• Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
• /
• v.1 no.1
• /
• pp.59-75
• /
• 2011

This case study examines two drama specialists' perspectives on the purpose of drama education and how their visions and beliefs are reflected in their drama practices during a sixweek kindergarten drama program. Two experienced drama specialists who have worked at public elementary schools located in the Midwestern United States were the main participants of this case study. Using a qualitative case study method, in-depth observations and semistructured interviews were carried out. Findings show that the drama specialists believed the purpose of drama education to be the building of self-confidence, creativity, awareness of the arts and respect for others. Both congruent and inconsistent relations between their beliefs and their teaching practices were observed. Based on these findings, an understanding of how specialists' beliefs and practices contribute to a broader understanding of drama education is further discussed.

• Research in Mathematical Education
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.295-310
• /
• 2011

Teachers' attitudes and beliefs are related to teaching practices and are dependent upon their teaching domain. The present study compares conceptual models of creative student oriented teaching practices of mathematics teachers in two OECD countries, South Korea and Turkey to provide an insight for teacher educators and policy makers. Teaching and Learning International Survey 2008 (TALIS 2008) data are used to test the fit of a path analysis model with a subsample of l337 middle school mathematics teachers ($N_{Korea}$ = 562 vs. $N_{Turkey}$ = 775). The study showed that Turkish teachers were younger and less experienced, whereas Korean teachers were better educated. Despite the statistical differences in attitudes, beliefs and practices between countries, it was found that the teaching practices of mathematics teachers in both countries were more complex than to be explained only through attitudes and beliefs.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.90-108
• /
• 2004

This study is to understand preservice science teachers' previous experience, beliefs about teaching and learning, and visions of themselves as future teachers. The data were collected from two individual interviews with 7 voluntary students and analyzed qualitatively for category construction. As the results of this study, we presented two cases, which showed that their different views of teaching science are strongly related to their previous experiences as learners and observers in schools, and that there is the apparent consistency between each participant's beliefs about science teaching and learning and their own visions of teaching in a science classroom. Implications for preservice science teacher education related to the results were discussed.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.12 no.4
• /
• pp.478-485
• /
• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between safety knowledge, health beliefs and self-efficacy in child care teachers. Method: The participants were 394 teachers from child care centers in Seoul city. Data collection was done using a questionnaire that included a Safety Knowledge Test, Health Belief Scale and Self-efficacy Scale. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. The SPSS 11.0 Win program was used for analysis. Results: The mean was 12.11 for safety knowledge, 38.31 for health belief, and 91.07 for self-efficacy. There were statistically significant differences in the degree of safety knowledge according to safety education, in the level of health beliefs according to length of service as a teacher and in the degree of self-efficacy according to age, and length of service as a teacher. There were statistically significant positive correlations between safety knowledge and health belief, and between safety knowledge and self-efficacy of child care teachers. Conclusion: According to the results, programs to improve safety knowledge, health beliefs and self-efficacy of child care teachers should be developed and used to decrease the proportion of accidents involving children in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.489-498
• /
• 2007

This study focuses on surveying and examining the beliefs of elementary pre-service and in-service teachers about science and science education. The instrument consisted of 21 items about science and science education on a 5-Likert scale(score range from 1 to 5). The one contained science knowledge and scientific invention, and the other contained science teacher, learning science and science learning and teaching. Data were collected from 76 pre-service and 96 in-service elementary teachers(24 male and 148 female). The elementary pre-service and in-service teachers had higher level belief about that science knowledge should be acquired by sequential scientific process, the beliefs of in-service teachers was more explicit than those of pre-service teachers. They had beliefs to educate learners by providing scientific joyfulness and sequential scientific process. But, in-service teachers had difficulties to perform scientific process-based activities. It is necessary to provide scientific experiences to understand the nature of science in pre-service and in-service programs.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.269-286
• /
• 2018

Objective: The purpose of this study was to clarify the influences of constructivist educational beliefs and eco-friendly teaching attitudes on early childhood teachers' mathematics teaching efficacy. This study also examined the mediating effect of eco-friendly attitudes on the relationship between the other two variables. Methods: A total of 399 teachers teaching 3,4 and 5-year-olds in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon participated in this study. The data were analyzed using the SPSS Win 21.0 program and the Sobel test. Results: First, mathematical teaching efficacy of early childhood teachers was significantly correlated with constructivist educational beliefs and eco-friendly teaching attitudes. Second, with teacher's career as the control variable, constructivist educational beliefs have more influence in mathematical teaching efficacy than the other variable. Third, eco-friendly teaching attitude partially mediated between the other two variables. Conclusion/Implications: The results of this study imply that constructivist educational beliefs and eco-friendly teaching attitudes are important factors on mathematics teaching efficacy. It is expected that it will be used as basic data for various programs that increase constructivist educational beliefs and eco-friendly teaching attitudes.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.87-108
• /
• 2007

Given that various classroom contextual factors influence the nature of writing instructional practices, it would be worthwhile to explore these factors to generate better environment for learning to write. Among many factors, this study examined teachers' beliefs and knowledge, which would operate as a very influential contextual factor in that changes in principles and methods of teaching writing would be the results of their underlying beliefs and knowledge related to teaching writing. Three professional teachers who teach second- and third-grade English language learners (ELLs) were interviewed, and the analysis of teacher interviews was conducted. The research findings indicated that basically all of the teachers perceived the role of writing in second language learning as very important, sharing the belief that the ultimate goal of teaching writing is to have their students gain fluency in writing and that some of instructional methods such as integration of writing and other language aspects, content-based writing, and providing scaffolding are important. In addition, some beliefs that two ESL teachers shared included the importance of ample and continuous opportunities to write, vocabulary knowledge, and explicit instruction about writing. Other beliefs, including the importance of creating a comfortable writing environment and opportunities for writing for varied purposes and genres were represented.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.514-525
• /
• 2005

The most important factor in providing education to gifted students as well as to students in general are the teachers themselves. However, at present in Korea, most of the teachers in charge of education for the gifted are educated by in-service training programs only for a short period of time. It is doubtful whether the teachers, who have taught ordinary students in general, can teach gifted students effectively only after completing such a short course. This research investigated the relationship between the teachers' beliefs about educating the gifted and the teachers' classroom practices in a Science Academy through case studies. The guiding questions for this study are as follows: First, what beliefs do the participating teachers have about education for the gifted? Second, how are the participants' beliefs reflected in their classroom practices? Of the five participants, two are physics teachers, two are biology teachers, and one is an earth science teacher. I observed and videotaped four classroom practices for each participant and conducted an in-depth interview with each participant. Further data were collected through e-mails with the participants. All data were carefully transcribed and analyzed. The results are as follows: Beliefs about education for the gifted do not exist independently, and form a belief system connecting with beliefs about teaching and learning, and subject matter. And the belief systems of participants can be divided into "student-centered," "teacher-centered," and "conflict chaos." In the classes of the participants who have "student-centered" belief system, students' questions or opinions played an important role and the participation structure in the classroom was determined by the students. On the contrary, participants who have "teacher-centered" belief system focused on teaching contents as much as possible in their classes. These teachers played a heavy role and formed a participation structure where students depended on their teacher's intellectual authority and therefore participated in their class passively. A participant who have "conflict chaos" belief did not form a firm belief system yet, and traditional beliefs about teaching and learning were reflected a lot in her classes. The research results imply teachers' beliefs play an important role in classroom practices and beliefs about teaching and learning and subject matter as well as beliefs about education for the gifted are important factors for teachers who guide gifted students. Additionally, I make some suggestions for the improvement of teacher education for the gifted.

• School Mathematics
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.385-404
• /
• 2011

Currently, reflective teaching has been actively studied in terms of teachers' professional development relating to classroom instruction. The present study looked at, using the method of a case study, the differences between a novice and an experienced elementary school mathematics teachers' beliefs demonstrated during their reflective teaching. The findings of the study show that at the intial stage of reflective teaching, the novice teacher identified few errors during class and was not enthusiastic about applying the results of her reflective teaching due to lack of confidence. By contrast, the experienced teacher identified more errors during class than the novice teacher and had fewer reflections due to a sense of confidence. As the teachers' engagement in reflective teaching increased with time, they both felt the need for advice from experts on mathematics teaching and directed their attention to interactions with their students away from teacher-centered instruction. Further, the novice teacher engaged in more teacher-student interactions than the experienced teacher, and the experienced teacher increased the frequency of teaching reflection. Based on the findings, the article suggests a number of implications for the cooperative reflective teaching between novice and experienced teachers and the improvement of classroom instruction.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.192-200
• /
• 2007

In this study, we investigated the variables related to the science teaching efficacy beliefs of pre-service and in-service elementary school teachers. The participants were 176 freshmen and 260 seniors from an university of education and 234 teachers from 25 elementary schools located in Jeonju. Variables concerning pre-service teachers include their sex, career/study tracks (science or non-science), and the number of science courses taken either at high school or at university. Variables concerning in-service teachers include their sex, academic degree, the frequency and type of participation in science in-service training, and their teaching career experience. The Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument was used to measure teachers' self-efficacy beliefs. The results indicated that the personal science teaching efficacy belief scores of seniors were significantly lower than those of freshmen and in-service teachers, whereas the science teaching outcome expectancy scores of seniors were significantly higher than those of freshmen. Among variables investigated, sex, career/study track, the number of science courses taken at high school, and the frequency and type of participation in science in-service training were found to significantly influence teachers' science teaching efficacy beliefs.