• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.501-517
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• 2021

In the present age, when the development of science and technology is leading the changes, this study supports the view that students should possess the literacy to participate democratically and critically in socio-scientific issues, and should be positioned as agentic and participatory citizens. Accordingly, we implemented a club activity that emphasize climate social action for elementary students, and explored how students were positioned in relation to climate change. In this study, position is defined as a complex cluster of rights and duties that students have in relation to climate change. The club activity was implemented throughout 46 sessions from March to July, 2019 for 11 sixth graders of 'H elementary School' in Seoul, and transcripts of video and interviews were analyzed by means of a constant comparison method. In the course of the activity consisting of three steps, the students exhibited different positioning and they are as follows: In the global warming modeling activity for Step 1, students were positioned as 'active learners', but at the same time, they showed a contradiction in being positioned as 'apprentice'. In the student-led research activities inherent to Step 2, they were positioned as 'scientists who design and conduct research' and 'bystanders' due to the controversial nature of SSI knowledge. As students participate in the social actions involved in Step 3, the position changed from 'elementary school students facing difficulty in making a change' to 'participatory citizens creating changes.' This study is significant because it shows students' potential to promote participatory and democratic citizenship through action-oriented SSI activities. In addition, pedagogical approaches were discussed dealing with the contradictions and limitations of positioning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.859-877
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to probe secondary science teachers' perception on scientific models and modeling. A total of 50 experienced science teachers were surveyed with 10 open-ended questions about several aspects of models and modeling: definition, examples, purpose, multiplicity, changeability, design/construction, evaluation and beliefs in the use of models and modeling as a teaching tool. The analysis of the data shows the following results: 1) understanding of models and modeling held by a majority of experienced secondary science teachers was far from that of experts as they concentrated on a model's superficial, representative, and visual functions, 2) when it comes to their view toward the use of a model, a model does not remain in the stage of 'doing science' but in the stage of being a subsidiary teaching tool for the teacher's explaining and the students' understanding of scientific concepts, 3) the subjects they majored in made meaningful differences in their contextual understanding of models and modeling, 4) though most of the teachers acknowledged the importance of teaching about models and modeling, even a lot of them showed a negative position toward the opinion that they are willing to apply modeling to their classes. Implications of the results were discussed in terms of intervention in order to enhance secondary science teachers' understanding and pedagogical content knowledge of models and modeling.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.437-447
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• 2014

Learning progressions (LP), which describe how students may develop more sophisticated understanding over a defined period of time, can inform the design of instructional materials and assessment by providing a coherent, systematic measure of what can be regarded as "level appropriate." We developed LPs for the nature of matter for grades K-16. In order to empirically test Korean students, we revised one of the constructs and associated assessment items based on Korean National Science Standards. The assessment was administered to 124 Korean secondary students to measure their knowledge and submicroscopic representations, and to assign them to a level of learning progression for the particle nature of matter. We characterized the level of students' understanding and models of the particle nature of matter, and described how students interpret various representations of atoms and molecules to explain scientific phenomena. The results revealed that students have difficulties in understanding the relationship between the macroscopic and molecular levels of phenomena, even in high school science. Their difficulties may be attributed to a limited understanding of scientific modeling, a lack of understanding of the models used to represent the particle nature of matter, or limited understanding of the structure of matter. This work will inform assessment and curriculum materials development related to the fundamental relationship between macroscopic, observed phenomena and the behavior of atoms and molecules, and can be used to create individualized learning environments. In addition, the results contribute to scientific research literature on learning progressions on the nature of matter.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.560-576
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• 2023

The purpose of this investigation is to: (1) to derive an improvement factor for inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning in pre-service teacher training programs, and pre-service teachers practice simulated teaching that reflect the improvement factor, (2) to analyze the difference in science intrinsic motivation according to science self-efficacy and inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning experience. To achieve these goals, we recruited five elementary and secondary teachers as experts to help us develop an improvement factor based on expert interviews. Subsequently, third-year pre-service teachers of a university of education participated in our analysis of differences in science intrinsic motivation, according to their level of science self-efficacy and experience with inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning. Our methodology involved applying the analytic hierarchy process to expert interviews to derive improvement factor for inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning, followed by a two-way ANOVA to identify significant differences in science intrinsic motivation between groups with varying levels of science self-efficacy. We also conducted post-analysis through MANOVA statements. The results of our study indicate that inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning can be improved through activities that foster digital literacy, ecological literacy, democratic citizenship, and scientific inquiry skills. Moreover, small group activities and student-centered teaching-learning approaches were found to be effective in developing core competencies and promoting science achievements. Specifically, pre-service teachers prepared a teaching-learning course plan and inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning in seventh-grade in the Earth and Space subject area. Pre-service teachers' science intrinsic motivation analyze significant differences in all levels of science self-efficacy before and after simulated teaching-learning and significant difference in the interaction effect between simulated teaching-learning and scientific self-efficacy. Particularly, group with low scientific self-efficacy, the difference in science intrinsic motivation according to simulated teaching-learning was most significant. Teachers' scientific self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation are needed to improve science achievement and affective domains of students in class. Therefore, this study contributes to suggest inquiry-based simulated teaching-learning reflecting school practices from the pre-service teacher curriculum.