• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.1329-1342
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• 2013

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between the change of beginning teachers' beliefs about a lesson and that of teaching practice and argument-based inquiry using science writing. Participants were three science teachers (A, B, and C) from different middle schools. Classroom observation and interview data were collected and transcribed for analysis. A Summary Writing test was also administered to examine whether there was an improvement in students' learning. The results indicated that the interaction between the teachers and their students developed, which is concluded as an improvement in the teaching practice. Teacher A and B also reported that teacher-student interaction had improved. Teacher A and C came to understand that argument-based inquiry using science writing classes constituted learner-centered instruction. The result from the Summary Writing Test showed the impact of the changes in teaching practice and in teachers' awareness of students' learning as well as produced meaningfully higher scores than compared groups on the rhetorical structure of all the specific areas in teacher A's school and on the scientific concept at B and C's schools.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.405-424
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics of secondary science teachers' thoughts on 'good' science teaching and to find a concept that can represent the way the teachers think. Participants were twenty pre- and in-service teachers who were enrolled in a graduate course I taught at a university located in Seoul in the first semester, 2011. The participating teachers collected and analyzed a variety of data and created portfolios while they were trained, as part of the course, on qualitative research methods with the same research questions as those of this study. In the current study, the process in which the teachers and I found answers to the research questions was narratively reconstructed based on the teachers' portfolios and my field notes. It was revealed that science teaching was perceived as a task aiming at realizing some kind of values and that because the teachers pursued various values in the science classroom and there exist conflicting relationships among different values, it was hard to define 'good' science teaching. It was also discussed that science instruction was inherently accompanied with the ongoing process of selecting values as the relationships among the values were ever-changing within the contexts of the classroom. This multi-faceted and dynamic structure of the teachers' thoughts on 'good' science teaching was conceptualized analogically as 'Foucault's pendulum,' which has multiple planes of oscillation. Implications for science teacher education and science education research were suggested.

• The Science & Technology
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• no.2 s.429
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• pp.96-99
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• 2005

• The Science & Technology
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• no.2 s.465
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• pp.102-103
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• 2008

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.421-431
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to identify instructional components supporting students' interest and creativity in American middle school science classrooms. Two 7th grade classrooms were selected, and observed for 11 class periods each. Results showed that hands-on and small group activities were the most effective ways to increase students' interest. The teachers' instructional approaches, such as individualized paced teaching, sufficient peer teaching, permissive atmosphere, various media, and purpose-focused summary game were found to influence students' interest. To enhance students' creativity, increasing interest, making hypothesis, and trying to various experimental method with sufficient time were identified as effective components.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.117-127
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• 2003

This qualitative research investigated how to improve preservice and in-service teacher education programs through in-depth interviews with 10 exemplary science teachers. Data from interviews were used to analyze how the teachers perceived current situations of teacher education and what they suggested as an improvement plan. In terms of preservice teacher education, exemplary teachers argued that teacher education programs should (1) ensure the teacher education program's identity and goals, (2) provide preservice teachers with practical knowledge by translating theory into practice, and (3) secure faculty members who majored in science education. In light of in-service education, the teachers contended that (1) teachers should acknowledge the continuing processes of their own professional development, (2) the content and method of in-service training should incorporate teachers' practical needs in the classroom, and (3) the teaching community should implement a clinical supervision to improve their classroom practices. The central role of teacher (re)education in a successful classroom reform is also discussed.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.138-148
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• 2011

Science class is the starting point of science education where science teacher and students meet together to teach and learn science. Therefore successful science class is the main concern of various educational partakers, such as teachers, students, parents, school administrators, and science education researchers. In order to find what is important among the teaching abilities of science teachers, a survey was conducted to the various educational partakers. As the result of survey, students chose 'progressing a lesson' and 'teacher's attitude' are important, and in-service teachers chose 'analyzing learner characteristics and curriculum' and 'teacher-student interaction' are important, while the pre-service teachers and parents chose 'teacher-student interaction' and 'progressing a lesson' are important. In addition, the school administrators chose 'setting up teaching-learning strategy' and science education researchers chose 'understanding curriculum and developing teaching-learning method' is important along with 'analyzing learner characteristics and curriculum.' In the communication on science education among different educational partakers, these result can be used as the basic information to understand the different perspectives on a science class.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.51-70
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• 2008

The purposes of this study were to analyze the domestic research trend of the STS Education and to evaluate the application effects of STS teaching model by using Meta-analysis. The selected research articles were 180 articles including 104 of the master's theses and 76 of science education journal articles published from 1991 to 2006. For the evaluation of the effects of STS teaching and learning model, 56 articles were selected finally. The mean effect size of the application effects of STS teaching and learning was 0.40. The result indicated that STS teaching had more positive effects than the traditional teaching on enhancing student's attitude for science, academic achievement in science, inquiry ability, attitude for environment and knowledge for environment. Especially, it had shown the most positive effects on improvement in the attitude for environment. Therefore, it might be better to reflect these results for the best effect of STS teaching. To assess STS education on the whole, it is necessary to synthesize the effects of STS teaching and learning model and the results of the study on teachers' and students' understanding about the interrelation of science, technology and society.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.592-602
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• 2008

The purpose of this research is to explore types of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK, hereafter) for effective science teaching. In this research, we explored three science teachers' PCK on light, who were effective in teaching the topic with particular students. The data analysis consisted of identifying the three teachers' unique PCK and ways to improve each teaching episode through the teacher meetings. These analyses, which consisted of verbal exchanges among the participants, were identified on the basis of our understanding. Using grounded theory methods, the types of science PCK drawn from this research are: (1) teaching through curriculum reconstruction, (2) teaching to help students build their own explanation models about surrounding nature, (3) teaching for learning the social language of science, (4) teaching to motivate students' learning needs based on relevance of science to students, (5) teaching through lowering students' learning demand by providing scaffolding, (6) teaching based on the teacher's understanding of students, (7) teaching through inquiry with argumentation, (8) teaching through reification of abstract science concepts, and (9) teaching none marginalized science. Common features of science teachers with quality PCK and their professionalism in teaching are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.422-434
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• 2011

The purpose of this research is to investigate the actual conditions of primary school science teaching and ways to improve it. In elementary science teaching, teachers themselves tend to have science misconceptions and insufficient science content knowledge. Experienced teachers argued that it could be hard for elementary teachers with lack of science content knowledge to provide their students with meaningful learning experiences of science. Based on the general characteristics of elementary teaching and the awareness of elementary teachers' insufficient science content knowledge, we explored the real situation of the elementary science classroom. We conducted open-ended interviews with teachers and focus group discussions on a regular basis to analyze and compare classes of five primary school teachers. Data analysis focused on why elementary students avoid science classes in upper grades of elementary school and why elementary science classes always need hands-on activities. We also discussed ways to turn hands-on investigation into minds-on investigation by connecting it to important ideas in science. Based on the results, we suggested ways to improve inservice teacher training such as designing supplementary in-service training focused on content knowledge for primary school teachers, setting up professional exchange or collaboration between primary and secondary teachers, and introducing subject-specialized teachers for the fifth and sixth graders of primary school. In particular, considering elementary teachers' insufficient science content knowledge, employing science subject matter specialists in the elementary school could be a useful strategy.