• Journal of Science Education
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to explore the variables of knowledge, acceptance of theory of evolution and epistemology that could be keys for teaching and learning the theory of evolution within school contexts, and to suggest instructional tips for teaching evolution in relation to the grade levels of education. This cross-sectional study examined the grade level differences (8th, 11th, and preservice teachers) of four variables: evolutionary knowledge; acceptance of theory of evolution; and both domain-specific epistemology (nature of science in relation to evolution) and context-specific epistemology (scientific epistemological views) and their relationships. This study, then, built conceptual models of each grade level students' acceptance of theory of evolution among the factors of evolutionary knowledge and epistemology (both domain-specific and context-specific). The results showed that the scores of evolutionary knowledge, evolution in relation to NOS, and scientific epistemology increased as the grade levels of education go up(p<.05) except the scores of acceptance of theory of evolution(p>.05). In addition, the 8th graders' and the 11th graders' acceptance of evolutionary theory was most explained by 'evolution in relation to NOS', while the preservice teachers' acceptance of evolutionary theory was most explained by evolutionary knowledge. Interestingly, 'scientific epistemological views' were only included for the 8th graders, while evolutionary knowledge and 'evolution in relation to NOS' (context-specific epistemology) were included in explaining all the level of students' acceptance of evolutionary theory. This study implicated that when teaching and learning of the theory of evolution in school contexts, knowledge, acceptance of evolutionary theory and epistemology could be considered appropriately for the different grade levels of students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.349-362
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• 1995

As science programs emphasize an understanding of the nature of science, it is needed to assess students' views on a wide range of science-technology-society topics. The purpose of this study is to investigate the views of high school students about some selected topics of the epistemology of science. The selected topics include the meaning of science, scientific assumptions, values in science, conceptual inventions in science, scientific method, consensus making in science, and characteristics of the knowledge produced in science. Identified preconceptions in the study are as follows: Science was seen as improving the world(20%), and technology was defined as the application of science(35%). Almost half of the sample(49%) subscribed to a view consistent with a creationist posture and large group of students(46%) expressed a purely ontological view. Only minority of the students(5%) discounted the role played by private science values, but one half of the sample denied the fact that gender-related values can influence the knowledge that scientist construct(53%). Only a small potion of the sample(5%) held a view contrasting to contemporary epistemology of science, but the majority(67%) expressed a simplistic hierarchical relationship in which hypotheses become theories and theories become laws. One third of the students(33%) held a preconception that the scientific method composed of questioning, hypothesizing, collecting data, and concluding. Students did not appreciate the role of consensus making in science(33%). An out-dated epistemic perspective describes the progress of science as simply an accumulation of knowledge(4%). In general, it was concluded that most high school students did not hold efficient understanding on the nature of science. It can be said that no adequate and consistent instruction took place to provide students with an authentic view of the nature of science.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.124-139
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• 2011

This study was to explore epistemological features presented in texts of exhibit panels in the science museum located in Gyeonggi Province. Out-of-school or daily experiences allow more properly and potentially students to form informative science image, because the understandings of scientific epistemology were constructed tacitly through various experiences over a long period of time. The target for this study was panel texts of exhibits in a science museum as an of out-of-school context. The analytical framework was adopted from epistemological frameworks by Ryder et al. (1999). The research results were explored in the categories of relationship between scientific knowledge claims and the data, the nature of lines of scientific enquiry, and social dimension of science. It revealed that one exhibit might reflect the characteristics of one epistemological position: relating one data to one knowledge claim; generating knowledge claim from scientists' individual interests or from discipline's internal epistemology; scientists working as a community or an institution. Findings suggested that the exhibits of a science museum including panel texts and medium need to reflect the wide ranges of scientific epistemology.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.882-891
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school students' views on the nature of science and to compare their views by gender. Participants were 159 sixth graders in Seoul. An instrument consisting of five multiple-choice items were developed on the bases of previous studies. At the end of each item, students were also asked to write their reason in details for selecting a specific option. The results indicated that the students' views on the nature of science, on the whole, were neither accurate nor adequate from the viewpoints of modern epistemology. On comparing their views by gender, however, no significant differences were found except the item concerning the 'nature of model'.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.71-83
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to explore ecological concepts, epistemological reasoning and reasoning processes through constructing 'food web and food pyramid' in ecology. We conducted classes which involved a 'food web and food pyramid' for $6^{th}$ grade students. Each class is constructed of small groups to do modeling and epistemological reasoning through communication. The researcher had videotaped and recorded each class and have made transcription about classes. We analysed patterns of 'food web and food pyramid models' and reasoning processes according to scientific epistemology using transcription data and student outputs. As a result, students represented phenomenon-based reasoning, relation-based reasoning and model-based reasoning in scientific epistemology from their modeling. Students usually did relation-based reasoning and model-based reasoning in food web which explains ecological phenonenon, while they usually did model-based reasoning in food pyramid which expects ecological phenomenon. Student's reasoning can be limited when they have misconception of scientific knowledge and are limited by fragmentary knowledge. This represents that students has to do relation-based reasoning and model-based reasoning is beneficial in their ecological model. It also suggests that students need to define correct-conception related to ecological modeling(food web, food pyramid).

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.6621-6629
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• 2014

Social phenomena require the fundamentals of novel scientific epistemology and methodology due to the continual change by complex variables. A systematic understanding of paradigm shifts is also necessary for analyzing the problems currently faced in society. This study presents chaos theory, which was developed from the natural sciences, to discuss the abnormality of modern society that underscores the importance of the chaos paradigm. Chaos theory is applicable to diverse social phenomena that stretches across politics, economics, and sociology. If social science research can appropriately and effectively develop and apply chaos theory, the theory can be utilized as a useful paradigm to reinforce the fundamentals of epistemology and methodology in exploring social phenomena.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 1999

The purpose of this investigation was to examine and compare pre-service and in-service elementary school teachers' beliefs about Science-Technology-and Society (STS), particularly beliefs about the nature of science and technology, their interaction within society, and the epistemology of science. Large percentage of pre-service and in-service elementary school teachers were understood to perceive as follows : 1. they regarded the science as 〃Knowledge scheme aiming content'and technology as 'skill for solution of actual problems'. 2. they revealed themselves to perceive tat science/ technology influence our lives through new terms and ideas, that science/ technology is affected by governmental policies and that all the people concerned including scientist and technologist should participate in the course of decision making. 3. they perceived that scientist perform their studies by characteristic abilities and that the studies are affected by their religious viewpoint. Moreover, they were understood to perceive that scientific knowledge are constructed through social interaction. 4. they perceived that scientist discover and develop scientific laws by scientific methods such as verification and certification, and that those scientific laws could be changed later.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.930-943
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate if students may actually experience scientific reasoning based on an epistemology of authentic science during authentic open inquiry. The samples were 86 10th graders in a science-high school in Seoul. The experimental group practiced authentic open inquiry and the control group practiced traditional school science inquiry in five weeks. Then, the questions students asked while performing inquiry tasks were analyzed. The frequency of the questions asked by students was almost same between two groups, however, the types of questions were different. The frequency of thinking questions in experimental group was higher than the control, and the difference was statistically significant (P<.01). Particularly, the frequency of expansive thinking questions and anomaly detection questions was much higher in experimental than the control group. Judging from the result, with the students from the experimental group asking questions reflecting on the epistemology of authentic science such as scientific methods, anomalous data, and uncertainty about reasoning, students may understand authentic science features during the activities of open authentic inquiry. The result from comparing questions according to the inquiry subject showed that more openness caused the higher frequency of anomaly detection questions and strategy questions, but that inductive thinking questions and analogical thinking questions were connected to inquiry subject rather than the openness of the inquiry.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.501-510
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• 1997

Science teachers' beliefs about science and school science and their perceptions of the science laboratory learning environment were investigated with an assumption that science laboratory teaching would be affected by science teachers' beliefs. Likert-scale questionnaires of BASSSQ and SLEI were used in this study. The major findings were as follows: 1. Science teachers showed inconsistent beliefs about science and school science. Their responses reflected a patch-like view of postmodern epistemology and objectivism They also showed somewhat different views about science and school science. It was found that science teachers had strong objectivist views about science in some parts. but they had moderate constructivist views about school science in other parts; 2. The mean scores of student cohesiveness, integration. and rule clarity on the actual version in SLEl were relatively high, but those of open-endedness and physical environment were very low; 3. There was no association between teachers' beliefs about science and their perceptions of the science laboratory learning environment. But some associations were found between teachers' beliefs about school science and their perception on student cohesiveness, integration, and rule clarity of the actual science laboratory learning environment. Teachers' beliefs about school science had some statistically significant correlations with their perceptions on all scales of the preferred version of SLEI. We could not show a causal relationship between teachers' beliefs and their science laboratory learning environment through these results. But it can be suggested that teachers' beliefs about school science do have a role in constructing a desirable science laboratory learning environment, as we found that there were statistically significant correlations between them.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.282-295
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• 2011

Prior research has reported that student epistemological beliefs might affect their participation in learning and the process of conceptual change. The purposes of this study were to investigate the characteristics of sixth grade students epistemological beliefs about science and the relation between their epistemological beliefs about science and factors related their learning. For this research questions, 245 sixth grade students participated and various test instruments were used in this study. Students answered two types of questionnaires on epistemological beliefs about science and three test instruments on factors related students' learning(achievement in science, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels). The results of this study were as follows. First, a large number of elementary school students believed that the purpose of science to perform activities like simple experiments. A lot of students believed that scientific knowledge was changeable according to the nature of scientific knowledge and that scientific knowledge could be learnt on their own. Also, many students believed experiment results to be basis on which to form personal scientific conceptions. Second, students who believed in more modern epistemology about science represented higher levels of science learning achievement, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels. Therefore, when developing science curriculum, science educators need to consider how to develop student modern epistemological beliefs about science.