• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.805-815
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• 2015

The Korean education curriculum is making efforts to improve education to foster competencies that the future society demands through the 2007 and 2009 revised curriculum. The revised curricula focus on enhanced articulation for the quality curriculum. In this study, the curriculum is analyzed for vertical and horizontal articulation. In addition, the study found a problem in Korea's curriculum through international comparison and sought improvement. Furthermore, the study compared internationally articulation of the concept of photosynthesis, of which the results are as follows. First, our science curriculum focuses on vertical articulation and has relatively neglected the problem of horizontal articulation. To compensate for this problem, curriculum design should introduce aspects of 'nature' and 'environment' and should consider the interests and concerns of students, as countries with high horizontal articulation do. Second, the actual education field has a problem with the a lack of continuity and sequence because of concentration of concept in a specific grade or simply repeating the concept across multiple grades. These results have led to alternative proposals that should arrange basis of concept configuration such as 'Big Idea' and should establish the adoption of 'systems' frequently appearing in the other curricula. Finally, there may be mentioned a lack of research on students' learning progression, which can be a common standard of horizontal and vertical articulation. Research on learning progression has been a trend overseas, but there exists no study to fit Korea's situation, so education fields need to conduct the appropriate research on learning progression as part of the commitment to high-quality curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.235-246
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• 2014

This study aims to explore how in-service science teachers adopt newly developed 'Science' focusing on the fusion of science based on 'the diffusion of innovation' model. For this study, we have explored five variables (i.e., perception of need, perception of support, innovativeness, perceived usefulness, self-efficacy of teaching, and intention to adopt) based on literature review and developed survey items to measure the level of five variables that in-service science teachers perceive. In addition, the path model of six variables explaining how in-service science teachers adopt an innovation was hypothesized by the literature review. A total of 349 in-service science teachers have participated in this survey study. First of all, results have illustrated that the levels of six variables have not significantly associated with in-service science teachers' teaching experiences, participation in professional development programs on 'Science' curriculum, and majors. In addition, the statistically acceptable model fit indices have illustrated that path model has been statistically valid to explain how in-service science teachers adopt newly developed 'Science' focusing on the fusion of science. The results have also illustrated that 'perception of support', 'perceived usefulness', and 'self-efficacy of teaching' exhibited strong mediating effects between other variables. For the successful establishment of newly developed curricula, textbook, or policies in science education in school, the level of teachers' intention to adopt innovations should be enhanced. This study will be useful for the development of new science teacher professional development programs to promote the level of teachers' intention to adopt innovations.

• New Physics: Sae Mulli
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• v.68 no.12
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• pp.1347-1355
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• 2018

This study aimed at investigating the physics curriculum implemented in science core schools. Thus, the researchers analyzed the science curriculum articulated in the annual reports of science core schools and interviewed some teachers in the schools to identify the features of the physics curriculum. The research findings were as follows: First, with respect to the teaching units by subjects, general science had the largest proportion, as much as 6.7 hours in average, and physics I and II were 4.2 and 4.4 hours, respectively, which were similar to other subjects such as chemistry, life science, and earth science. Second, most of schools opened the courses of physics I and II with two hours for two semesters. Fourteen schools taught physics I as an intensive unit whereas nine schools taught physics II intensively. In the case of specialized subjects, the most frequent one was independent research, and advanced physics was taught in 7 schools whereas physics experiments were done in 34 schools. Based on the findings, this study gives some implications about how to organize the physics curriculum in science core schools according to the 2015 revised science curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.401-414
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to explore the cognitive achievement characteristics by group of achievement levels in the PISA 2018 science domain compared to the results of the PISA 2015, and to compare and analyze the 'epistemic' knowledge in the revised curriculum 2009 and in the revised curriculum 2007. The average correctness rates in PISA 2015 and PISA 2018 were analyzed by sub category of the evaluation frame in the PISA scientific domain. In the competencies domain, especially, the average correct answer rates of 'evaluating and designing scientific inquiry' were the lowest in medium and lower groups, but the rates rose in all achievement groups compared to PISA 2015, which is encouraging. Although the answer rates were low for both 'living system' knowledge and 'epistemic' knowledge in the knowledge domain, the average answer rates of the upper and middle groups increased in 'epistemic' knowledge compared to PISA 2015. The changes in the curriculum experienced by students participating in PISA were analyzed in relation to the 'evaluating and designing scientific inquiry' competency and 'epistemic' knowledge, which increased in average correct answer rates. In terms of understanding science, the "What is science?" unit that explicitly presents epistemic knowledge, and nature of model in inquiry activities, were explicitly presented in the revised curriculum 2009. In terms of understanding the process of justifying scientific knowledge, the number of inquiry activities increased, scientific explanations based on experimental results strengthened, and the "Science and Human Civilization" unit was introduced to help students to understand STS while simultaneously conducting arguments. These findings confirm the educational performance of groups by achievement level in the PISA 2018 scientific domain and suggest that the direction of education relates to epistemic knowledge in Korea's Science curriculum.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.333-351
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• 2016

This study analyzed what STEAM elements, except mathematical content, are contained in 2009 revised elementary school 5th and 6th grade group mathematics textbooks. STEAM elements in the textbooks were examined by grade and by content area in the elementary school mathematics curriculum. The results were as follows. First, the number of STEAM elements in mathematics 5-1, 5-2, 6-1, 6-2 are 151(18.4%), 212(25.9%), 211(25.7%), 246(30.0%), respectively. The 6th Grade than in 5th Grade can be seen a few plenty. Second, the number of STEAM elements are different depending on the type of STEAM. The number of arts element is 617(75.2%) and this elements are seen the most. The number of representative art and cultural art is 445(54.3%) and 172(20.9%), respectively. The number of technology-engineering and science is 158(19.2%) and 45(5.5%), respectively. We need to developed to promote use of science element in next mathematics curriculum.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.203-220
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate how 'free inquiry' was implemented in middle school science classrooms. In order to do this, survey and interviews were administered. The subject of survey was 165 science teachers at 58 middle schools and interviewees were 4 teachers and 10 students. As a result, 49.6% of science teachers in school year 2010, and 34.1% in 2011 applied 'free inquiry'. Teachers applied 'free inquiry' during one semester, and they let the students select topic of 'free inquiry'. Teachers grouped students according to students' opinion or their gender and ability, and one group was consisted of 4 students. The effect of applying 'free inquiry' was that students improved the interest on science, science inquiry ability and self directed learning capability. Students were interested in doing 'free inquiry', and they wanted to do it again. Teachers claimed that it took much time and effort to apply 'free inquiry', and students lacked science inquiry skills and interest on science. The teachers who did not apply 'free inquiry' stated reasons such as the shortage of instructional time, and they didn't think that 'free inquiry' should be implemented. For the effective implementation of 'free inquiry', this study suggested that teachers should be recognized the intention of 'free inquiry', teaching-learning materials about 'free inquiry' be developed and provided, and laboratory assistants be employed.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-17
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• 2016

The purpose of this review was to introduce and examine 'development' and 'relations' as the core concepts of Home Economics in 2015 revised middle school curriculum in Korea. The 2009 and 2015 proclamation of the ministry of education on home economics curriculum and 26 published middle school textbooks were reviewed. The major findings were as follows. First, the components of human 'development' and family 'relations' were strongly associated with promoting four key competencies (i.e. the self-management competency, the communication competency, the aesthetic sensibility competency, the community competency) of 2015 revision. Also, four of cross-curricular learning topics (i.e. character education, multicultural education, safety and health education, human right education) in 2015 revision could be effectively discussed with human 'development' and family 'relations'. Second, when teaching and learning of the core concept, human 'development', continuous dynamic aspects of life-span development, the connectedness of different domains of development, systematic approach of various concepts in development, specificity and empirical evidence of information and variability of developmental patterns in adolescence should be considered. Third, when teaching and learning of the core concept, family 'relations', family trait such as generational relations, gender relations, role relations and power relations should be taken into account. In addition, exclusively focusing on normal family ideology or image of middle-class family and lecture-centered instruction methods should be changed for students to achieve the competencies relevant to family relations. The future directions for applying core concepts, 'development' and 'relations' in classroom will be discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.167-175
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• 2016

This study aims to find out the meaning of characters used in science textbooks by analyzing the roles of the characters on the 2009 revised science textbooks and the extracted sentences and see if there are indications referable to compiling future science textbooks by finding out where the characters are efficiently used and where supplement is needed. Target textbooks among those developed for the 2009 revised elementary school science textbooks are the first and second semester of the 4th-grade. Methods used include analysis on the roles of character-containing questions using character role analysis whose illustration analysis frame is more supplemented/adjusted than those used in the foregoing studies, analysis on character-containing questions using the existing analysis frame, analysis/survey on good cases and cases needing supplement through consultation with a science education expert, two teachers, etc. The result shows that among types of character roles, motivation and material provision are more used than experiment guide, experiment, and observation results. Result of analyzing in-textbook characters by field shows that life sphere is more used than free exploration, energy, material, and earth. Result of analyzing question types shows the order of expanding, anticipatory, transferable and personal questions and there were no reminiscent and evaluative questions. Based on the result of this study, indications on how to use in-science textbook characters more efficiently and developmentally are needed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.404-416
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• 2015

We investigated the cognitive frame of high school students and inservice high school science teachers about effective teaching method, and we also explored how they understood about the teaching methods suggested by the 2009 revised Science Curriculum. Data were collected from 275 high school science teachers and 275 high school students. We analyzed data in terms of the words and the cognitive frame using the Semantic Network Analysis. The results were as follows. First, the teachers perceived that an activity oriented class was the effective science class that helped improve students' problem-solving abilities and their inquiry skills. The students had the cognitive frame that their teacher had to present relevant and enough teaching materials to students, and that they should also receive assistance from teachers in science class to better prepare for college entrance exam. Second, both students and teachers retained the cognitive frame about the efficient science class that was not reflected 2009 revised Science Curriculum exactly. Especially, neither groups connected the elements of 'convergence' as well as 'integration' embedded across science subject areas to their cognitive frame nor cognized the fact that many science learning contents were closed related to one another. Therefore, various professional development opportunities should be offered so that teachers succinctly comprehend the essential features and the intents of the 2009 revised Science Curriculum and thereby implement it in their science lessons effectively.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.235-247
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• 2015

This study analyzed what STEAM elements, except mathematical content, are contained in 2009 revised elementary school 3rd and 4th grade group mathematics textbooks. STEAM elements in the textbooks were examined by grade and by content area in the elementary school mathematics curriculum. According to the results, the difference between 3rd and 4th grade in the number of STEAM elements is almost not visible. Distribution of specific content areas could be seen that the distribution STEAM element is similar to the percentage distribution of the content area. However, the number of STEAM elements are different depending on the type of STEAM. The number of arts element is 448(67.6%) and this elements are seen the most. The number of representative art and cultural art is 344(51.9%) and 104(15.7%), respectively. The number of technology-engineering and science is 160(24.1%) and 55(8.3%), respectively. We need to developed to promote use of science element in next mathematics curriculum.