• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.80-86
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence the choice of a major in a sample of 655 science students enrolled in 14 high schools. It was found that more than 80 percents of students had already chosen their desired majors by the second year of high school. Half intended to apply for medical colleges. The preference of medical colleges was more pronounced in high-ranking students. It was found that students who scored highly on career decision level assessments were more likely to major in science. The most important determinant for students in choosing majors was subject interests. Career concerns and students' grades also influenced the choice of majors. In this study, it is concluded that the career decision level of students and subject interests influenced their choice of major. These findings suggest the career development programs and efforts to expose students to various career paths will increase the ability to make informed educational decisions.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.607-633
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• 2016

Teachers and students tend to perceive mathematics irrelevant with character education. Since there has been no teaching of cross-curriculum characters education in mathematics classrooms, this research was to look for the possibility of teaching the character education in mathematics. Through the pilot study, trying to rebuild character factors based on Moon, et al,(2011), the researcher applied them to developing 8 lesson plans and carried them to 12th graders of the high school in March and April, 2014 using pre and post tests. Based on statistically significant difference with the level of p<.05, in "relation with me", for 'appointment' in the pretest, the students of natural science(SNS) exceeded, but in the posttest the students of humanities(SH) exceeded. In "relation with the other", in the posttest, for 'forgiveness' and 'responsibility' SNS, but for 'ownership' SH exceeded. In 'relation with a group' in the pretest for 'community spirit' SNS, and in the posttest SH exceeded. In the pretest in this study SNS naturally perceived the value of character education in math classes since they were closer to mathematics but after the experience through character education with cross-curriculum factors, SH perceived its importance expecially 'appointment', 'ownership', and 'community spirit' more than SNS so that we could predict the possibility of teaching cross-curriculum character factors in mathematics even after they had preconception as a high school student.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.321-335
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• 2019

This study aims to explore the influencing factors and the process of enhancing science self-efficacy (SSE) and to lay the foundation in understanding science self-efficacy of students. The ten categories related to the science self-efficacy were derived through the coding of the interview data based on the grounded theory and paradigm analysis to develop a process model of science self-efficacy improvement. Through the process analysis, four cyclical phases were found in the process of enhancing SSE: 'Entering into learning science' phase, 'enhancing SSE' phase, 'adjustment' phase, and 'result' phase. More specifically, the phase of 'entering into learning science' is where students choose science track and stimulated to construct SSE. The phase of 'enhancing SSE' is where students taking a science track actively learn science and perform science activities. In the phase of 'adjustment', students come to have successful performance about learning science and performing science activities by using diverse strategies. Finally, 'result' phase indicates different appearances of students depending on SSE levels. The phases were non-linear and periodically repeat depending on situation. The core category in the selective coding was indicated to be 'enhancing science self-efficacy.' Students' SSE form by learning science and performing science activities. These finding may help better understand the behavior of students who are taking a science track by facilitating effective science learning through the increase of their SSE levels.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.405-415
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate high school students in natural science track and engineering major university students' perceptions about the writing and composition education. A total of 318 high school students in natural science track from two high schools in a metropolitan area and 447 university students majoring in engineering from three universities participated in the survey and asked to response their perceived status and needs of writing education for science-engineering track. The survey instrument, developed by Lee et al.(2009), was used for this study. The data was analyzed through the SPSS 18.0 program for Windows for Multiple Response Frequency Analysis, Descriptive Statistics, Independent Samples t-test, and One-way Analysis of Variance. The results indicated that high school students relatively perceived that writing education was less necessary compared to university students. In addition, high school students found writing less difficult than university students do. In related to studying their experience with writing and composition education, almost no high school students have taken writing classes and university students have taken an average of one class. Most university students who took writing classes took basic writing classes that were not programmed for students in Science and Engineering. In the basic survey to revitalize writing and composition education for Science and Engineering students in different majors, the level of writing and composition education required by students in each major was different. Writing was considered most necessary for students majoring in Chemical Engineering, followed by students majoring in Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Engineering. The study of writing and composition education for high school and college should extend to studies on teachers or professors who teach writing, studies on contents and methods of writing education, and studies on the development of writing programs for different majors in university.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.281-296
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to explore the science learning motivation of technical high school students through comparison with general high school students. 596 high school students and 1063 general high school students participated in the study. Three statistical methods were used for data analysis: two-way ANOVA, independent sample t-test, and Pearson correlation analysis. The results showed that the interaction between school type and grade had a significant effect on the difference of students' motivation for science learning. There was a significant difference in learning motivation among general high school students according to academic year, while there was no significant difference between first and second grader of technical high school students. Especially, technical high school students showed low level of science learning motivation compared to the students in general high school. The correlations among five motivational factors of science learning motivation were also significantly lower than that of general high school students. Lastly, the result of correlation analysis between science motivation and academic achievement showed that second year students in technical high school had less correlation coefficients than the first year students. Given these results, it is necessary to develop a educational strategy for enhancing science learning motivation of technical school students. We will discuss the direction of science education for technical high school based on our findings.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.835-849
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• 2016

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the trajectory of science core school students' STEM career motivation and to examine the relationship between the trajectory patterns and students' tracks. Longitudinal STEM career motivation data with seven constructs were collected from 256 students for five semesters and the data were analyzed by using group-based trajectory modelling analysis. In order to examine the relationship between trajectory pattern groups and the tracks, chi-square tests were conducted. Based on our findings, we found that students are likely to have similar trajectory patterns in STEM career education experience and in their perception towards STEM career value. In terms of parents' support, academic self-efficacy and STEM career motivation aspects are divided into two distinctive trajectory groups ('high' and 'low' group), while two other variables, STEM career self-efficacy and STEM career interest, are divided into three trajectory groups ('moderate declining', 'high declining', 'increasing' group). Most of the trajectory groups are shown the pattern that the level of each constructs increase until their second academic year, then after that, the patterns started going down. Moreover, there are significant relationship between track and each trajectory groups. Science track and science-core track students have similar trajectory patterns. In contrast, humanities track students have different trajectory groups in some constructs. Based on these findings, we suggest that STEM career education environment should consider various patterns of students' STEM career development.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.609-620
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine school-level science elective-centered curriculum operation and teachers' perception of their instruction of elective-centered science courses. Data were collected from 12 science teachers in 12 high schools in the metropolitan Seoul area through semi-constructed interviews. The results showed that students were supposed to select science subjects under insufficient guidance and their choices on subject were also restricted due to school administrative processes such as teacher's instructional time allocation. Participants were well-perceived different group characteristics among humanities course and science course students toward science learning, still, they felt difficulties in valuing students' variety by differentiating contents and teaching methodologies due to school assessment system and workload of extra instructional material preparation. Influenced by the current college entrance examination system, low motivation for humanities course students and students' choice concentrated in chemistry and life science for science course students, were pointed out as main problems. As a way to improve science education for 11th - 12th graders, developing customized science curriculum for humanities course and science course respectively, changing of entrance system into increasing importance of science for students who will major in non-science fields, and designations of essential prerequisite science subject for students who will major in engineering & science fields, were suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.753-764
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• 2006

The concept of blood circulation is so complex, dynamic and abstract that students have difficulty in understanding it and students' preconceptions hardly change into scientific concepts even after the lessons. The purpose of this study is to examine middle school, high school, and undergraduate students' understanding of blood circulation and to find the reason why the lack of deep understanding is displayed in students' explanations for the blood circulation. The study consists of three parts. First, the test was designed to investigate students' ideas for blood circulation as components of the structure, the function, the behavior and the mechanism. Second, the test was applied to 7th, 10th and 13th graders to investigate the students' understanding of blood circulation and categorize the types of students' blood circulation model according to their academic level. Finally, the concepts the students had little understanding of were analyzed to decide which ontological category they fell into and further to inquire the characteristics of each concept. The results showed that many students comprehend the structure and the function of blood circulation components well, and there was no significant difference in students' understanding according to the academic level. In contrast, understanding the behavior and the mechanism of circulatory components has remarkably improved in high school students and undergraduates majoring in science and engineering. Also, students' blood circulation models were classified into seven different types. High school students and undergraduates majoring in science and engineering demonstrated a significantly higher percentage on the type of double-loop-branch compared to other academic levels. In addition, it was found that the lack of deep understanding was caused by students' misconceiving the 'equilibrium' category as 'event' category.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.63-74
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• 2023

This study aims to investigate the effects of pre-service elementary teachers' scientific self-efficacy by science motivation according to the academic track in high school. The subjects of this study were 525 pre-service elementary teachers of which 350 pre-service elementary teachers were selected from the humanities and social sciences track in high school and 175 pre-service elementary teachers were selected from the science-engineering track in high school. In order to investigate the difference between scientific self-efficacy and science motivation among pre-service elementary teachers, Independent sample t-test and Cohen's d were done. In order to find out about the Influencing of scientific self-efficacy on science motivation, multiple regression analysis was used. The results of this study were as follows: First, there were statistically significant differences in scientific self-efficacy and science motivation, and the average of pre-service elementary teachers who selected science-engineering were significantly higher. Second, explanation power of scientific self-efficacy on science motivation appeared as 66.7~68.3%. The explanatory power of pre-service elementary teachers' who selected humanities and social sciences were higher. The relative importance was high in task difficulty preference factor to humanities and social sciences, was high in self-regulation efficacy to science-engineering. In conclusion, in order for pre-service elementary teachers to achieve high achievement and motivation in science subjects, and to teach science well to students in the school field, teacher education that can improve scientific self-efficacy should be conducted.

• 전기의세계
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.3-7
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• 1975

대학원 특히 이공계 대학원의 개선에 대하여는 지난 수년간 상당한 논의가 있었고 이에 따라 활발한 움직임이 있어 왔다. 근래 서울대학교가 대학원 중심의 대학교로 지향하겠음을 기본방침으로 채택하였으며 이공계 대학원으로써 전례에 없는 정부의 투자로서 한국과학원이 발족하여 이미 제1회 졸업생을 배출하였다. 따라서 우리나라에 본격적인 대학원교육의 세대가 온 것이라고 하여도 과언은 아니라고 본다. 일반 대학원교육의 목표가 "장차 연구와 교육에 종사할 대학교수를 양성하며 또한 사회에 봉사할 고등인력을 배출함"에 있으나 "사회가 요구하는 일부 고등인력이 특수대학원과 의치과에서만 배출되는 과도이고 대학원 전체로서는 이런 요구를 거의 충족치 못하고"있는 것이 지금까지의 현실이었다. (1)규모세성, (2)예산의 부족, (3)시설의 미비, (4)학생에의 지원빈곤 (5)교육 운영의 무리 및 (6)불합리한 기구의 성격때문에 일반대학원이 사회의 요구를 충족시키지 못할 뿐만 아니라 현재대학교들 자체의 교원 요원 충원에도 암경이 있음이 지적되고 있기도하다. 또우기 이러한 대학원교육의 분세성은 이공계에서는 더욱 심하다는 것이 명백히 나타나 있다. 일례로 시설은 기준에 훨씬 미흡하고 있으며 자연과학계열을 포함하고 있는 일반대학원의 학생 1인당 예산액이 사회과학계열의 특수대학원의 1인당 예산액의 반정도밖에 책정되어 있지 않는다는 어려운 실정이 나타나있다. 않는다는 어려운 실정이 나타나있다.