• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.213-226
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• 2002

The purpose of this research is to direct the 7th national primary science curriculum to be performed properly. The research is based on the questionnaire to investigate the primary teachers' appreciation of the curriculum. The questions are about the general aspect of the 7th curriculum and special treatises on science curriculum. Questionnaires were distributed to 1000 teachers, and 822 teachers answered them. According to the survey results the teachers' thoughts were as following: First, there must be enough time to develop a new curriculum. It is not desirable to change the old curriculum totally. There should be some continuity between the old and the new curriculum. Second, teachers appreciated that the learning resources and supplements were helpful, and interested students. Teachers thought that If equipment at class or school was not enough. Third, according to them the hierarchical structure of science curriculum was appropriate, but the contents need to be improved. Fourth, most teachers restructured the 7th science curriculum to adapt it to the class and school. They cooperated with one another in teaching science, and applied diverse teaching-learning methods according to the curricular contents and the grade levels. Teachers tried to evaluate all aspects of the students with various methods, but they felt it was hard. They were not active in developing evaluation tools as a team, and in objectifying the information about students. Fifth, teachers felt it was hard to implement the science curriculum according to different levels of the students. Based on the survey of teachers' thoughts, the following can be suggested for successful implementation and reorientation of the curriculum. First, teachers need learning opportunities to appreciate and adapt the 7th curriculum creatively. Second, they need guidances in implementing the different levels of the curriculum, and the information about the appropriate resources for it. Third, we need to control the relative difficulty of the curricular contents, and reduce the hours and quantity of the study. Fourth, we need to improve the school equipment and facilities. Networking and cooperation among education-related institutions are essential for better education. Fifth, it is desirable to develop concrete and diverse teaming models.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.911-923
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to figure out the quality of understanding and implementation for teachers implementing the 2009 revised elementary science curriculum achievement standards. To achieve this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 participants, and the qualitative contents method was used to analyze interview contents. According to the interview contents, the results of this study can be described as a phenomenon that teachers implementing achievement standards regarded achievement standards as usual, while focusing on evaluation in school. To make clear of this phenomenon, we classified it into two main dimensions. One is the understanding of teachers by implementing the 2009 Revised National Curriculum achievement standards for elementary school science curriculum, the other is its application. Teachers regarded achievement standards as a criterion, but did not have much attention to it during class time. Furthermore, teachers point out the problems caused by lacking available support materials and the material about core achievement standards. When teachers implemented achievement standards, they prefer to give class to students based on textbooks rather than achievement standards, and they usually use it as evaluation criterion. Based on the results of this study, there were three suggestions and they are as follows: First, it is necessary to improve teachers' professionalism on curriculum and it is a must for teachers to have more concerns about achievement standards; Second, to develop accessible support materials for teachers; Third, to improve curriculum implementation systems.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.2 no.2 s.4
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• pp.91-122
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• 2002

Constructivism has had a great influence on science education over the last two decades. The purpose of this article is twofold: First, to describe the characteristics of constructivism and, second, to suggest an ideal forms of science education in Korea as implied in constructivism. A review of the literature in the first area shows that constructivism is the philosophical/ psychological view which believes in the social nature of the construction of scientific knowledge and its learning. And the analyses of a few schools of constructivism suggests decision-making as a goal of science education, loaming as the active construction of meaning through interaction between learner and learning environments, and discussion and cooperation as appropriate teaching strategies. At the same time, the results necessitate teaching ethical aspects of science in the secondary schools, and also imply that performance assessment must be emphasized in evaluation of science education.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.46-71
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to develope a high school level physics curriculum for the gifted in science. The research method for this study was Delphi Survey, which is appropriate for social agreement of experts in a certain area. For the Delphi survey, 11 experts of gifted education in physics field, who consist of 4 physics professors, 3 physics education professors, and 2 science high school teachers, and 2 experts in other institutes, were sampled intendedly. In first survey, free description questions about objectives, contents, teaching methods, and achievement test methods were asked, and their answers were analyzed by frequency. And then, frequent answers were adopted and elaborated. In second survey, they were asked to write numbers according to priority(degree of agreement) for the adopted and elaborated answers in each area. Finally, by analyzing the results of second survey, the physics curriculum for the gifted was developed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.207-220
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• 2019

Although the 2015 revised science curriculum has newly introduced core science competencies, there are a lot of confusions and difficulties at the school sites because the concept of competence is not clear. In this study, we conducted literature analysis to understand what constitutes the components of science competence and how the components are related. Based on this analysis, a model of science competency, composed of six factors (non-cognitive characteristics, knowledge, skill, context, performance, level) was suggested. In addition, we have explored ways to utilize this science competency model to re-write the achievement criteria of current science curriculum as science learning objectives expressed in the form of science competency. Finally, advantages and limits of the model are discussed and related further researches are suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.622-634
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• 1999

We have investigated the 6th middle school science curriculum and its implementation based upon the results of middle school science teachers' and professors' ratings and self-reportings. The national-wide survey was administrated to obtain the data from 213 teachers of 112 middle schools and 43 professors of colleges of education. The survey items correspond to four stages of science curriculum. In the stage of the planned science curriculum, 'goals', 'framework of contents' and 'contents' are relevant to the basic guideline for curriculum revision, 'the more emphasis on inquiry activities'. However, the amount of contents is not appropriate, and 'methods' are difficult to attain. In the stage of the written science curriculum, 'goals', 'framework of contents', 'contents', 'methods' and 'evaluations' are not useful for teachers to teach science. In the stage of the implemented science curriculum, a small number of teachers use the issues of local community, organize the different group activities, develop assessment tools cooperatively, and conduct a lesson and a program considering students' diversities. This is partially because of the large amount of learning contents, the lack of materials and the weakness of supporting system. Finally, in the stage of the attained science curriculum, the students' achievements under the 6th curriculum is not higher than those under the other curricula.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.751-772
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• 2015

Valid and effective science education would require research-based decisions on multiple aspects of science education including policy decisions, science curriculum development, designing teaching resources and methods. However, this has not been the case. In order to provide a research base for science education practices and policy-making, this study reviewed research articles published in major science education research journals in South Korea in the last ten years. The analysis was focused on 8 areas including student conceptions, student thinking, inquiry, affective domain, student ideas about science, science curriculum, students' learning and classroom activity, and student learning in informal settings. General research trends found include: First, science education research conducted for the past decade focused on a certain limited topics/areas. Second, research participants were also limited to certain grade levels or types of students. Third, rather than examining developmental processes descriptive research was prevalent. Fourth, there was a lack of research on developing new areas of study or research on generation of new perspectives, theories or tools. Fifth, many studies were related to school science learning while relatively less studies were about other areas that would impact students' future. Based on the results, we suggest several implications for science curriculum development, policy development, science teaching and learning resources, and others.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.378-392
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate the depth of earth science teachers' concern over the 7th Science Curriculum and levels of their use of it in reality, using the tools "Concern" and "Levels of use" which are two important tools use in CBAM. The results of the study are as follows. How much concern do the earth science teachers have over the 7th Science Curriculum? There are seven stages (from 0 stage to 6 stage) of teachers' concern over the curriculum. o stage represents teachers' indifference to the curriculum and 98% teachers are placed in this stage. According to the study on teachers' teaching experience, teachers having from 10 to 14 years of teaching experience are the most indifferent to the 7th Science Curriculum, compared to other teachers. Which levels of use of the 7th science curriculum do earth science teachers choose in reality? There are five levels of use (from 1 to 5) of the 7th curriculum. 43.97% of teachers are placed in the 3rd level called "Mechanical level", which represents a teacher-concerned learning method with consideration of learners' response. According to the study on teachers' frequency of level of use in the fields of "Instruction objects, Instruction contents, Instruction methods, Instruction materials and Evaluation.", teachers chose high levels of use in the fields of "Instruction objects and Instruction contents" and low levels of use in the other three fields. What factors are barriers for earth science teachers to perform the 7th Science Curriculum in reality? 80.9% of teachers have trouble performing the 7th Science Curriculum in reality because of too much routine work, official papers, and lack of instructional materials, laboratories, training systems and workshops. The two biggest barriers among the above are routine work and of official papers. According to the study on teachers' teaching experience, teachers having from 0 to years of teaching experience have the most trouble in performing the curriculum in reality, compared to other teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.855-865
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• 2012

The goal of this research is to investigate ways to improve science teaching methods to develop students' key competencies. Since the OECD DeSeCo (Definition and Selection of Key Competencies) project, key competencies are redefined as 'what people should know and be able to do in order to lead a successful life in a well-functioning society, which leads many countries to emphasize competency-based curriculum. In this research, we collected and analyzed foreign and domestic classroom cases that have implemented competency-based curriculum in science teaching. Through open-ended interviews with the teachers and principals, we explored ways to improve science teaching methods to develop students' key competencies. In foreign cases, science teachers emphasized students' knowing what KCs to accomplish, activities and student-centered learning, students' group activities and collaboration, and greater curriculum integration among subjects and contexts. Korean science teachers argued that the KCs should be realized through teaching methods and emphasized scientific inquiry learning whereby non-science track students could also benefit from science lessons. Korean science teachers also emphasized links to real-life situations, providing students with various learning experiences that supported students to develop the KCs, and the delivery of an integrated curriculum. In the conclusion section, the difficulties with the implementation of key competencies are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.289-306
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to compare the contents of chemistry textbooks developed according to the 2015 revised curriculum with the contents of the 2009 revised curriculum to research the change in "the development and use of models". To do this, we analyzed 8 kinds of Chemistry I textbooks and 6 kinds of Chemistry II textbooks from the 2015 revised curriculum and compared them with 4 kinds of Chemistry I textbooks and 4 kinds of Chemistry II textbooks from the 2009 revised curriculum. The scope of the analysis was the explanations of the textbooks related to aqueous electrolysis experiments. In order to compare the contents regarding electrolytes when the same experiments are interpreted with different models, we analyzed contents of 4 kinds of middle school science textbooks from the 2015 revised curriculum and 9 kinds of middle school science textbooks from the 2009 revised curriculum. As a result of the analysis, the same experiment was explained by different models according to the grade level and unit, and all explanations were limited to a single model. Also, the tendency to limit the kinds of electrolytes for controlled experimental results is more pronounced in the 2015 revised curriculum than in the 2009 revised curriculum. From this results, we suggest that efforts are needed to reflect the "development and use of models" in chemistry textbooks developed according to the 2015 revised curriculum.