• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.221-233
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• 2002

This study investigated preservice science teachers' understandings of philosophical foundations(i.e., ontological and epistemological beliefs) underlying constructivist notions of learning. The teacher education program these subjects participated in explicitly addressed philosophical notions consistent with different views of constructivism. For these preservice science teachers, the program provided them with the opportunity to reflect upon the implications that their ontological and epistemological commitments had for their role as a science teacher. Data from four in-depth interviews were used to explore changes in each preservice science teacher's ontological beliefs, epistemological commitments, and pedagogical preferences. Results indicated that ontological beliefs and epistemological commitments were not necessarily consistent with conceptions of science teaching and learning for these preservice teachers. While some students internalized idealist and relativist perspectives, they did not integrate these relativist epistemological views into their preferred instructional practices. Also, regarding the fallible and tentative nature of knowledge, data in this study indicated that participants' epistemological beliefs about scientific Knowledge did influence how they were thinking about their roles as science teachers. Implications for teacher education programs and research on preservice science teacher's philosophical beliefs are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.429-436
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• 2010

In this study, the difficulties experienced by secondary preservice science teachers in studying the theory of science education for teacher selection test were studied. At first, questions of the internet cafe for preparing the teacher selection test from January 2008 to June 2009 were analyzed in terms of content area. A survey was also administered to 39 preservice science teachers who took the teacher selection test. The rubric used in this study was developed by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation and the Korean Association for Science Education. As a result, the most frequent question areas were 'philosophy and history of science' and 'theories and models of teaching and learning science'. In the survey with the preservice science teachers, the most difficult content area was the philosophy of science. The application of teaching and learning model was also one of the most difficult areas. Based on these results, educational implications were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.157-169
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• 2010

Scientific observation has been recognized as one of the fundamental aspects in scientific inquiry. However, more detailed discussions and practical guides for teachers' and students' understanding about the nature of scientific observation have not been conducted. Therefore, based on literature reviews, we described the nature of theory-laden scientific observation as 11 detailed statements. Using theses statements, we investigated science teachers' and students' recognition of each statement. According to results, certain aspects of theory-laden scientific observation were determined as important aspects to be considered for science teachers' in-service programs or for students' learning activities in understanding the nature of science.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.147-173
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• 2009

This research deals with Freinet School in France as a model of open public schools, with focus on the school's operating philosophy, operating contents and characteristics, the cases of educational practices and suggestions for Korea's public education reform. Freinet School has been operated based on the educational philosophy of the French education activist Célestin Freinet(1896-1966). This researcher approached the following four research subjects in order to examine what effects Freinet School can have on the change and reform of Korea's public schools. First: What are the educational effects that Freinet School has on the public educational system in France? Second: What are the operating principles of Freinet School and what are the characteristics of the school's viewpoints and roles towards its teachers and students? Third: What are the kinds of the educational activities and the status of utilization of time and space with regard to Freinet School's operating regulations and the cases of educational practices? Fourth: What suggestions can Freinet School provide for Korea's public educational reform? This researcher have conducted preceding and philological researches on Freinet School pedagogy and analyzed such data as moving images, interviews with teachers, and the books published by Freinet School Teachers' Association.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.309-323
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• 2002

This qualitative study investigated preservice teachers' understandings of the ontology and epistemology underlying constructivist notions of learning through four in-depth interviews. Of the sixteen participants in a larger study, five significantly changed ontological and epistemological beliefs and eleven did not. This study focused on these eleven teachers who have hardly changed their philosophical beliefs throughout the teacher education program. Ten teachers who consistently maintained the scientific realist beliefs were presented as a composite case (Young's case). Among the eleven teachers, there was one outlier who had consistently maintained an idealist and relativist epistemological position from the beginning of the study and was subjected to another case analysis (Ben's case). These cases corroborated the assertion that each individual's deeply entrenched ontological and epistemological beliefs are very hard to change. For researchers, this study offers insights into the reasons that preservice teachers give for non-changes in their thinking about learning to teach. The study also examines preservice teachers' perceived constraints in implementing their ideal pedagogies and the influence of the teacher education program on their pedagogical beliefs changes. The benefits and influences of the M.Ed. program's theoretical coursework and the field experiences on these teachers' learning-to-teach experiences are addressed with rich data. The implications for teacher educators as well as for the instructional practices of preservice teacher education programs are discussed. This research emphasize necessity of the field-based teacher education program and the need of empowering experienced school teachers as teacher educators in teacher preparation and professional development.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.91-107
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate what middle school Home Economics(HE) teachers perceive, practice and need for self-supervision at school related to HE. Questionnaires were sent by E-mail and 150 were collected. Descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA analysis were reported using SPSS/win 10.1. The results of this research were as follows: First, middle school HE teachers perceived that self-supervision at school was essential since it promoted self reflection of teachers themselves and improved professional skills. Furthermore, peer-coaching was highly preferred. Second, negative responses to the supervision of principal, vice-principal, and peer teachers overwhelmed positive answers. Information exchange among peer teachers was frequent, yet, approximately 22.6% of middle school HE teachers were still avoiding sharing information process for several reasons. About half of the teachers answered that all teachers needed to participate in this process. Third, they pointed out that self-supervision at school was not implemented well because of the lack of time due to the heavy work load, negative and passive attitude for the improvement of teaching-learning activities, administration-centered supervision that did not reflect teachers' opinion, and shortage of economical, and environmental support.. HE teachers perceived that peer teachers who were doing good practices were most helpful for the supervision. Also, they preferred self-evaluation at the end of the self-supervision at school. Forth, to improve self-supervision at school, there were very high demands for reduction of administrative work, additional time, fundamental philosophy toward HE education. Fifth, the purpose and detailed plans of self-supervision were recognized as the results that were democratically derived by the HE teachers. Sixth, class inspection and informal inspection were operated once in a year, and self-training was rarely operated. Peer coaching and self-coaching were operated occasionally. Self-coaching and peer coaching were reported as the most helpful types of supervision. In addition, HE teachers answered that supervision was helpful to teaching method followed by contents, evaluation, and philosophy of education.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.175-190
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• 2007

In the nineteenth century was Augustus De Morgan, British mathematician, a great mathematics teacher. Although his name is well known to everybody who is interested in set theory, his major mathematical legacy would arise from his novel research in logic. In this article, we first investigate De Morgan's life briefly; we then consider his precious philosophy of mathematics education based on his students' remarks and his works. Finally, by considering his teaching style, we highlight some of the ingredients that go into making a great mathematics teacher.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.78-89
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to explore ways to improve developing exam questions for Earth science education by analyzing exam trend of Earth science education in the secondary-school teacher employment test (TET, hereafter). For this purpose, we developed an analysis framework to analyze items of Earth science education in the secondary-school TET, and this analysis framework covers required courses for 'theory of Earth science education' of 'Earth science teaching certificate courses'. The analysis framework consists of big categories, assessment domains, and assessment components. We divided system changes in secondary-school TET into 4 types, and analyzed exams of 2014-2018 school year, which is the existing exam system. According to the results, 22-24 points out of 80 have been allotted to Earth science education. Among assessment domains, Earth science Teaching & Learning domain has taken the highest percentage of scores and item numbers, followed by Earth science inquiry, history & philosophy of science, etc. For each domain, we analyzed exam tendencies in detail. Based the results, we suggested ways to improve developing exam questions for Earth science education in the secondary-school TET, and ways to improve curriculum for Earth science education in the teacher education program.

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

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.221-231
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• 1998

Middle school science teachers performed activities to identify their philosophical perspectives of science through a series of "card game" planned for this research. The subjects of the research were 156 middle school science teachers participated in the 1997 in-service science teachers' training course of the Gyeong Sang Nam Do province. The teachers performed the activities for this research for three hours during their workshops. We found that the subjects in the research were turned out predominant in the inductivistic views regardless of their major. gender, and career. In addition, in the process of collective consensus making, views of (a) the criteria of demarcation and (b) the patterns of scientific change were shifted to the extreme inductivism, (c) the epistemological status of scientific knowledge to the relativism, and (d) the scientific methods to the falsificationism, respectively.