• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.255-277
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• 2009

Currently Science and technology are changing so fast these days, educating competent and creative person, majoring in natural sciences, including mathematics., becoming more and more important. But, in Korea, there are many problems in high school and university education program, so performance level in mathematics is decreasing and avoiding mathematics and natural sciences is increasing. Naturally the numbers of science oritented students in high school are decreasing and ability in mathematics, in particular calculus, is decreasing. Hence, the above situation leads to a reduction of scientific manpower. In this point of a view, we analyse the situation of the downturn of the ability of the science, especially calculus, among engineering majored freshmen. We also study many data reported by Ministry of Education and Science, Korea and scholar societies. From this study we conclude that the essential rerasons for the above situations are curriculum and the system of the entrance examination of the university, and we give suggestions for solutions of such a situation.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.469-479
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• 2001

This study investigated the trends in the number of applicants and mean score and applicants’ responses on the test items of Earth Science in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) implemented for 3 years (1999-2001). The percentage of applicants of science track were 43.14% in 1995, but reduced through 29.5% in 2001 to 26.92% in 2002 CSAT For elective subject, about 22% of science track students applied to Earth Science II which ranked third to Biology II and Chemistry II. In 1999, test items were developed to have the expected difficulty 40 ${\sim}$ 59% (6 items) to 60 ${\sim}$ 79% (10 items). But in 2001 every 16 items were developed to have difficulty 60 ${\sim}$ 79%, which was caused by the policy of so called ‘easy CSAT’. Thus the mean score of ‘Earth Science II’ was increased from 50.26 in 1999 through 64.47 in 2000, to 67.58 in 2001. Applicants were generally very good at solving test items focusing on process skills only and familar items but poor at solving test items related to the motion of the earth and planets and sea wave, especially items calling two or more concepts. Thus special measures to cope with the decrease in applicants of science track should be provided. And it is recommended to develop test items with wider range of difficulty and to reduce test items calling process skills only. And special consideration should be given to teaching the content area with poor achievement and high actual difficulty compared to the expected.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.70-85
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• 2024

The purpose of this study was to find out what impact climate action has on study participants and why climate action education is difficult in high schools. For this purpose, a basic qualitative research method was selected, and the study participants were five middle school students at the time of the activity. The results of this study are as follows. Due to the climate action in middle school, the participants' career path changed specifically and their climate literacy was cultivated. And climate action education in high schools was not enough. Environmental subjects that provide climate action education were difficult to open because they were not chosen by many students, and it was unrealistic to provide climate action education during creative experiential activities due to the burden of college entrance exams. The discussion points of this study are as follows. Climate action needs to be encouraged among middle school students because it helps shape career paths and cultivate climate literacy. Additionally, because sustainability is important in climate action, there is a need to establish specialized courses in climate action education in the curriculum of elementary, middle, and high schools so that climate literacy can be maintained consistently.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.234-248
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• 2010

This study was conducted among 52 elementary pre service teachers not majoring in the natural sciences, who were taking Earth Science as an elective course at the University of Education located in central Korea. These elementary pre service teachers participated in story writing on the subject of earth system cycles over eight occasions. Changes in their understanding of the Earth's cycles were verified by comparing mind mapping exercises performed before and after the story writing. Afterwards, 43 out of the 52 subjects volunteered for structured interviews, in which they performed story-telling exercises. This study presents examples of story analysis that uses a variation of the wheel-shaped story map, and proposes story mapping as a preferred method of analysis. Before and after creative story writing activities, pre service teachers' mind mapping is analyzed to study possible positive changes. This study identified a gap between the instructional contents of the Earth system unit included in the 7th and current revised school curriculums on the one hand, and the conceptions expressed by the pre service teachers who studied these contents on the other.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.30-40
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to analyze gifted students' perception of the teaching activities at the gifted science high school (Busan Science Academy), in Busan, Korea, and to investigate the science experiment class practice. In this study, a questionnaire about the curriculum courses, teaching strategies, and evaluation method of the school was administered to 139 gifted students. The verbal interactions during the science experiment class were audio and videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed. The results of this study are as follows: First, according to the gifted students' perception, the credits of specialized courses and advanced elective courses need to be increased and the credits of general courses need to be reduced. Second, teachers at this school mainly use teaching strategies such as lecture, group activities, and discussion; on the other hand, the students prefer diverse teaching strategies such as discussion, lecture, experiment, inquiring activities, and problem solving. Third, students prefer a writing test assessment rather than a written report assessment or portfolio assessment. Fourth, the patterns of verbal interaction were different depending on the level of the teachers' questions and interactions between the students in the experiment class facilitated students' inquiry.