• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.97-109
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated pre-service teachers' reflection of questions during science instruction in teaching practicum from the perspective of productive reflection. The productive reflection used in this analysis has four aspects of learners and learning, subject matter knowledge, instruction, and assessment. Five pre-service teachers participated in this study. They reflected on their questions with one class video by using think-aloud method. Semi-constructed interviews were also conducted. The analyses of the results reveal that the aspect of 'instruction' and the 'learners and learning' were frequently included in their reflections. 'subject matter knowledge' was often included in their reflection while 'assessment' was hardly included. The integrations of the two aspects appear most often, those of three aspects appear only sometimes. However, four aspects appear very rarely. The integrations of 'learners and learning' and 'instruction' with the other aspects were most frequent, and the integrations of 'content knowledge' with the other aspects were often. However, the integration of 'assessment' was very few. There were more productive reflections from pre-service teachers who reflect on several questions in context than who reflected on questions one by one. In addition, they exhibited some difficulties in suggesting alternatives to improve their questions. They tried to modify the teaching method related to the questions rather than revise the form of questions. Based on the results, practical implications to improve expertise related to the questions of pre-service teachers were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.434-444
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• 2015

Inquiry-based experiments provide opportunities to understand scientific knowledge and acquire nature of science. In this study, the difficulties which pre-service teachers experienced in inquiry-based experiment class were investigated and analyzed. Twenty-two pre-service teachers attended course designed as ‘ill-structured inquiry’ for 13 weeks, and researchers investigated their difficulties by questionnaires and interview. They showed difficulties mostly in designing experiment and interpretation and also in understanding inquiry purpose, lack of prior knowledge, confidence in inquiry performance, and understanding of experimental instruments and facilities. As a result, it is necessary to provide opportunities to engage in inquiries and environments to properly instruct pre-service teachers the inquiry ability in college of education.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.658-666
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• 2014

This study was designed to explore pre-service secondary science teachers' understanding and views of argument-based inquiry approach. Participants were 17 pre-service secondary science teachers enrolled in chemistry curricular materials and teaching methods course for majors in the college of education at a university in Seoul. Main data sources included each student responses to an open ended survey and individual interviews. Data analyses indicated that the pre-service teachers had very limited and biased understanding on scientific inquiry at the beginning of the semester. While the pre-service teachers understood that scientific inquiry should be an essential component of science teaching, a few pre-service teachers mentioned 'argumentation' or 'discussions' when they defined what scientific inquiry is. The majority of the pre-service teachers mentioned that science should be taught through scientific inquiry since science is inquiry itself. However, the pre-service teachers expressed several potential barriers and their concerns on implementing argumentation in scientific inquiry. While they concerned about students' lack of participation at the beginning of the semester, they concerned more about the teachers' ability of leading student argumentation at the end of the semester.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.324-337
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• 2014

This study investigated the characteristics of science-gifted elementary students' reflection of their science classes. To do this, 91 reflective journals of 20 science-gifted elementary students were analyzed in terms of 'productive reflection'. The results revealed that the mean score of the inclusion scores, which mean the number of aspects of teaching included, was 2.99 on a scale of 5 points and was not significantly correlated with grade level. Most of the reflective journals included the aspects of 'science-gifted students (93.4%)'. 'Instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education (70.3%)', 'subject matter knowledge (68.1%)', and 'curriculum for science-gifted education (57.1%)' were also frequently included. However, 'assessment in science-gifted education (9.9%)' was hardly included. The mean score of the integration scores, which mean the number of aspects of teaching integrated as an index of productive reflection, was 2.84 on a scale of 5 points and was not significantly correlated with grade level. 6.6% of the journals showed no integrations. 34.1% of the journals integrated only two aspects, 39.6% of the journals integrated three aspects, 25.3% of the journals integrated four aspects, and no journals integrated all five aspects. Especially, the integrations between 'science-gifted students (100.0%)' and the other aspects were included in all journals. The integrations between 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education (70.3%)' and/or 'subject matter knowledge (65.9%)' and/or 'curriculum for science-gifted education (53.8%)' and the other aspects were also frequently included. However, the integrations between 'assessment in science-gifted education (9.9%)' and the other aspects were hardly included. There were no statistically significant differences between experiment-centered instruction and theory-centered instruction in the inclusion and integration scores. However, there were more diverse inclusion and integration types, and more aspects tended to be included or integrated in experiment-centered instruction than in theory-centered instruction.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.793-804
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• 2009

In this study, high school students' perceptions of chemically ill-defined ‘heavy metals’ were examined through questionnaires. Nineteen classes of 11th graders (N = 611) were divided into two groups according to completion of 'Chemistry I', which were 10 science-classes and 9 liberal art-classes and compared each other. Three terms of students' cognition and definition, impact on the formation of their cognition, and their chemical knowledge of 'heavy metals' were analyzed by SPSS. The findings revealed that most of students recognized ‘the heavy metal’ as the metal which causes to be accumulated on any living thing and is hazardous in human body regardless of different major between liberal art and science. Mass media and school instruction were found to be the greatest impact on the formation of these cognitions. Especially, school instruction had more effects on students majoring in science than students majoring in liberal art, which bring the result that students in science-classes have more misconception about the definition of 'heavy metals' with human toxicant regardless of metal species and its content in human body and physical density due to the ill-defined terminology of the textbook than students in liberal art-classes do. It is interesting that students in science-classes understood hazard and chemical structure of 'heavy metals' better, while students in liberal art-classes answered the question better about hazardous properties of heavy metals.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.66 no.4
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• pp.305-322
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• 2022

In this study, a practice-based teacher education program was developed and applied to improve the TPACK of pre-service chemistry teachers. Also the program effect and obstacles were confirmed by measuring the development of TPACK. The participants of this study were 20 pre-service chemistry teachers of 3rd grade and 2 pre-service chemistry teachers of 4th grade who took chemistry education courses at K University located in Chungcheongbuk Province. The developed teacher education program consisted of four stages: preparation, rehearsal, practice, and reflection. The feedbacks from researchers and colleagues pre-service teachers were provided in preparation, rehearsal, and reflection stages. As a result of the study, the program of this study did not show an educational effect in the "constructive learning activities" of preservice teachers, but it was found to have an educational effect in "problem solving". In other words, in "constructive learning activity", most pre-service teachers were at 0 level before and after the program. The pre-service teachers designed the class to unilaterally provide technology to simply use it as a tool to explain subject content or revise misconceptions, and learners can passively acquire knowledge. However, in the case of "problem solving", the pre-service teachers who were at level 0 before the educational program changed to level 1. Before the program, the pre-service teachers designed classes to solve problems by memory without using technology, but after the program they planned classes that provides opportunities to approach and solve various problems through the technology presented by the teacher. However, there were not many pre-service teachers corresponding to level 2, which constitutes voluntary learning in which learners use technology to solve various problems while selecting and variously manipulating technology. In addition, as obstacles to the TPACK development of pre-service chemistry teachers, there were external factors such as lack of classroom support environment for TPACK implementation, lack of time for education planning, and inadequate technology competency. And there were internal factors such as perspectives of traditional education and negative attitude toward technology. In particular, the proportion of pre-service teachers who preceived inappropriate technical competency as an external obstacles of TPACK development was high. Therefore, it was necessary to develop an education program corresponding to type 2 or type 3 that enables TPACK development through TK for pre-service teachers.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.145-156
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• 2000

The content of oxidation-reduction in the chemistry textbooks from middle school to college was analyzed about the effective connection of curricular articulation. The classification was divided from five groups of 'first concept', 'same concept', 'overlap', 'development', and 'gap'. As a results, there was a deep big gap from middle school to high school and the effectiveness from high school to college was quite acceptable. Finally, the flow map, consisted of each concept between the school unit, was suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.519-526
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of small group learning using smart devices in science classes on students' achievement, learning motivation, attitude toward science lessons, and perception of small group learning using smart devices. Four 11th-grade classes (N=133) at a coed high school in Seoul were randomly assigned to a control group and a treatment group. The intervention of small group learning using smart devices emphasized collaborative writing on activity sheet. The students were taught about acid, base, and neutralization reaction for six class periods. After the instructions, an achievement test, the learning motivation test, the attitude toward science lessons test, and a questionnaire on the perception of small group learning using smart devices were administered. Two-way ANCOVA results revealed that there was a statistically significant interaction effect by their previous chemistry achievement in the achievement test scores. Only low-level students in small group learning using smart devices significantly improved their achievement probably by having the opportunities to get help from high-level students. The adjusted means of the treatment group were significantly higher than those of the control group in learning motivation and attitude toward science lessons. Students' perceptions of small group learning using smart devices tended to be positive. Educational implications of this study are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.631-638
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• 2007

This study investigated the influences of a student-centered analogical instruction using physical analogies upon students' conception and application, retention of conception and application, perceptions of science classroom environment, and perceptions of analogical instruction. Six classes of seventh graders (N=208) at a middle school in Seoul were assigned to the control, the teacher-centered analogy (TCA), and the student-centered analogy (SCA) groups. They were taught about 'three states of matter' and 'motion of molecules' for 8 class hours. Analysis of the results revealed that the scores of the SCA group were significantly higher than those of the other groups in the conception test, retention test of conception and application, and perception test of science classroom environment. The scores of the SCA group in the application test were also higher than those of the other groups, but there was a significant difference only between the control and the SCA groups. The TCA group performed significantly better than the control group only in the test of the retention of application. In addition, the students in the SCA group exhibited more positive perceptions of the analogical instruction than those in the TCA group. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.302-316
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to devise a Small-Scale Chemistry (SSC) lab program for primary school learners and to examine its effects on science learning achievement. In addition, it will be examined whether the type of learning groups affects the achievement or not. The participants in the current study were 173 6th graders from 6 classes of Y elementary school in Changwon city, Gyeongnam. Three classes(86) were assigned to the experimental group and the other three, the comparative group after checking the pre-homogeneity between the two groups through t-test on the scores of the science mid-term exam. We conducted five experimental sessions on the Acid and Base in the science textbook for the sixth graders. The students of one experimental class worked in pairs and another class worked individually, but the students of the comparative classes were divided into groups of six(one group with pair, another group with individual work in the SSC program, and the other group conducting the traditional experiment with groups of six students). The data were analyzed by t-test and ANOVA. The results showed that experimental learning using individual work in the SSC program compared to traditional experimental learning was effective in improving science learning achievement. also it was indicated that the teachers could reduce their burden of preparing for classes and of school hours when they utilized the SSC laboratory learning program. Teachers could also actively support students' experimental activities in employing the program. Based on the results, we suggest that the development of the SSC laboratory learning program is meaningful in the sense that this program can help elementary schoolers to improve science learning achievements more than the existing traditional experimental methods.