• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.111-124
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to explore science teachers' perceptions of good science teaching. To this end, the Korean Teaching Observation Protocol (KTOP), which was developed for the purpose of observing and improving science teaching, was utilized. In the first survey, teachers were asked whether they thought each item in the KTOP was important for good science teaching, the extent to which they implemented these items, and the level of difficulty in implementing them. The second survey asked teachers what they believed to be the reasons and solutions for the KTOP items that they had responded as difficult to implement. The responses obtained from 63 teachers in the first survey and 35 teachers in the second survey were categorized based on the characteristics of the responses. The categorized contents were then summarized and discussed for their features. As a result, science teachers responded that all items in KTOP, except for one, are important for good science teaching. However, it was also shown that the level of execution was low in cases where implementation was difficult. For the 13 KTOP items that were considered important but difficult to implement and showed relatively low implementation level, many respondents (69%) attributed the reason to both students and teachers. However, the most common response (60%) was that the teacher should solve those difficulties. From this, it was found that understanding and supporting teachers, as well as enhancing their competencies, are more important for good science teaching than external factors. We hope that this research findings will help to better understand the specific difficulties that science teachers face in their classes and contribute to practical efforts that aim to address these challenges.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.415-428
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• 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything, even education. Last year when distance learning was introduced, science teachers faced many challenges to overcome. However, teachers adapted quickly, and in this year, it became the 'new normal'. In this situation, teachers are likely to habitually repeat past practices, but the context of the second year of distance learning is changing constantly, and teachers are asked to interpret the problem occurring in a situation and to adjust their practice for solving the problem with their teacher agency. In this study, we explore the emergence of science teacher agency and factors shaping teacher agency in the second year of distance learning and we focus on teachers' agentic practice that did not follow their past practice without reflection. For this purpose, we mainly analyze the semi-constructed interview of three science teachers. In the first year of distance learning, two teachers maintained their practice, not much different to face-to-face learning. However, one teacher reflected upon herself and started to recognize and solve her problems. Reflection for her practice can support this process. Another teacher changed her practice due to external suggestions, but it evolved her practice to fit the situation better, and her experience of last year helped her to adapt to the change. The other teacher who modified her practice to persist her professional purpose last year was consistently practicing in the second year and collaboration and autonomy can support her. This study shows the teachers' dynamic change of agency and the emergence for the relational interaction between teacher and context.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.469-478
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• 2017

This study analyzed faculties' perceptions on the importance and performance of effective teaching behaviors. The effective teaching behaviors scale consisted of 40 items belonging to 8 factors. A survey was conducted with 86 faculties from 2 universities. It was found that the differences between the importance and performance levels of all items except for 'applying emphasis on important contents' were statistically significant. The scores of importance were higher than those of performance. The results of the IPA showed that 'keep up the good work' area included 19 items that those were high the scores of importance and performance. The 'concentrate here' area included 5 items that need to be improved for effective teaching. The first priority items needing to be improved were 1) Establishing instructional methods and strategies suitable for the objectives, 2) establishing clear objectives, appropriate examples and systematic classes, 3) providing questions, opportunities and appropriate feedback. We suggested that a faculty development program needs to be developed for effective teaching.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of responsive teaching on students' productive argumentation practice. The participating students predicted the results of an activity to measure in which location on the body (the head, spine, or back of the hand) they would feel a cellphone's vibrations faster. They then engaged in the activity and built an argument to justify it. We interviewed the teacher to understand her thoughts regarding what was expected in the class. We also recorded and transcribed the class and the interview, for use in the analysis of the students' epistemological framing and the teacher's responsive practice in small group argumentation. We discovered that the teacher intervened in the groups with questions that elicited students' thoughts as starting points for her responsive practice. Her eliciting questions led the students to talk about their ideas, supporting their engagement in the argumentation. The teacher's understanding of the argumentation lesson and her behavior to understand the students' ideas reflected her productive framing, which led her to elicit students' ideas and to support their active interaction during the small-group argumentation. She presented rebuttals against students' ideas, engaging in the argumentation as another participant, not as an evaluator. This supported the equality of intellectual authority in the group and showed students how to engage in the argumentation, supporting students' productive framing. As a result of these responsive teaching practices, the students shifted their epistemological framing, resulting in productive argumentation practice. The results of this study will contribute to developing teachers' responsive teaching strategies to support students' productive framing in science classrooms.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.359-374
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• 2020

This study is a complex type consisting of survey study and self-study. The former investigated elementary teachers' epistemological beliefs on convergence knowledge and teaching. As a representative of the result of survey study I, as a teacher as well as a researcher, was the participant of the self-study, which investigated my epistemological belief on convergence knowledge and teaching and my execution of convergent science teaching based on family resemblance of mathematics, science, and physical education. A set of open-ended written questionnaires was administered to 28 elementary teachers. Participating teachers considered convergent teaching as discipline-using or multi-disciplinary teaching. They also have epistemological beliefs in which they conceived convergence knowledge as aggregation of diverse disciplinary knowledge and students could get it through their own problem solving processes. As a teacher and researcher I have similar epistemological belief as the other teachers. During the self-study, I tried to apply convergence knowledge system based on the family resemblance analysis among math, science, and PE to my teaching. Inter-disciplinary approach to convergence teaching was not easy for me to conduct. Mathematical units, ratio and rate were linked to science concept of velocity so that it was effective to converge two disciplines. Moreover PE offered specific context where the concepts of math and science were connected convergently so that PE facilitated inter-disciplinary convergent teaching. The gaps between my epistemological belief and inter-disciplinary convergence knowledge based on family resemblance and the cases of how to bridge the gap by my experience were discussed.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.435-446
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• 2020

This research analyzed elementary pre-service teachers' perception on the importance and performance of major factors that constitute good instruction, and attempted to find ways to improve pre-service teacher education. A survey was conducted to 157 pre-service teachers who were senior students at a university. The questionnaire consisted of four main areas of good instruction and major factors for each area, and the importance and performance of each factor were answered on a 5-point scale. As the result of the t-test on the difference between importance and performance, significant differences were found between the importance and performance of all 24 factors. In addition, the importance-performance analysis showed that there were 3 factors to be concentrated for the improvement, 9 factors to be kept up because of their good work, 9 factors to have low priority, and 3 factors to avoid excessive effort. Based on the results, the research proposed issues to be considered in organizing and operating the elementary pre-service teacher education program.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.140-156
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• 2010

This study aimed to investigate how science teachers perceived major features of the 2007 revised science curriculum and implementing them in classes. The 2007 revised science curriculum included critical features such as creativity, open inquiry, science writing, discussion and STS. In terms of necessity, clarity and complexity of those features for curriculum implementation, teacher perceptions were examined. Particularly with regard to open inquiry assigned 6 class periods per semester as one of the critical features of 2007 revised science curriculum, we asked teachers how they would prepare and implement the technique in their teaching. In results of this study, science teachers agreed on the necessity and importance of those major features of the 2007 revised science curriculum, including creativity, open inquiry, science writing, discussion, and STS. However, they were not clear on how those would work in their classrooms and expected various impediments. Open inquiry was specifically perceived as most negative in its implementation with the mention of various complex reasons. Based on findings in this study, we proposed the 'Dual Action Research Model' for curriculum implementation. It tries to explain how curriculum is implemented in classrooms and diminish the gaps between curriculum developers and teacher users by means of leading teachers to understand the curriculum meaningfully and implement their teaching based on this understanding.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.557-564
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine the problems in the teaching practice of beginning science teachers who participated in the collaborative mentoring program to improve their teaching expertise. The participants were six beginning science teachers and six mentors at middle and high school levels. From each beginning science teacher and mentor teacher, journals, one-to-one mentoring records and transcripts, interviews and questionnaires, and transcripts conducted at the beginning, middle and the end of the mentoring program were collected. Seven aspects of the beginning science teachers' problems in their teaching practice were identified. The result showed that mentee teachers didn't set up specific learning objectives and they organized and presented lesson contents without considering students' proficiency level. Also, they found it hard to prepare for the lessons irrelevant to their major field of study and they tended to use convergent questions more than divergent questions. Mentee teachers tend to give teacher-centered rather than student-centered teaching. Beginning teachers' recognition of their problems in their teaching practice tends to lead changes in their teaching practice. Some of the problems that mentee teachers showed could be overcome if they recognized the problem through the collaborative mentoring program, but if not, it tends to remain throughout mentoring program.This study also highlighted the importance of reflection on beginning science teachers' practice.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2016.01a
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• pp.165-166
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• 2016

오늘날 요구되는 새로운 인재 교육을 위하여 초 중등학교에 다양한 테크놀로지를 수업에 도입하고자 하는 시도가 이루어지고 있다. 본 논문에서는 현직 초 중등학교 교사 37명을 대상으로 테크놀로지를 도입한 과학수업에 대한 인식을 조사하였다. 연구 결과, 대부분의 교사들은 과학 수업에서 테크놀로지를 도입하는 것의 효과를 인식하고 있었으나, 구체적으로 실행할 방법적인 측면에서 고민하고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 앞으로 테크놀로지를 활용한 과학 교수법을 개발하고, 이를 효율적으로 활용할 수 있도록 교사들의 수업전문성을 발달시킬 교사 교육 프로그램 개발에 대한 후속연구가 필요하다.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.501-514
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• 2022

This study aims to reveal what is necessary for pre-service science teachers to make good use of online formative assessment in the context of online classes. For 22 pre-service physics teachers, first, the preliminary perception of online classes, online formative assessment, and formative assessment was investigated; second, the practice process of online formative assessment was examined. Then the differences between perception and practice were compared and analyzed. Data were collected in preliminary surveys, lesson plans, online formative assessment items, and interview data. As a result of the study, an interaction was mentioned as the difficulty of online classes in the preliminary perception, and pre-service teachers mentioned the use of technology, feedback, and adjustment as advantages of online formative assessment. In most cases of practice, the automated feedback was used using the platform's technology, but it did not lead to adjustment and interaction. In addition, the use of items in online formative assessment was not suitable for formative functions. The reason why the interaction using formative feedback did not occur seems to be because the understanding of formative assessment was insufficient. Pre-service teachers need to be prepared for the 'formative' function through the feedback of online formative assessment so that can lead to interaction in online classes. The shift to online classes is creating difficulties, especially in interaction. It is necessary to prepare and educate pre-service teachers on fundamental aspects that can overcome these difficulties.