• Title/Summary/Keyword: the nature of science knowledge

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Impact of Teachers’ Overcoming Experience of Threshold Concepts in Chemistry on Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) Development

  • Park, Eun Jung
    • Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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    • v.59 no.4
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    • pp.308-319
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    • 2015
  • As a follow-up study to identify references for threshold concepts in science, 20 high school chemistry teachers were interviewed. Seven concepts were identified as threshold concepts. The data revealed that teachers overcome the thresholds while they are teaching as well as learning during their school years. This explains that the mastery experience of threshold concepts involve not only the process of creating subject matter knowledge of a learner but also the reflection on or preparation for teaching. Hence, the current study proposes that a strong relationship exists between the mastery experience of threshold concepts and the development of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In this regard, findings from this study will provide valuable information to understand the nature of threshold concepts and suggests the value of mastery experience of threshold concepts in terms of PCK development.

Changes in Geological Contents Knowledge and Self-confidence of Pre-service Elementary Teachers before and after Geological Field Trips (지질답사 전후 예비 초등 교사의 지질 영역에 대한 지식과 지질답사에 대한 자신감의 변화)

  • Lee, Myeon-U
    • Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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    • v.29 no.4
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    • pp.484-495
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    • 2010
  • The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in geological contents knowledge and self-confidence before and after the geological field trips. Fifty seven undergraduate students at a national university of education participated in this study. The questionnaires were developed by the researcher to serve the purpose. Findings were as follows. First, before and after the geological field trip, there was no significant difference in changes of geological content knowledge (p<.05). However, participants' self-confidence about the geological field trip changed significantly (p<.01). Second, there were no significant differences in changes of both variables in terms of gender (p<.05). And in this study, participants were grouped into two: science track that selected science areas and non-science track with social study selected in the college scholastic ability test. There were also no significant differences in changes of geological contents knowledge and self-confidence in terms of science or non-science track (p<.05). Third, in terms of the geological content knowledge, 24 pre-service teachers showed an increase, 12 students unchanged, and the 21 participants decreased. In contrast, per participants' self-confidence about the geological field trip, fifty three students indicated an increase with only one participant unchanged, and three preservice teachers decreased on the score. Finally, after the geological field trip, participants' comments indicated that they could feel the mystery of nature with the mind of a great experience. As a result, data showed that pre-service teachers became interested in geology, and motivated more in learning geological area than ever.

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The Nature of Science Reflected in Exhibitions of Natural History Museums (자연사박물관의 전시에 반영된 과학의 본성)

  • Lee Sun-Kyung;Shin Myeong-Kyeong;Kim Chan-Jong
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.26 no.5
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    • pp.376-386
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    • 2005
  • This study investigated to describe how the nature of science is revealed in the four natural history museums in Korea. Natural history museums are well considered as informal settings of education, and the nature of science has been one of major topics stressed in science education. Therefore, the revelation of this topic is supposedly reflected in developing museum exhibitions. In each of the four target natural history museum or natural history exhibition, the representative exhibits subtitled by scientific inquiry and cases dealing with history of science were selected for the study. The analyzing exhibits focused on whether exhibitions were labeled with emphasis on declarative description or interpretative one. In analyzing the contents, the focus was on the concerns of scientists, scientific community, social and cultural aspects, uncertainty of scientific knowledge, and providing sufficient evidences. All things considered, it was hard to conclude that every target exhibit clearly considered the nature of science as an essential element, in designing and developing their exhibitions. More deliberate input of nature of science is suggested for worldly renowned natural history museums, because previous researches keep insisting that the nature of science would be more efficiently achieved in an informal educational setting rather than in classrooms.

Development of an Instrument to Assess Secondary School Students' Conceptions of the Nature of Science (중등 학교 학생들의 과학의 본성 개념을 측정하기 위한 도구 개발)

  • Soh, Won-Ju;Kim, Beom-Ki;Woo, Jong-Ok
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.18 no.2
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    • pp.127-136
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    • 1998
  • The purpose of this study was to develop, field test an instrument to assess secondary school students' conceptions of the nature of science. The instrument named Philosophical Perspectives Probe(PPP) is a pool of 24 multiple-choice items that address a wide range of philosophical topics of science. The statements and the choices of this instrument were derived from an analysis of various philosophical positions. The main philosophical systems of the instrument are inductivism, falsificationism, and relativism, respectively. Major distinctions depend on the issues of the criteria of demarcation, patterns of scienctific change, epistemological status of scientific knowledge, and the scientific methods. The researchers also offer teachers a new way of assessing and interpreting their students' conceptions on a wide variety of topics related to the nature of science.

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Effects of Model Construction and Pattern Identification Activities on Views on the Nature of Science in the Context of Science 10 Inquiry Unit (10학년 과학 탐구 단원의 맥락에서 모델구성과 규칙발견을 통한 명시적 수업이 과학의 본성의 관점에 미치는 효과)

  • Cho, Jung-Il;Kim, Jin-Hee;Hong, Hang-Hwa
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.28 no.8
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    • pp.955-963
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    • 2008
  • This study was conducted to assess any change in students' views on the nature of science (NOS) after lessons through the activities of model construction and pattern identification. The instrument used to examine NOS views was the Views of Nature of Science questionnaire (VNOS). Four students' responses on VNOS before and after instruction were analyzed. The two levels of their views, novice and expert, were judged by the authors based on criteria set by several science educators. The instruction consisted of six hours of the so-called black box and cube activities developed for model construction and pattern identification, respectively. Students' views were at the novice level in definition of scientific theory, tentativeness of scientific knowledge, difference of hypotheses, theories and laws, model construction, and creativity and imagination in experiments and investigations. Students' views on NOS knowledge such as model and theory have improved for two students after instruction. The improvement seemed to be due to an explicit approach using the activities of model construction and pattern identification. The factors of changes and no-changes of views on NOS were identified and discussed in terms of improvement of the views.

The Development of an Instrument for Assessing Secondary Students' Views on the Nature of Science (과학의 본성에 대한 중등학생들의 견해조사를 위한 도구 개발)

  • Kwack, Dae-Oh;Kim, Young-Su;Sung, Min-Wung
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.680-692
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    • 2000
  • An assessment instrument dealing with secondary students' views on the nature of science was developed in this study. The features in aspects of the nature of science are generally accepted as characterizing the scientific enterprise and we have focused on are: 1) the purposes of the scientific enterprise, 2) the nature of scientific enquiry, 3) the nature and status of scientific knowledge, and 4) the nature and functioning of the scientific community. The questionnaire is made of three sections; that is, "Scientific Question", "Experiment", and "Belief". The Scientific Questions probe was designed to examine the ways in which learners mark out science as a particular domain, and particularly the types of questions that they think are open to scientific investigation. The Experiment probe was designed to throw light on the ways in which learners may think about theories and their relationship to evidence in a range of contexts. A related aim concerns the sorts of activities that learners consider to be experiments, and their reasons for this. The Belief probe was designed to see whether students are able to articulate the grounds for their acceptance of a proposition and, if they are, to explore the nature of these grounds. The reliability of the instrument developed in this study was found to be 0.86.

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Narrative Inquiry on Student-Teachers' Teaching Experiences with Extra Curricular Science Classes of a High School: Types and Characteristics of the Knowledge Constructed by the Pre-service Science Teachers (예비 과학 교사들의 고등학교 과학반 지도 경험에 관한 내러티브 탐구: 예비 교사들이 형성하는 지식의 종류와 특징)

  • Oh, Phil-Seok;Lee, Sun-Kyung;Lee, Gyoung-Ho;Kim, Chan-Jong;Kim, Heui-Baik
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.28 no.6
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    • pp.546-564
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this study was to examine the types and characteristics of the knowledge constructed by pre-service secondary science teachers. Data included 26 student-teachers' narratives regarding their experiences in teaching high school students who were enrolled in extra-curricular science classes. It was revealed that the pre-service teachers awoke to the importance of subject matter knowledge, and learned it themselves in the situation of their own teaching. Especially their concern about science content knowledge was strongly associated with the matter of didactic transposition of the knowledge. The result also showed that the pre-service teachers constructed knowledge about the relationship with students as well as pedagogical knowledge to help students learn, and that they newly realized the nature of science in the context of teaching science. In addition, the teaching experiences allowed for the student-teachers to develop knowledge of oneself as a teacher and knowledge about science education in schools. It was believed that the knowledge constructed personally by the pre-service teachers from their teaching experiences could be a platform for the development of teacher expertise. Implications of the present study for science teacher education and relevant research were discussed.

A Study on Philosophical Issuse in Institutional Household Study (공공가정론의 철학적 제문제에 관한 고찰)

  • 김난도
    • Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.47-57
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    • 1998
  • This paper delves into philosophical aspects of institutional household(IH) study. The paper argues that it is also necessary to investigate theoretical, methodological, and philosophical issues, not only prescriptive, practical, and managerial ones, in order to establish a field of study as an independent area of academic discipline. In that sense the paper is expected to contribute to the establishment of "the science of IH" as well as the growth of knowledge in that field. For philosophical discussions, the paper first reviews overall sub-fields of philosophy of science such as ontology, epistemology, methodology, and the debate on human nature. Then, it focuses on philosophical issues relating to the nature of IH including (1) the substance of institutional household as scientific investigation, (2) the epistemological basis of IH study, (3) the possibility of normal methodology in studying IH, (4) the values that IH ought to pursue, and (5) the rationale and autonomy of IH study. In the conclusion section, the paper discusses why the study on philosophical aspects in IH is critical in academic community of family resource management.anagement.

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An Empirical Study on The Types and Characteristics of Technological Capability: Electronic and IT Firms of Korea (국내 기업의 기술력과 기업특성에 관한 실증연구: 전자/통신 기업을 중심으로)

  • 김성한;박용태
    • Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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    • 2000.10a
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    • pp.251-254
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    • 2000
  • In the knowledge-based economy, technological capability is critical for the survival and growth of firms. Technological capability differs across firms depending on the structural and environmental conditions. In nature, the evaluation of technological capability is an intractable task and thus previous studies often employ such proxy measures as patent, productivity, or profitability. In this research, we define technological capability as a combination of the above three measures and investigate, by using the multi-variate statistical analysis, the characteristics of technological capability of electronics/IT firms of Korea. We first propose a taxonomy in which firms are classified into four clusters based on the differences in the nature of technological capability. Then, across clusters, we comparatively analyze the relationship between technological capability and structural/environmental factors of firms. Finally, the implications of empirical findings will be discussed. This study is a small-scale, descriptive one but will be extended and elaborated by augmenting the database and/or incorporating more variables.

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Growth Analysis of Cancer Biology Research, 2000-2011

  • Keshava,;Thimmaiah, B. N.;Agadi, K. B.
    • Journal of Information Science Theory and Practice
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    • v.3 no.3
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    • pp.75-80
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    • 2015
  • Methods and Material: The PubMed database was used for retrieving data on 'cancer biology.' Articles were downloaded from the years 2000 to 2011. The articles were classified chronologically and transferred to a spreadsheet application for analysis of the data as per the objectives of the study. Statistical Method: To investigate the nature of growth of articles via exponential, linear, and logistics tests. Result: The year wise analysis of the growth of articles output shows that for the years 2000 to 2005 and later there is a sudden increase in output, during the years 2006 to 2007 and 2008 to 2011. The high productivity of articles during these years may be due to their significance in cancer biology literature, having received prominence in research. Conclusion: There is an obvious need for better compilations of statistics on numbers of publications in the years from 2000 to 2011 on various disciplines on a worldwide scale, for informed critical assessments of the amount of new knowledge contributed by these publications, and for enhancements and refinements of present Scientometric techniques (citation and publication counts), so that valid measures of knowledge growth may be obtained. Only then will Scientometrics be able to provide accurate, useful descriptions and predictions of knowledge growth.