• The Mathematical Education
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2014

This study examines the effects of reflective journal writing on the mathematics self-efficacy in reciprocal peer tutoring. Participants were 38 high school students in Gyeonggi province who attended at a summer intensive mathematics course for 4 weeks. This study used a mixed method. SPSS 21.0 program was used to analyze the quantitative data, and the interviews, observational journals and reflective journals of 6 students were used to analyze qualitative data. According to the results, all the subcategories of mathematics self-efficacy, - mathematics problem-efficacy, mathematics success-efficacy, mathematics learning-efficacy, and mathematics subject-efficacy - improved except mathematics occupation-efficacy. In case of mathematics success-efficacy and mathematics problem-efficacy, students revealed the greatest improvement. In conclusion, reflective journal writing in reciprocal peer tutoring could be suggested as a treatment program to improve students' mathematics self-efficacy.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.63-80
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• 2013

Reflecting the recent trends and needs of gifted education, this study set out to compare and analyze mathematically gifted elementary students and common students in self-efficacy and career attitude maturity, understand the characteristics of the former, and provide assistance for career education for both the groups. The subjects include 237 mathematically gifted elementary students and 221 common students in D Metropolitan City. The research findings were as follows: First, mathematically gifted elementary students turned out to have higher self-efficacy than common students at the significance level of .01 in the three self-efficacy subfactors, namely confidence, self-regulated efficacy, and task difficulty preference. The findings indicate that mathematically gifted elementary students have much confidence in themselves and strong faith in themselves, thus forming a habit of preferring a relatively high-level task by taking self-management and task difficulty into proper consideration. Second, mathematically gifted elementary students showed higher overall career attitude maturity than common students. There was significant difference at the significance level of .01 in decisiveness and preparedness between the two groups and significant difference at the significance level of .05 in assertiveness. However, there was no statistically significant difference in purposefulness and independence between the two groups. Finally, there were positive correlations at the significance level of .01 between all the subfactors of self-efficacy and those of career attitude maturity in all the subjects except for self-regulated efficacy and purposefulness, between which there were positive correlations at the significance level of .05. The mathematically gifted elementary students showed positive correlations between more subfactors of self-efficacy and career attitude maturity than common students. Given those findings, it is necessary to take differences in self-efficacy and career attitude maturity between mathematically gifted elementary students and common students into account when organizing and running a curriculum. The findings confirm the importance of providing students with various experiences fit for them and point to a need for helping mathematically gifted elementary students maintain a high level of self-efficacy and guiding them through career education with more appropriate career attitude maturity improvement programs.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.476-488
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• 2016

The purposes of this study were to develop a scientific inquiry-based STEAM education program and to investigate its effect on changing middle school students' self-efficacy in science, job awareness, and attitudes toward STEM. A scientific inquiry-based STEAM program was developed with the theme of 'earthquakes', using the ADBA model, which was taking up the total of six class periods. The final program, which had been revised and completed after being pre-tested with middle school students, was implemented to 105 third-graders of middle school in a metropolitan city. One sample pre-post paired t-test before and after applying the program to the same group was conducted, and its effectiveness was analyzed in terms of self-efficacy in science, job awareness, attitudes toward science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Results showed that the STEAM program on the theme of 'earthquakes' demonstrated its effect on improving the students' of self-efficacy in science subject and their awareness of science-related jobs. Furthermore, this program indicated a statistical significance in improving middle school students' attitudes, awareness, and abilities, values, and continuing interest towards science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Therefore, we suggest that this scientific inquiry based STEAM program be used to help students to improve their scientific investigation skills as well as their creative and integrated thinking abilities in schools.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.334-350
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• 2017

The purposes of this study are to develop scientific-inquiry based on STEAM education program and to investigate the effects of the program on middle-school students' interests, self-efficacy, and career choice about science, technology/engineering, and mathematics. In order to develop this program, the literature investigation and previous studies were conducted, so that finally the developmental direction was based on scientific inquiry and the developmental theme and model were selected. A total 92 first-graders in G middle-school of Daegu city were participated in this study. A single group pre-post test paired t-test was conducted to figure out changes of students' interest, self-efficacy, and career choices before or after applying this program. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 students to find their specific responses. The results of this study were as follows. First, STEAM education program on the theme of 'RC Airplane' was developed on the basis of the 'ADBA' model. Second, the developed STEAM educational program not only results a decisive difference statistically but also has significant effects on middle-school students' interests, self-efficacy, and career choice in science, technology/engineering, and mathematics, who are involved in the free-semester program, across the overall affective domain. In conclusion, the STEAM educational program in this study could affect significant meanings to middle-school students during the free-semester. It could contribute to facilitate middle-school students' education for happiness and to grow the creative STEAM talents.