• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.277-288
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• 2007

This study analyzed the visual images covering 'weather' and 'weather forecast' in elementary science textbooks from the Syllabus Period to the 7th national curriculum from the socio-semiotic perspective. The results showed that most of the visual images were 'realistic' which were descriptive of real world phenomena. This means that most of the visual images in elementary science text were familiar to students in every curriculum period. The power relationship in communication between images and students was very complex. The visual images in elementary science textbooks include few geometrical and alphanumeric code in every curriculum period. This study provides a new framework to interpret amount of information, functions of information, structures, and social meanings of visual images. It could be also a beginning stage to introduce the socio-semiotic perspective into choosing visual images for next science textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.57 no.2 s.111
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• pp.190-201
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• 2007

The purpose of this study Is to reinterpret sexuality represented in modern fashion with the conception of plural sexuality from post-structuralism in socio-semiotic approach. It consists of two parts.: The first part provides the theoretical background and the methodological framework of this study. The second part ultimately accomplishes this study by empirical research, which is to infer plural sexuality articulated with fashion images in men's and women's popular fashion magazines in Korea since 2000 and sexual ideology signified in modern fashion. In this part the theoretical background was focused on the conception of sexuality on the basis of Foucault's idea, and then the framework for this study was made up from socio-semiotic perspective. The conception of sexuality in Foucauldian post-structural idea maintains the view of plural sexuality, which floats by power relationship between dominant and oppositional discourses in a specific historical context. Socio-semiotics suggests a contextual methodology to analyze the phenomena of material culture by articulating the range of material objects with that of ideology. The socio-semiotic model applied to sexuality represented in fashion is the framework of classifying into the several versions of fashion images from fashion as a material object and then inferring sexual ideology codified in them. In addition, three stages of producer/object/user in socio-semiotics were revised into 'dominant sexuality' with mainstream fashion out of dominant discourses,'oppositional sexuality' to create anti-fashion from oppositional discourses of subculture, and 'alternative sexuality' to be appropriated to dominant discourses by the mix of mainstream fashion and anti-fashion.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.641-656
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• 2014

This study aimed at analyzing visual materials included in school science textbooks, specifically the textbooks for first semester courses of 3rd to 6th graders. The purpose was to provide directions for future textbooks by understanding the functions of the images in both pedagogical and social perspectives as well. The study was conducted by investigating the types, roles and socio-semiotic features of the images in science textbooks. The results were as follows. Firstly, the most used types of images in 2007 curriculum textbooks were photographs and drawn pictures. Uses of other visual aids than above were extremely rare. It was also found that as the educational level rises, the use of images for decorative functions drastically declined. The majority of the images were used in providing supplementary explanations or examples. This implies that the images effectively play the role of helping science education. In addition, more use of worksheets images was found, indicating that as educational level increases, students participate more actively in research sessions or data analysis. In socio-semiotic perspective, visual images showed high accessibility to students in 'Type of visual image', 'Function of visual image', 'Distance of shot', 'Horizontal angle of shot', 'Color moduation'. It was implied that there will a close correlation between the type, role and the socio-semiotic characteristics of visual images in textbooks. For example, photograph-type visuals were mostly used as supplementary references. And when applying the socio-semiotic analysis to photograph-type visuals, they showed 'real type', 'narrative-metaphor type', and 'shadow effect' among socio-semiotic features. Such correlations implied that knowing the type of the visual image may help determining the role of the image in the textbook to some extent, and also corresponding socio-semiotic characteristics. As a result, it was possible to infer how accessible certain visual images are to students. The above results have implications for the effective use of visual images in future textbooks.