• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.453-464
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• 2017

The purposes of the study are to investigate the experiences of major stakeholders (i.e. science teachers, program instructors, local experts, etc.) who participated in implementing Community-Based Socioscientific Issues Programs (SSI-COMM) and to provide educational implications for further implementation. SSI-COMM dealt with three issues (i.e. abandoned pets, fine dust, and recycling) that students often encountered in their local community. Each program, lasting over 16 class periods in a free semester, included in-school and out-of-school activities in order to promote their interest and participation in community. Four teachers, four program instructors, and six local experts joined the interviews to explain their experience of participating in the programs. As a result, school teachers, program instructors, and local experts positively appreciated their experiences of the program implementation and perceived educational potentials of SSI-COMM. All the stakeholders mentioned that they became more interested in local socioscientific issues and strongly perceived the need for the implementation of such programs linked to their own community. The science teachers appreciated the opportunities to identify students' potentials through SSI-COMM and believed that SSI-COMM would contribute to reducing the gap between learning and practice. The program instructors, observed that out-of-school activities contributed to enhancing students' self-confidence and fulfillment in learning. Finally, the local experts obtained a sense of belonging to their community and were very satisfied with their contribution. The SSI-COMM programs are expected to be one of the educational models that will help to encourage the participation of students and stakeholders in facilitating educational activities in relation to the community.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.303-315
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• 2016

Socioscientific issues (SSI), by their nature, are conceptually embedded in technology. Previous research reported that nature of technology (NOT), unlike nature of science, was quite explicitly manifested in SSI decision-making, and NOT could be a promising construct for promoting SSI reasoning. In this study, authors introduced an integrated conceptual framework for NOT, which consisted of four dimensions (i.e., artifacts, knowledge, practice and system) as diverse modes of technology. We adapted the framework to investigate students' conceptualizations of NOT in the context of various SSIs. Data was collected from 45 college students enrolled in a liberal arts course on science and technology. The students participated in a team project, where they prepared and led discussions for SSI topics in class. Seven topics concerning SSIs were selected by students themselves. The preparation and class discussion of each student group were audio-recorded, and final reports were also analyzed. As a result, NOT sub-components in the dimensions of artifacts and system were explicitly represented in most contexts of SSI with various ranges of understanding. Other sub-components under the dimensions of knowledge and practice were rarely or implicitly shown in the discussion. The depth of students' understanding on NOT varied. Implications for science education were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.523-534
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• 2014

This study aimed to develop collective intelligence (CI) based instructional models for teaching socioscientific issues on the basis of intimate collaboration with science teachers, and to investigate the participating teachers' perceptions on the effectiveness of the instructional models. Adapting the ADDIE model, we suggested three types of SSI instructional models (i.e. generative model, exploratory model, and decision-making model). Generative models emphasized the process of brainstorming ideas or possible solutions for SSI. Exploratory models focused on providing students opportunities to explore various SSI cases and diverse perspectives to understand its controversial nature and complexity. Decision-making models encouraged students to negotiate or develop a group-consensus on SSI through the dialogical process. After implementing the instructional models in the science classroom, the teachers reported that CI-based SSI instructional models contributed to encouraging students' active participation and collaboration as well as to improving the quality of their argument or discourses on SSI. They also supported the importance of developing collective consciousness on the issues in the beginning of the SSI class, providing independent time and space for reflecting on their personal values and opinions with scientific evidence, and formulating an atmosphere where they freely exchanged opinions and feedback for constructing better collective ideas.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.787-797
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• 2017

In this study, we investigated the features of using smart devices in socioscientific issues (SSI) debate classes. Twenty-seven high school students in Gyeonggi-do participated in this study. The processes of the SSI debate classes with smart devices were classified into five stages: data searching, data sharing, summary and organization of data, debate in the classroom, and online debate. Then some features at each stage were identified. It was found that they collected self-directed and in-depth data while reflecting their knowledge and experience, and selected data which were easy to understand at the stage of data searching. The specificity and validity of the evidences gathered and the clarity of the sources were improved at the stage of data sharing, although they shared more data offline than online. They organized their data by using paper rather than smart devices at the stage of summary and organization of data. Most of them failed to use the summary in debate. They argued and refuted based on concrete grounds at the stage of debate in the classroom, which raised students' interest in debate and led students to participate actively. At the stage of online debate, they were able to rearrange and review the arguments of both sides, and the participation of the students who were passive in classroom debate was enhanced. Based on these results, we suggest some effective teaching methods for SSI debate classes using smart devices.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.467-480
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• 2018

This study aims to investigate how flipped learning-based socioscientific issue instruction (FL-SSI instruction) affected middle school students' key competencies and character development. Traditional classrooms are constrained in terms of time and resources for exploring the issues and making decision on SSI. To address these concerns, we designed and implemented an SSI instruction adopting flipped learning. Seventy-three 8th graders participated in an SSI program on four topics for over 12 class periods. Two questionnaires were used as a main data source to measure students' key competencies and character development before and after the SSI instruction. In addition, student responses and shared experience from focus group interviews after the instruction were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that the students significantly improved their key competencies and experienced character development after the SSI instruction. The students presented statistically significant improvement in the key competencies (i.e., collaboration, information and technology, critical thinking and problem-solving, and communication skills) and in two out of three factors in character and values as global citizens (social and moral compassion, and socio-scientific accountability). Interview data supports the quantitative results indicating that SSI instruction with a flipped learning strategy provided students in-depth and rich learning opportunities. The students responded that watching web-based videos prior to class enabled them to deeply understand the issue and actively engage in discussion and debate once class began. Furthermore, the resulting gains in available class time deriving from a flipped learning approach allowed the students to examine the issue from diverse perspectives.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.4
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• pp.296-305
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• 2023

This study analyzed the information-seeking behavior of preservice science teachers by observing the process of seeking information needed in a Socioscientific issues (SSI) debate class. Twenty-four fourth-year preservice science teachers participated in the study, and the SSI debate was conducted on the topic of biofuels. The results of the study revealed that preservice teachers go through the process of 'Searching', 'Reviewing', 'Interpreting', and 'Evaluating and Reorganizing' stages when seeking information. The searching stage is divided into identifying topics, role division, and standard setting for a search. The reviewing stage is divided into reviewing sources and reviewing contents. The interpreting stage is divided into interpreting an information and interpreting information from an integrating aspect. In addition, the evaluating and reorganizing stage is divided into evaluating information and reorganizing information. It was found that preservice teachers have difficulty reviewing information and interpreting multiple sources of information in an integrated aspect. Also, it was found that evaluating information activity among preservice teachers' information-seeking behavior affects the level of argumentation in discussions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.895-905
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• 2015

Citizens should be sensitive to the complex and controversial SSIs (Socioscientific Issues), be able to make a responsible decision with evidence and empathy, and furthermore take political action for the larger welfare. The premise of this research is that understanding the nature of science (NOS) takes an important role when students and adults participate in the discourse on SSIs because SSI reasoning requires individuals to examine information and counter-information with skepticism. We therefore designed SSI programs that were incorporated with NOS by adapting a contextualized-reflective approach. The leading research question was to what extent SSI contexts contributed to promoting students' understanding of NOS. A total of 71 11th grade students participated in this program. The school was located in an urban city near the capital city of Seoul, South Korea. We designed SSI programs to cover the issues of genetically modified organisms, climate change, and nuclear energy. Each issue required four to six class periods to complete. We conducted pre- and post-program tests using the revised VNOS-C, recorded group discussions or debates and collected student worksheets to observe the increase of student NOS understanding. As a result of this program, students showed moderate improvement in their understanding of NOS.