitudes toward science instruction, and the perception questionnaire of learning environment were administered. The perception questionnaire of group activities was also administered to the two treatment groups. In the quantitative subtest, the scores of cooperative learning group and small group learning group were significantly higher than those of traditional individual learning group. However, the cooperative learning group's scores in the achievement test and the qualitative subtest were significantly higher than those of small group learning group and traditional individual learning group. The students in the cooperative learning group were found to have the most positive perception of learning environment but to have similar attitudes toward science instruction. No interaction between the treatment and the level of the previous achievement was found in any of the analyses. In the perception questionnaire of group activities, students in both small group learning group and cooperative learning group exhibited positive perception of group activities. However, students in the cooperative learning group tended to think that their activities were related with their group's success. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.91-101
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• 2001

Nowadays the number of students that is losing their interest as well as learning desire in mathematics is increasing because of lack of logical thought creative power and abstract expression that present-day mathematics requires by reason of discrepancy of extreme scholastic ability by speciality of mathematics. In these conditions, we reduce the number of learning depression by bringing about learning desire or learning interest on mathematics, and students learn effective learning methods to be voluntary learning of discovery themselves that studies basic concepts, principles, rules through logical thought of students to solve difference of scholastic ability, thus we assumed that debate studies through small group activities in ability group would be one of ways to improve learning power, so the results of our research are as follows; 1. Debate studies through small group activities were very effective because of reinforcing the achivement level of students. 2. By this learning method, an individual or cooperrative learning was fostered, and lively discussions were accomplished. And learning attitudes of students were changed by the extension of cooperative learning abilities through advices or by themselves. 3. A personal opinion is payed regard by accepting an individual idea in the process of making questions. Learners can correct wrong concepts in the process of correcting wrong answers. So if we apply above-mentioned studies with easy contents from the lower grades, the effectiveness would increase as learners go to the higher grade. According to the results of various researches as follows; "The teaching-learning method oriented coopperative debate studies is effective to find solutions to mathematical problems." If small group activities are applied in the educational situation to search the course of a desirable cooperation learning through small group activities to improve scholastic abilities for a discoverable problem-solving power. I think that the teaching-learning method oriented cooperative debate studies is one of the most desirable methods to increase the problem-solving ability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.42-48
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• 2011

This paper proposes performance measurement method of quality small-group activity in business. This paper collects and analyzes quality circle activities data respect to tangible and intangible effect in national quality circles competitions festival. This paper proposes QPI (quality-circle performance index) based on Balanced Scorecard for quality small-group activity in quality improvement area. QPI is to measure the performance of quality improvement activities in the business firms. QPI is able to use widely in industries to provide a performance measure of quality small-group activity. In this paper, we propose the application method of QPl.