• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.443-457
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• 2003

The research aimed to compare science curriculum between Korea and Israel and find out characteristics of science curriculum in Israel at middle school level. The middle school 'science' of the 7th revised national curriculum in Korea and middle school 'science and technology' in Israel were compared. Among characteristics of the Israel curriculum of 'science and technology,' distinct ones are as follows: First, 'science and technology' was most highly emphasized with the largest number of time allotment among all subjects at middle school level in Israel. Second, the contents of 'science and technology' were classified into seven areas of 'energy and interaction', 'materials', 'organism', 'earth and the universe', 'technological systems and products' . 'information and communication',and 'ecosystems' rather than four areas of energy, materials, life and earth in Korea. Third, 'organism' was allocated with the highest number of hours among seven areas. Fourth, objectives of each content of 'science and technology' were divided into three categories: scientific aspect, technological aspect, and social value and objectives of each category were related to one another. This characteristic seems to stress STS, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary approaches in 'science and technology' in Israel. Such characteristics of the 'science and technology' education in Israel are likely to make significant contributions to establish human resources of highly developing science and technology including IT, BT, NT, ST in the future society. Reflecting upon the characteristics of 'science and technology' education in Israel, Korea might seek for ways to improve its national power based on science and technology through strengthening science and emphasizing science and technology contents among school curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1186-1201
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• 2013

We investigated student's characteristics in each educational achievement level using the results of the NAEA (National Assessment of Educational Achievement) in 2009, 2010, and 2011 for Grade 6 students, and compared the characteristics between elementary and middle school students. The analysis of representative items for each educational achievement level of elementary and middle school students revealed that (a) advanced level students from both elementary and middle school could exactly understand the achievement criteria of the curriculum, (b) proficient level students from both elementary and middle school were understanding the achievement criteria of the curriculum superficially, for example, they could not understand concepts exactly but could memorize terms, and so should have compensational education under situations that ask for short answer or essay type items instead of multiple choice items, and (c) basic level students from both elementary and middle school almost could not understand the achievement criteria of curriculum, and so should have compensational education under situations that only deal with a simple situation. Science concepts treated in science curriculum are hierarchically organized by level of school, and simple compensational education for the students of below basic level will not solve learning deficits in science education. Differentiated education by educational achievement should be largely expanded instead.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.394-403
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• 2007

In this study, the effects of reciprocal peer questioning (RPQ) strategy upon students' concept learning were investigated. Ninety-two seventh graders at a co-ed middle school were assigned to control, reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT), and RPQ groups. The students were taught about 'three states of matter' and 'motion of molecules' for 12 class hours. Regardless of students' prior science achievement level, the RPQ group showed the highest scores among the three groups in the test of conceptual understanding, and the RPT group performed better than the control group. For high-level students, the scores of the RPQ group were significantly higher than those of the other groups in the test of the concept application, and those of the RPT group were higher than those of the control group. For low-level students, the scores of the RPT and RPQ groups in the concept application test were significantly higher than those of the control group, while those of the RPT and RPQ groups were not significantly different. These results indicated that verbal interaction by reciprocal tutoring helped students to understand chemical concept learning, and that using self-generated questions was more effective. Therefore, RPQ strategy is suggested to become one of the useful instructional methods to facilitate verbal interaction and concept learning in middle school science instructions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.156-167
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• 2009

This study investigated the effects of dynamic visual on students' field independence-dependence on connecting errors and conceptual understanding in learning chemistry concepts with multiple representations. Seventh graders (N=123) at a co-ed middle school were assigned to a static visual (SV) group learning with text and static visual, and a dynamic visual (DV) group learning with text and dynamic visual. The students then learned 'Boyle's Law' and 'Charles's Law' for two class periods. Results revealed that the percentages of the DV group were lower than those of the SV group on connecting errors. However, the percentages of the students' connecting errors were still high regardless of their field independence-dependence. There was a little different tendency in the percentages of connecting errors between the two groups by students' field independence-dependence according to the types of connecting errors. The scores of the DV group were significantly higher than those of the SV group in a test on conceptual understanding. However, there was no significant interaction between the instruction and the students' field independence-dependence. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.313-323
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cognitive process of student's modeling on a modeling-emphasized argument-based general chemistry experiment. The participants were twenty-one freshman students. Six topics were carried out during the first semester and semi-structured interview was implemented at the end of the semester. Semi-structured interview questions were used to elicit elements of effective model, modeling strategies, difficulties that students have experienced during modeling, and resolving the difficulties that students have experienced during modeling. All student interview data were collected and transcribed. The results of this study are summarized as follows: (1) Elements of effective model were considered to be visual expression, persuasive explanation, and rhetorical structure. (2) Modeling strategies included arranging important keywords or writing the outline, and during the modeling process, students used various data, suggested data after reconstructing, suggested definitions and explanations of core concepts, used meta-cognition, and considering rhetorical structure. (3) Difficulties students have experienced during modeling could be categorized as lack of modeling strategy and understanding. (4) Resolving difficulties students have experienced during modeling could be categorized as modeling strategy and understanding. Students learn the strategy by feedback, modeling experience, evaluation of experimental report, models which they constructed previously and references, and the understanding of contents were achieved through arguments which occurred during classes and during the process of writing the experimental reports. These results suggest that when using modeling in teaching and learning, the argument-based learning strategy can be effective in enhancing students' modeling by helping them to understand meta-modeling with scientific concepts.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.251-260
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• 1997

The instructional influences of cooperative learning strategies, which emphasize mutual interdependency of learners, group goal, and individual accountability, upon students' achievement, the attitude toward science instruction and the perception of learning environment were investigated. Before instruction, the prior knowledge test about atoms and molecules, the test of attitudes toward science instruction, and the perception questionnaire of learning environment were administered, and the grade in the previous mathematics course was obtained. These scores were used as covariates. Mid-term examination score was used as blocking variable. For instruction, three different strategies-traditional individual learning, small group learning, and cooperative learning-were used and teaching materials for the units of mole and stoichiometry were also prepared. After instruction, the researcher-made achievement test, the test of attitudes toward science instruction, and the perception questionnaire of learning environment were administered. The perception questionnaire of group activities was also administered to the two treatment groups. In the quantitative subtest, the scores of cooperative learning group and small group learning group were significantly higher than those of traditional individual learning group. However, the cooperative learning group's scores in the achievement test and the qualitative subtest were significantly higher than those of small group learning group and traditional individual learning group. The students in the cooperative learning group were found to have the most positive perception of learning environment but to have similar attitudes toward science instruction. No interaction between the treatment and the level of the previous achievement was found in any of the analyses. In the perception questionnaire of group activities, students in both small group learning group and cooperative learning group exhibited positive perception of group activities. However, students in the cooperative learning group tended to think that their activities were related with their group's success. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.988-1001
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• 2010

The purpose of this research was to investigate how the peer review activity of lab report in the problem-solving experiment effected on the description ability and the quality improvement. The students who were taking the general chemistry experiment course were the subjects for this study. They finished lab reports and received peer review from their peers more than two times. The students who got feedback answered on peer review, revised their reports, and subsequently, completed final reports. The result showed that peer review affected the qualitative improvement of the lab report, specially in the process of 'designing experiment' and 'drawing conclusion and evaluation'. Students could organize their thoughts through writing lab reports. During this process, peer review activities provided the opportunity of self-examination and the way for viewing as objective standpoint. Moreover, the activities established communication fields for exchanging mutual opinions and learning.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.341-349
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• 2010

In this study, the effects of concept mapping with feedbacks providing explanatory comments on students' achievement, science learning anxiety, and science learning motivation were investigated in the undergraduate general chemistry course. The aptitude-treatment interactions between students' level of mastery goal orientation and the concept mapping with explanation feedback treatment were also examined. Sixty-seven freshmen from an university of education were assigned to a control group and a treatment group. The tests of mastery goal orientation, science anxiety, and science learning motivation were administered as pretests. For the treatment group, feedback providing students with explanatory comments through whole class discussion was presented after each concept mapping. Whereas the control group students were presented with opportunities solving excercise problems followed by explanation feedback. The intervention was lasted for 10 weeks (30 class periods). After the instructions, a researcher-made achievement test, the science learning anxiety test, and the science learning motivation test were administered. The results indicated that no statistically significant difference was found in students' achievement. In the science learning anxiety, however, the scores of the treatment group was significantly lower than those of the control group. The scores of the treatment group also tended to be higher, though not significant, than those of the control group in the science learning motivation. However, no significant aptitude-treatment interactions were found in all dependent variables.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.624-633
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• 2000

This study investigated students' verbal behaviors in paired think-aloud problem solving. High school students in chemistry classes were asked to use 4 stage problem-solving strategy through paired think-aloud problem solving, and their small-group behaviors were audio/video taped. Verbal behaviors of the solvers and listeners were classified into 8 categories. Solvers frequently exhibited the behaviors of 'require agreement', 'provide', and 'modify', and listeners frequently exhibited the behaviors of 'agree', 'ask', and 'point out'. With behaviors exhibited frequently, the verbal interaction between solvers and listeners were also investigated. In studying partial correlation between verbal behaviors and the improvement of problem-solving ability, listener's 'agree' and 'point out', and solver's 'modify' were positively related with listener's improvement. However, there was negative correlation between listener's 'point out' and solver's improvement. In a perception questionnaire, many students were found to perceive that the paired think-aloud problem solving helped them to be aware of the problem-solving processes. However, some listeners also perceived that it was difficult to know solver's problem-solving processes.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.510-517
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• 2006

This study investigated the influences of situational interest, attention, and cognitive effort on drawing as a method to assist students to connect and integrate multiple external representations provided in learning chemical concepts. Seventh graders (N=178) at two coed middle schools were taught about the "Boyle's Law" and the "Charles's Law" for two class hours through drawing. They observed macroscopic phenomena through demonstrations. After these observations, they drew their mental model from the external verbal representation, and then compared their drawings with external visual representation. The tests assessing situational interest, attention, cognitive effort, and conceptual understanding were administered as post-tests. Correlation and path analyses supported a causal model which situational interest had a positive direct effect on attention to the drawing. Attention led to conceptual understanding directly as well as through cognitive effort. These results suggest that situational interest may be induced by drawing first of all, and attention and cognitive effort may be direct causes of conceptual understanding in drawing. Educational implications are discussed.