• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.777-789
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• 2005

Study courses using cognitive conflict strategy about geological stratum were performed on the 6th grade elementary students and their conceptual changes were investigated. Some misconceptions about geological stratum that the students have are as follows: (1) stratum was formed due to volcanic eruption, (2) gneiss composes the geological stratum, (3) folds in the stratum were formed due to vertical pressure from the top. The classes had positive effects on the changes of some the misconceptions: (1) the places where the stratum is filmed, (2) the kind of rock in the stratum, and (3) the reason for folding. However, there were no significant changes in the following items: (1) the reason that every layer consists of different sizes of grains. It shows that some misconceptions can be changed easily by cognitive conflict strategy, while others can not. We checked the students who didn't change their misconceptions after the test. These students have very strong misconceptions that most of the natural phenomena on the earth's surface are due to the internal heat pressure, and volcanic activity. Another affecting the students' misconceptions are the role of teachers in class and mass media, such as TV.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.273-282
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to compare the effect of concept formation between conflicted case and non-conflicted case as a method of learning science concepts. This study consists of 8 classes in 5th and 6th grade of elementary school children's in Kyoung-Buk, which were divided into conflicted group and non-conflicted group. The research procedure is as follows : first, two groups were asked the introducing problems-one was asked the conflicting problem, the other was asked the non-conflicting problems. Futhermore, the incorrect-answered students of conflicting problems were classified into conflict group am the correct-answered students of non-conflicting problems were classified into non-conflict group. Secondly, the demonstration and picture presentation about the introducing problems were carried out. Thirdly, the researcher introduced scientific concepts to the students. Afterwards, posttests, made up of the same items, were presented to the students-three times-posttest, delayed posttest(one week), second delayed posttest(one month). Finally, the degree of concept formation between the two groups was compared and analyzed by these results.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1524-1536
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• 2012

Science attitudes affect the quality of learning, and they are considered as one of the major concerns in science education. It is necessary to analyze the proximity between concepts with science attitudes. Accordingly, this study was designed to analyze the proximity of the concept related to photosynthesis as it changed after class according to the levels of science attitudes. A survey on the concept of photosynthesis and science attitudes before and after class was conducted on 270 7th-grade students. The concept of photosynthesis was composed of 'the place of photosynthesis,' 'products of photosynthesis,' 'reactants of photosynthesis,' and 'environmental factors.' The proximity of the concept of photosynthesis was analyzed through the utilization of multidimensional scaling (MDS). The research results were as follows: (1) Students changed the proximity between concepts by acquiring concrete concepts through class. (2) The upper group in science attitudes tends to be closer to the proximity between scientific concepts through class, compared to the intermediate and lower groups. (3) In all students with entire levels of science attitudes, non-scientific concepts continued to exist even after class, and the non-scientific concepts were deemed to interfere with the proximity between scientific concepts related to photosynthesis. (4) Students turned out to be aware of the concepts related to each other in four areas associated with photosynthesis. That is, it can be said that students are closely aware of the place where photosynthesis can occur and the materials needed as well as materials generated as a result of photosynthesis and the materials needed in terms of concepts related to photosynthesis.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.545-557
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to classify types of preconception on the seasonal change to middle school students and to find out how the developed multimedia material changes their conception in the seasonal change. The questionnaire about the variation of season consisted of 10 items. Questions are given to 80 ninth graders. Control and experimental group was 23 and 57 students, respectively and they were instructed for two class periods. A learning method using multimedia was applied to the experimental group. On the other hand, traditional teaching-learning method was used for the control group. A learning method using multimedia in this study had an effect on the conceptual changes (p$<$0.01). Data in this study was divided into six levels to classify the changes of concepts in detail. As a result, it showed that a learning method using multimedia was effective for students to make progress from unscientific to scientific concepts, to build up scientific concepts, to build up scientific concepts, and to elaborate scientific concepts as compared with traditional method.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.256-271
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• 2018

The study aimed to investigate how the science gifted connect and integrate science concepts in the process of problem finding. Research subject was sampled from 228 applicants for a science gifted education center affiliated with a university in 2015. A creative problem solving test (CPST) in science, which administered as an admission process, was utilized as a reference to sample two groups. Sixty-seven students from top 30% in test scores were selected for the upper group and 64 students from bottom 30% in test scores were selected for the lower group. The CPST, which was developed by researchers, included one item about how to connect two science concepts among eight science concepts, sound, electricity, weight, temperature, respiration, photosynthesis, weather, and earthquake extracted from elementary science curriculum. As results, there were differences in choosing two concepts among four science major areas. The ways of connecting science concepts were characterized by three categories, relation-based, similarity-based, and dissimilarity-based. In addition, relation-based was characterized by attributes, means, influences, predictions, and causes; similarity-based was by attributes, objects, scientific principles, and phenomena, and dissimilarity-based was by parallel, resource, and deletion. There were significant (p<.000) differences in ways of connecting science concepts between the upper and the lower groups. The upper group students preferred connecting science concepts of inter-science subjects while the lower group students preferred connecting science concepts of intra-science subject. The upper group students showed a tendency to connect the science concepts based on similarity. In contrast, the lower group students frequently showed ways of connecting the science concepts based on dissimilarity. In particular, they simply parallelled science concepts.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.538-547
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• 2019

This study analyzes the conceptual understanding of in-service and pre-service earth science teachers about the H-R diagrams and evolution of stars using conceptual status analysis categories. The results show that (a) many teachers use unscientific language in the Intelligibility range, (b) teachers are categorized in Low scientific inquiry ability related to graph creation and unscientific analogy for scientific concept which is hightly corelated to the possibility of misunderstanding in the teaching process, and (c) pre-service teachers lack the understanding of the secondary science curriculum. It is necessary to develop pre-service curriculum that can be applied to the school site. In the category of Plausibility range, (d) both groups understood the cosmological meaning of stellar evolution. However, pre-service teachers do not specifically explain the mechanism of a star. In the category of Fruitfulness range, in-service teachers come up with educational problems reflecting the academic characteristics of earth science and apply their knowledge to actual problem solving. On the other hand, pre-service teachers show high nonresponse ratio, they do not see the H-R diagram and the evolution of stars as a practical concept. In the analysis process, both groups are found to have many unscientific conceptions about the H-R diagram and evolution of stars. Therefore, it is suggested that caution be used in developing a professional development program of earth science teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.499-518
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• 2004

This study focused on research that illustrates the important interplay between learners' epistemological beliefs about science knowledge, physics textbook knowledge and knowing physics in the classroom. Also this study investigated learners' conceptual changes on the value of mechanical energy. To explore these topics, six sophomores were chosen as participants. Three categories were introduced to classify how participants' understanding of the nature of science knowledge, physics textbook knowledge has been linked with epistemological beliefs of knowing physics. The three categories were (1)receiving physics knowledge as authority, (2)receiving physics knowledge as the perception of teacher's role and (3)understanding physics knowledge as the perception that science knowledge is a product of a variety of human ideas. These categories were also concerned with construction of individual conceptions of mechanical energy. The participants who understood physics knowledge as the perception that science knowledge is a product of a variety of human ideas naturally used metacognitive strategy in classroom compared to other participants. And they had scientific conceptions about the value of mechanical energy. Others who were passive in classroom had unscientific conceptions about the value of mechanical energy due to definition of energy and epistemological beliefs about the nature of science knowledge. In the process of their conceptual changes on the value of mechanical energy, it was important to understand an instrumental aspect of scientific knowledge and to think about the relation between formulae and physical phenomena.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2009

The purposes of this study are to investigate the effects of the Science Conceptual Model Completion Activity and Science Conceptual Model Modifying Activity on middle-school students' achievement in science conceptual learning, and to analyze if there are any correlations among their achievements by purposed activities, their cognitive level and school science achievement. For the study, 112 middle school students were sampled for three groups, which are two experimental groups (Model Completion activity group, Model Modifying Activity group) and one control group. Pre- and post-tests were taken to measure the students' achievement in science concepts, and the logical thinking ability test was administered after the implementation period. In addition, their school science achievements were analyzed. The research findings are as follows: First, the Science Conceptual Model Completion activity is more effective for middle school students' science conceptual learning than the Science Conceptual Model Modifying activity or conventional activity. Second, higher school science achievement also results in higher achievement of science concepts through the Conceptual Model Modifying activity or the Conceptual Model Completion activity. Lastly, the Conceptual Model Completion activity is more effective for the concrete operational level students to attain science concepts than formal operational level ones. Meanwhile, on the contrary, the Conceptual Model Modifying activity is more effective for formal operational level students than the concrete operational level ones.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.489-500
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• 2005

The objective of this study is to examine the cognitive process that undergoes a middle student’s conceptual change about the universe by the cognitive conflict, using science history materials as a teaching strategy. Four eighth graders were selected and classified by three cognitive level. Students were interviewed and conducted to an inquiry activities regarding their viewpoint about the universe after each class, and their conceptual change patterns were analysed from pre-test and post-test. This study showed that each student held dissimilar astronomical preconceptions and various misconceptions about celestial motion. Students at the formal operational stage and transitional stage experienced the conceptual change from geocentricism to heliocentricism by instructional model upon the science history materials. Student at the concrete operational stage had either unscientific conception, no conception, or could not have a conceptual change even when being presented with an environment that arouses cognitive conflict ($R^2$: Phase change of Venus and its Rise and set time). They ended up having a cognitive change from geocentricism to heliocentricism by solving another problem ($R^2$: Relation between visible diameter and position of Mars). After the instruction, a conceptual achievement progress was reported with a $10\%$ improvement. Therefore, the instruction model based upon science history was effective on student’s scientific conceptual change.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.221-233
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• 2000

Many investigators have reported difficulties in changing the high school students' misconceptions on mechanics. By one possible solution to this problem, some researchers suggested that the students should be taught mechanics at a younger age to make conceptual changes possible. because as they get older they become less willing to change their ideas. The purpose of this study was to compare the patterns of students' conceptual changes on force by age, to find out whether older students were less ready to change their conceptions than younger students. Individual interviews were carried out with 35 students (average ages 13) in middle school class and 50 students (average ages 17) in high school class near by the middle school. Those students who held the misconcetpion that "motion-implies-force (Impetus conception)" were asked to read a student-centered refutational text (anomalous data). In the immediate and delayed posttest, the types of responses of the students were analyzed to find out the patterns of student's conceptual changes on force by age. In result, first, most of students had impetus conception. Some of the students aged 13 understood the force as terminologies related with everyday experiences, while the students aged 17 understood the force as scientific terminologies. Second, there was no evidence to suggest that conceptual change is more difficult for the students aged 17 than aged 13. Third, the students aged 13 showed diverse responses (plain acceptance, critical acceptance, plain rejection, critical rejection) to the refutational text, while the students aged 17 showed restricted responses (critical acceptance, critical rejection). A month later those students who showed the plain acceptance retrogressed unscientific conceptions, while those students who showed critical acceptance maintained scientific conceptions. We did not find out any evidence to suggest that conceptual change is more difficult for older students. These results need deeper investigation on the nature of the loss of plasticity in comparison with other important variables.