• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.243-250
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• 2022

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inscription of North Korean Higher-Level Middle School 1 chemistry textbooks in the era of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to understand North Korean chemistry education. The types and functions of inscription for each unit of the North Korean Higher-Level Middle School 1 Chemistry textbook were analyzed and compared with the inscription of the 'Chemistry I' textbook in South Korea. Inscriptions were analyzed by constructing an analysis frame based on previous studies. The analysis results were as follows. First, as for the types of inscription used in North Korean textbooks, photographs and illustrations were used the most, and graphs were used the least. Second, the functions of inscription used in North Korean textbooks had many exploratory and exemplary functions, and decorative functions were used the least. Third, there was no significant difference in type and function of textbook inscriptions from North and South Korea. The results of this study may be helpful in understanding North Korean chemistry education.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.331-341
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• 2017

This paper aims to analyze English vocabulary of the North Korean textbooks diachronically using the constructed English textbook corpus. The North Korea English textbooks attained from Information Center on North Korea of the Ministry of Unification are divided into before and after Kim Jong-Il era for the year of 1996 in which the curriculum revision has been conducted. They are stored as text files to analyse vocabularies using WordSmith Tools 7.0. The vocabulary size of the revised textbooks increased after the curriculum reorganization, but the number of vocabulary types and vocabulary diversity decreased. After the curriculum revision, it was found that lots of vocabulary related to the establishment of the Kim Jong-Il system appeared as the keyword. It was also found that some vocabularies reflected the economic and social life of North Korea. In addition, through comparison of the 100 high-frequency word list and keywords, it can be concluded that the vocabulary of the English textbooks of North Korea is gradually changing into communicative contents from contents related with written language.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.412-422
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• 2018

The purpose of this research was to compare structural organization of North Korean English textbooks pre and post North Korean 2013 curriculum revision. 5 revised textbooks were selected and compared with old textbooks. First, revised textbooks are dramatically changed into colored printed edition. Second, there appears phrases related to Kim Jong Un for the very first time in the preface. Third, while old textbooks emphasized only reading and writing skills, new textbooks integrate 4 skills. Fourth, new textbooks follow united organization system according to the kinds of school; 7 sub skills of Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing, Grammar, Vocabulary, Pronunciation for general high middle textbooks and 5 sub skills of Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, English in Use for the first high middle textbooks. Also, new textbooks integrate English and other subject contents such as science, geography or computer. Finally, the changed structure organization of new textbooks seems to be similar with the ones of English books in the reference which is presented for the first time in North Korean textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.153-168
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• 2003

Since 1945, geography textbooks of South Korea and North Korea have been developed differently. Taking both geography textbooks of South Korea(printed in 1996 and 1997) and them of North Korea(printed in 1995), this study compares and analyse geography textbooks of South and North Korea systematically, then to show their likeness and difference. Results of this study are as follows: First, Most of contents in South Korean textbooks consist of explations and many tables, graphs and photographs leading to inquiry activities, whereas those in North Korean textbooks consist of mostly sentences that explain topics, diagrams and sketches. Second, Geographical education in South Korea puts strong emphasis on human geography and regional geography, whereas that in North Korea does strong emphasis on physical geography, economic geography and education of cartography. Third, The geographical words of South Korean textbooks contain words written in Chinese character and words of English origin, whereas Those of North Korean textbooks do many pure Korean words.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.363-375
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• 2000

In this study, the changes of contents and formats of science textbooks of North Korean sec-oery much and the quality of papers in the textbooks became worse. The changes of ratios of contents were as follows. While the ratio of 'Chemical Change' was increased especially in the contents of 'Acids and Bases' and 'Oxidation and Reduction', the ratios of'EIements and Compounds' and 'Structure of theMaterials' were decreased. The ratio or 'Science-Technology-Society' which hasbeen stressed very much recently in the science education was low in the eighties, and the ratio is even lower in the nincties. 0n the basis of these facts,it can be concluded that the world-wide recent trends in science education hardly affected North Korean science education.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.266-279
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the inquiry tendency of North Korean chemistry textbook by Romey's method. We analyzed the inquiry tendencies of texts, figures, questions, activities, and summaries by Romey's method. And the following results were compared with those of previous South Korean studies, which method was the same. The 20,017 texts, 541 figures, 140 questions, 243 activities, and 25 summaries in 5 chapters of chemistry textbook of the Higher-level middle school 1 in the Kim Jong-Un Era were analyzed. Results were as follows: texts were authoritarian tendency, figures were authoritarian tendency, questions were excessive inquiry tendency, activities were inquiry tendency, and chapter summaries were drastic authoritarian tendency. The inquiry tendency of North Korean chemistry textbook in higherlevel middle school showed similar tendencies as the textbooks of South Korean chemistry I textbook in the 6th National Science Curriculum. The results of this study are expected to be utilized as basic information and data to understand the inquiry teaching that North Korea science education is aiming at.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.490-503
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• 2020

Oceanic current and circulation have played an important role as regulators of the earth's energy distribution. The science and earth science textbooks for secondary schools based on the 2015 revised curriculum included a misconception of the seasonal variation of the North Korea Cold Current (NKCC) among the currents around the Korean Peninsula. To analyze this, the contents related to the NKCC were collected in the textbooks of five middle and six high schools, and a questionnaire survey was conducted on 30 middle school science teachers. The survey consisted of questions about whether the textbook mentions the NKCC and whether there is an error in the concept of the temporal variation of the NKCC, and the teachers' free opinions related to the NKCC were collected. The textbooks suggest that the NKCC is strongest in winter, which is not consistent with scientific findings so far. In fact, there is scientific evidence that the NKCC is the strongest in the summer. In this study, the causes and processes of misconceptions were investigated. According to an analysis of the survey, most teachers had an knowledge that the NKCC is stronger in winter. These errors began with a misconception of the terms, which teachers had imprinted on their memory as firm knowledge. These misconceptions originated from the knowledge that teachers themselves acquired from their secondary school years and have long been transferred back to teachers and students without revising the misconceptions of textbooks. This situation is expected to have a seriously recurrent structure that produces students' serious misconceptions in the future. Therefore, this study summarizes existing results on the seasonal variability of the NKCC and suggests the necessity for re-education to improve teachers' professionalism and to eliminate the misconceptions of teachers and students.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.558-564
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• 2004

This research investigated the connection between science textbook contents in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and those in Republic of Korea (ROK). Both text books in the field of earth science were analyzed and classified into 70 categories based on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Comparison was specifically made between the elementary and middle school text books of both countries; the result are as follows: First, the scope and the level of the textbooks' contents are quite different between DPRK and ROK. Text books in the South are much limited in concepts and terms than those in the North. In contrast, textbooks in DPRK are written mainly to explain concepts. Second, there are many common contents of the textbooks in DPRK and Republic of Korea. The level and scope of the contents in Republic of Korea are more inquisitive, quantitative and detailed than those in DPRK. Third, we found content connections in science textbooks between primary and secondary schools in both countries: 27 items (38.5%) are related in ROK and 19 items (27.1%) in DPRK.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.43-60
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyse the elementary school science curriculum and textbooks of South and North Korea, then gather the fundamental sources for the establishment of elementary school science curriculum after Unification of Korea by clarifying the difference and the likeness in educational objectives, contents, teaching methods of both Korean elementary school sciences. Based on this comparison and analysis, this study tried to give the concrete suggestions for the elementary school science curriculum and textbook development after Unification. For this, analyses were carried out for the curriculum managing systems, subject organization, education goal, emphasis on each field, teaching-learning and evaluation method. Besides, this study compared and analysed the elementary school science textbook development and distribution system, apparent format, content organization, ratio of content categories, content scope and level and the related terms appeared in both Korean elementary school science textbooks. The result of this study showed a lot of differences in the educational objectives, contents, and educational method of the elementary school science between South and North Korea. The grasping of these differences and the exact understanding about what causes these differences and how the differences are made must be the necessary work for the science curriculum establishment, especially for elementary school science curriculum and textbook development, after Unification.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.242-251
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• 2017

For the purposes of this research, a corpus of words was created from the English textbooks of the "First Middle School" for the gifted in North Korea, and using the corpus, their linguistic characteristics were analyzed. Although there have been many studies that identified the traits of English textbooks in the North Korea's general middle school, not much focus has been placed on the English textbooks used at North Korea's First Middle School. Initially, the structure of English textbooks of the first, second, fourth, and sixth grades that had been procured from the Information Center on North Korea was reviewed, after which their corpus was created. Then, by using Wordsmith Tools 7.0, linguistic properties and high frequency content words appeared in the English textbook of the first grade were analyzed specifically. Basic statistical data gathered indicated that while the number of vocabulary did not increase as students progress through the grades, the words used tended to diversify incrementally. In the mean time, a distribution of the high frequency content words by grade illustrated that a big difference was found between the content words used in the English texts of each grade, and it was a subject matter of the texts that determined such difference.