• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1044-1059
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• 2010

In this study, we investigated the influences of the method of using analogy on concept understanding, mapping understanding, and mapping error by analogical reasoning ability level. We also investigated students' perception of a role-playing analogy activity. Seventh graders (N=152) at a middle school were assigned to the comparison and the experimental groups. The students of the experimental group were taught about 'the relation between pressure and volume of gas' with experience-based role-playing analogy, while those of the comparison group were taught with explanation-centered analogy. Analyses of the results revealed that the instruction using roleplaying analogy was more effective in concept understanding and retention of mapping understanding than explanation-centered analogy instruction, regardless of analogical reasoning ability level. It was also found that the students of the experimental group had fewer mapping errors than those of the comparison group. However, there was little difference in t pes of mapping errors by the method of using analogy. The students of the experimental group answered that they did not have difficulties in performing the role-playing analogy activity and they actively engaged in the activity. They perceived that the role-playing analogy activity was interesting. Educational implication of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.113-124
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• 1997

The purpose of this article is to analyze some problems of the present curriculum of social studies education and develop a newer hierarchical curriculum system for the 7th Curriculum Reformation in the primary and secondary school of Korea. Most of the major problems of social studies education come from the mixture of different subject matters without reasonable education logic. Most of teachers feel some difficulties in teaching the social studies for the lack of other subject knowledges. For the better teaching, it is needed to control the integrating level according to the learner's intellectual ability from the elementary school to high school. So, it is necessary to enhance students' thinking skills by their own ability of restructuring knowledges from all subject matters in more advanced curriculum. Also, it is required to develop a new hierarchical system of curriculum concerning the geographical view of the world. Students can have many kinds of geographical view points if teachers can well organize learning activities logically for the students to enhance their understanding of geography by adjusting scale of regional unit, geographical theme, and resolution level of interpretation. And then, in the elementary school curriculum, the students are required to understand the spatial variation of places, and various environments in the world, scale. In the junior high school, students have to understand the relationship between man and nature in the context of large scale environments. The high school curriculum needs to be focused on the student's understanding of the spatial contexts of places by theoretical application in the smaller scale region different from elementary and junior high school curriculums.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.374-388
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service physics teachers' perceptions on the physics education major curriculum. We surveyed 15 junior, and 13 senior college students of physics education major in an university in southern part of Korea. Among them, 24 participants(86 %) took the physics 1 course in high school and 22 participants(79 %) chose the physics 1 in their Korea Scholastic Aptitude Test. The responses showed that the most necessary part in pre-service students' learning was the understanding of high school level physics(36 %), and the understanding of introductory level physics(29 %). In the wish list of courses to be open, high school level physics course was ranked first among seven options by 61 % of respondents. Also, there was some concurrence among respondents in opinion of the necessity for understanding introductory physics. Students felt difficulties in understanding it especially owing to the lack of problem solving skill and comprehension. They added that the sufficient explanation of core concepts should be the first action in the innovative plan. Most participants of pre-service physics teachers hoped to have the revised major curriculum which could help their understanding of high school level or introductory level of physics. However, there was a gap of opinions between the group of students with completion of the high school physics 1 & 2 course and those with non-completion of them. The approach of changing major curriculum with consideration of learners' needs was recommended because the number of students with completion of the high school physics course would probably be decreasing rapidly under these circumstances such as the application of new national curriculum, the reduction of the number of the elective courses in Korea Scholastic Aptitude Test and so on.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.181-197
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• 2023

The importance of reasoning processes based on fractional concepts and number senses, rather than a formalized procedural method using common denominators, has been noted in a number of studies in relation to compare the magnitudes of unlike fractions. In this study, a unlike fraction magnitudes comparison test was conducted on fourth-grade elementary school students who did not learn equivalent fractions and common denominators to analyze the reasoning perspectives of the correct and wrong answers for each of the eight problem types. As a result of the analysis, even students before learning equivalent fractions and reduction to common denominators were able to compare the unlike fractions through reasoning based on fractional sense. The perspective chosen by the most students for the comparison of the magnitudes of unlike fractions is the 'part-whole perspective', which shows that reasoning when comparing the magnitudes of fractions depends heavily on the concept of fractions itself. In addition, it was found that students who lack a conceptual understanding of fractions led to difficulties in having quantitative sense of fraction, making it difficult to compare and infer the magnitudes of unlike fractions. Based on the results of the study, some didactical implications were derived for reasoning guidance based on the concept of fractions and the sense of numbers without reduction to common denominators when comparing the magnitudes of unlike fraction.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.299-313
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• 2018

Inquiry-centered education is important in science education, but in the actual education field, scientific research is being done in a uniform manner due to realistic difficulties. In this study, we use RS (Reverse Science) as a secondary chemistry class to provide opportunities for students to engage in inquiry learning and scientific thinking through process-oriented activities. In this study, we developed and applied it to explore the effects on the scientific inquiry abilities of middle school students and checked the students' perception of it. For the application of the program, 128 students were selected from 6 classes of the 2nd grade in D district middle school, 64 from the experimental group and 64 from the comparative group. The experimental group taught RSP-based the chemistry inquiry programs and the comparative group taught instructor-led classes and verification experiments on the same topic over the seventh hour with three themes. In addition, we analyzed the results of the pre- and post-test by using the science inquiry ability test, and discussed the effects of the program based on the students' perceptions through class observation, student activity area, questionnaire and interview. As a result, the class using the program showed statistically significant changes in the science inquiry ability of secondary school students. Specifically, the experimental group was found to be significant in its prediction among the subcomponents of basic exploration ability compared to the comparative group. The differences have also been shown to be significant in terms of data translation, hypothesis setup and variable control, which are subcomponents of integrated exploration capabilities (p <. 05). In addition, students became interested in the process of creating the theory of science, and were highly interested in collaborating with their friends. It also provided students with opportunities to experience scientific thinking through process-oriented inquiry. Finally, based on the positive impact of the RSP-based chemistry inquiry program on students, we were able to identify the potential use of the program.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.658-672
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• 2022

The unique teaching and learning difficulties of speed-related units in elementary school science are mainly due to the student's lack of mathematical thinking ability and procedural knowledge on speed measurement, and curriculums and textbooks must be constructed with these in mind. To identify the implications of composing a new science curriculum and relevant textbooks, this study reviewed the structure and contents of the speed-related units of three curriculums from the 2007 revised curriculum to the 2015 revised curriculum and the resulting textbooks and examined their relevance in light of the literature. Results showed that the current content carries the risk of making students calculate only the speed of an object through a mechanical algorithm by memorization rather than grasp the multifaceted relation between traveled distance, duration time, and speed. Findings also highlighted the need to reorganize the curriculum and textbooks to offer students the opportunity to learn the meaning of speed step-by-step by visualizing materials such as double number lines and dealing with simple numbers that are easy to calculate and understand intuitively. In addition, this paper discussed the urgency of improving inquiry performance such as process skills by observing and measuring an actual object's movement, displaying it as a graph, and interpreting it rather than conducting data interpretation through investigation. Lastly, although the current curriculum and textbooks emphasize the connection with daily life in their application aspects, they also deal with dynamics-related content somewhat differently from kinematics, which is the main learning content of the unit. Hence, it is necessary to reorganize the contents focusing on cases related to speed so that students can grasp the concept of speed and use it in their everyday lives. With regard to the new curriculum and textbooks, this study proposes that students be provided the opportunity to systematically and deeply study core topics rather than exclude content that is difficult to learn and challenging to teach so that students realize the value of science and enjoy learning it.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.379-388
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• 2020

The purpose of this study are to develop the TEP activity for learning experimental apparatus at elementary school and to test the effects of the TEP activity. This study consists of two steps. First through literature research on the difficulties and needs of experimental apparatus education developed the form that how to educate the experimental apparatus at elementary school. Second, applied the TEP activity and figured out the effects as two aspect(knowledge about experimental apparatus and actual using skill during lesson). This worksheet was applied to 3rd grade students in elementary school about 4 experimental apparatuses(Beaker, Electronic scale, Glass rod, Spatula). The results of this study are as follows: There is no specific time to teach what is and how to use experimental apparatus by regular curriculum. So many students and teachers need method and time to learn them. Also they want to lots of opportunities to use them. With that needs given previously, TEP activity developed by 3 steps. 1. Trigger interest 2. Explore experimental apparatus: learned knowledges about experimental apparatus focused on appearance(name, purpose, directions for use, precautions) 3. Practice experimental apparatus: actual using time to acquire skills. After that did the survey of knowledge and observation of students' behavior during usual class to confirm the effects. According to the results, TEP activity helped the students to improve there awareness of the experimental apparatus and actual using skills.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.406-420
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• 2021

This study used Glaser's grounded theory method for the recognition of college students' majors in counseling psychology. Among the 3rd and 4th grade students majoring in counseling psychology, 19 students participated in the study, focusing on them for 5 months and collecting data through individual interviews. As a result of analyzing the data, 103 concepts, 26 subcategories, 9 upper categories, and 1 core category were derived. As a result of the study, first, the participants wanted to relieve the burden of people's hearts and had the hope of becoming a healer. Second, among the participants, in terms of their personality and aptitude for their major field, they perceived it as joy and satisfaction, such as 'It fits well with the major,' 'I made a good choice,' and 'It became a turning point in life.' However, they also recognized the incompatibility of the major, such as disharmony of aptitude, burden of the role of counselor, and rejection of major. Third, although participants showed usefulness in their major learning, their perception of the career path in their major was acting as anxiety and conflict, but their concerns and conflicts resulted in financial difficulties, poor job conditions, and emotional exhaustion caused by long-term study. The burden of job, fear of counseling job, limit of undergraduate graduation, uncertainty of career, etc. acted as an obstacle in choosing a major career. Fourth, as a result of analyzing the interview data of the participants, a core category called' understanding and growth and the will of the counselor to realize the dream' was derived. In conclusion, the participant's perception of their major is the change and growth of themselves, the formation of a healthy relationship with others, and satisfaction with the suitability of their major and their aptitudes. It turned out to have a lasting will to do.

• School Mathematics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.803-825
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• 2014

From the early stages of learning algebra, literal symbols are used to represent algebraic objects such as variables and parameters. The concept of parameters contains both indeterminacy and fixity resulting in confusion and errors in understanding. The purpose of this research is to compare the beginners of algebra and pre-service teachers who completed secondary mathematics education in terms of understanding this paradoxical nature of parameters. We recruited 35 middle school students in eight grade and 73 pre-service teachers enrolled in a undergraduate course at one university. Using them we conducted a survey on the perception of the nature of parameters asking if one considers parameters suggested in a problem as variables or constants. We analyzed the collected data using the mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches. From the analysis results, we identified several difficulties in understanding of parameters from both groups. Especially, our statistical analysis revealed that the proportions of subjects with limited understanding of the concept of parameters do not differ much in two groups. This suggests that learning algebra in secondary mathematics education does not improve the understanding of the nature of parameters significantly.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.71-82
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• 2021

Learning efficiency can be maximized by careful matching of text features to expected reader features (i.e., linguistic and cognitive abilities, and background knowledge). The present study aims to explore whether this systematic principle is reflected in the development of science textbooks. The current study examined science textbook texts on 20 measures provided by Auto-Kohesion, a Korean language analysis tool. In addition to surface-level features (basic counts, word-related measures, syntactic complexity measures) which have been commonly used in previous text analysis studies, the present study included cohesion-related features as well (noun overlap ratios, connectives, pronouns). The main findings demonstrate that the surface measures (e.g., word and sentence length, word frequency) overall increased in complexity with grade levels, whereas the majority of the other measures, particularly cohesion-related measures, did not systematically vary across grade levels. The current results suggest that students of lower grades are expected to experience learning difficulties and lowered motivation due to the challenging texts. Textbooks are also not likely to be suitable for students of higher grades to develop the ability to process difficulty level texts required for higher education. The current study suggests that various text-related features including cohesion-related measures need to be carefully considered in the process of textbook development.