• Title/Summary/Keyword: Active involvement

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Treatment of Osteoporosis after Hip Fracture: Survey of the Korean Hip Society

  • Jung-Wee Park;Je-Hyun Yoo;Young-Kyun Lee;Jong-Seok Park;Ye-Yeon Won
    • Hip & pelvis
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    • v.36 no.1
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    • pp.62-69
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    • 2024
  • Purpose: To assess current practice in the treatment of osteoporosis in patients who underwent treatment for hip fracture in South Korea. Materials and Methods: A survey of 97 members of the Korean Hip Society, orthopedic hip surgeons who administer treatment for hip fractures in South Korea, was conducted. The survey was conducted for assessment of demographic data and perceptions regarding the management of osteoporosis in patients who have undergone treatment for hip fracture. Analysis of the data was performed using descriptive statistical methods. Results: The majority of participants were between the age of 41 and 50 years, and 74% were practicing in tertiary hospitals. Testing for serum vitamin D levels (82%) was the most commonly performed laboratory test. Calcium and vitamin D were prescribed for more than 80% of patients by 47% and 52% of participants, respectively. Denosumab was the most commonly used first-line treatment option for osteoporosis in hip fracture patients. Bisphosphonate was most often perceived as the cause of atypical femoral fractures, and the most appropriate time for reoperation was postoperative 12 months. Teriparatide was most preferred after cessation of bisphosphonate and only prescribing calcium and vitamin D was most common in high-risk patients for prevention of atypical femoral fracture. Conclusion: The results of this study that surveyed orthopedic hip surgeons showed that most participants followed the current strategy for management of osteoporosis. Because the end result of osteoporosis is a bone fracture, active involvement of orthopedic surgeons is important in treating this condition.

A Qualitative Study on Intervening Work Experiences of Hospital-Based Child Protection Team on Child Abuse Death Cases (병원 학대피해아동보호팀의 아동학대 사망사건 개입경험 연구)

  • Kim, Kyunghee;Lee, Heeyoun;Chung, Ickjoong;Kim, Jihae;Kim, Sewon
    • Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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    • v.65 no.4
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    • pp.61-88
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    • 2013
  • The aim of this study was to explore the work experiences of hospital-based child protection team staffs who had intervened the child abuse cases resulting in death. In order to gather the relevant data, all 62 child protection teams registered nationwide were contacted and 5 teams which had actually experienced at least one child abuse deaths were found. The staffs (hospital social workers and doctors) who belonged to these teams were intensively interviewed, and the interviewed materials were thoroughly analyzed by qualitative research methodology. The result showed that treatment delay was the most important obstacle to prevent unnecessary deaths of the victims. Some abused victims were sent to the hospital only after their physical condition had so gravely deteriorated. In other cases, custodians' bland denial or refusal to treatment made impossible the timely intervention to save the child lives. Nevertheless, child protection team staffs' reasonable suspicion and active intervention could sometimes uncover the hidden truth that child abuse was the actual cause of death. These incidents were regarded as a team's meaningful accomplishments by team members. Meanwhile, lack of awareness and excessive burden about the role and responsibility of mandated reporter precluded medical staffs' active involvement. Also, substantiating the abuse suspicion by securing positive evidences was found to be a facilitatory factor for the rapid public intervention. On the basis of these results, several practice and policy implications were discussed to improve the early detection process, securing evidence and uncovering the actual cause of death in child abuse deaths.

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Active Infective Endocarditis with Vegetation of Right Atrium in Patient with End-stage Renal Disease (말기신부전환자에서 우심방 우종을 동반한 심내막염 환자의 수술 1례)

  • Kim, Chang-Young;Ahn, Hyuk
    • Journal of Chest Surgery
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    • v.35 no.9
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    • pp.680-683
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    • 2002
  • Infective endocarditis that involves the right side of the heart has been estimately 5% of all cases of infective endocarditis. It has been shown that about 70% of right-sided heart infective endocarditis cases have preexisting congenital heart disease or acquired valvular lesion. It would occur in intravenous drug users or end-stage renal disease patients with indwelling venous dialysis catheter. Antibiotic therapy is more effective in the right and, when it fails, the consequence of valve disruption and emboli are less. Patients receiving long-term hemodialysis are a unique population with regard in the risk of bacteremia and subsequent infective endocarditis. We experienced one case of the active infective endocarditis with right atrial vegetation without tricuspid or pulmonary valve involvement in patient with end-stage renal disease receiving long-term hemodialysis, who needed surgical correction after medical treatment failure. Then we reported it with references that right-sided heart infective endocarditis is rare, but difficult to diagnose, life-threatening because of delayed medical treatment.

A study of museum of contemporary art in Germany (독일 현대미술관 연구)

  • Yoo Jae-Kil
    • Journal of Science of Art and Design
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    • v.7
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    • pp.105-127
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    • 2005
  • This research is on the characteristics and roles of important cities of Germany based on the history of the modern art museum and its possessions. Especially, it is focusing on the modern art museums in the western Germany including Dusseldorf, Koln, and Frankfrut that have shown economic recovery from the Miracle of Rhine; the capital city of Germany, Berlin, as well as Munich, the second capital city of Germany. Here, it harmonizes with the tradition of the past and simultaneously, it spreads the concept and role of the new museum as a forerunner. After the WWII, this is the most active of supporting investment for art museums and authors from the economic development. Also, it represents Germany with its national promotion of culture and arts. The modern art museums of Germany emphasize the mission that they exist for the people and the nation as well as creation of new art culture. These art museums working for national culture and art development do not simply collect and preserve arts. They induce active involvement from the public and keep in mind of national objectives. Here, art museums become and educational setting for the people and a room for new art culture. This research is on Germany modern art museum and it is composed of important 'public institutions' of Germany that critically influence the growth of world-renown authors. After the unification of Germany, Munchen and the western region became an important places centering around new Berlin modern art museum. They are the best places that show the national objectives and regional characteristics. Also, there are art museum educational curriculum and open space for the people by explaining exhibition plans and contents. Furthermore, there are two characteristics of German modern art museums that are noteworthy. Firstly, there are Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, Munchen's Pinakothek de Moderne, and Dusseldorf's 'K20' (Kunstsammlung N-Westfalen K20) that are the roots of modern art. These modern art museums exhibit popular author's collection repeatedly. This has a tendency to standardize audiences' view or to make audiences bored. It is becoming more like a trend for art work to appear and disappear. Despite these problems, German modern art museums play a critical role for a new cultural art creation and for the national identity by attempting to show the works of domestic authors as well as an intensive collection of world-renown authors' works. Secondly, there is a role as a new art museum to work together with people. It strives to continuously educate difficult modem arts, exhibits in an open space stimulating interest, participation, and conversations. From these roles, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum fur Gegenwart or Dusseldorf's 'K21, Frankfurt Museum $f\"{u}r$ Moderne Kunst, $Kf\"{o}ln$ Museum Ludwig are given new attention. Here, they emphasize the importance of communicating with the audiences and provides experiences that are different from the original spaces by showing the architecture tecture style of the art museum. In conclusion, German modern art museums attempt various changes by connecting to art education. With art museum activities, there forms a connection between arts and the lives of people, and from this, creative cultural art focused on the art museum borns. This is not only limited to Germany, the U.S., etc. We, too, should pay attention to new art culture creation from changes of role and function of modern art museums.

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Cognitive Impairment in the Patients with Mildly Active Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (경증 전신성 홍반성 루프스 환자의 인지기능장애)

  • Kim, Jin-Hee;Lee, Chul;Lee, Chang-Uk;Paik, In-Ho
    • Korean Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine
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    • v.5 no.1
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    • pp.89-96
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    • 1997
  • This study was designed to determine whether cognitive impairment was evident in patients with SLE. Also, it aimed to examine the association of cognitive impairment with other clinical variables. The subjects consisted of 20 patients with mildly active SLE and 20 healthy controls. Methods : A total of 20 SLE patients and 20 normal controls completed a computerized neuropsychological test battery using Vienna Test System. These included Cognitrone test, Continuous attention test, Corsi block tapping test, Standard progressive matrices. Also, neuro-behavioral cognitive status examination was done. The symptom severity of depression was measured with Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, and current medications were documented. Disease activity was rated using the SLE diasease activity index (SLEDAI). Results : SLE patients had poorer performance than normal controls on the tests of Cognitrone, attention, nonverbal IQ and memory, independent of age, education, disease activity, steroid use and depression status. Conclusion : Cognitive dysfunction was not uncommon in ambulatory SLE patients as measured by standardized neuropsychological tests. It seemed to occur independently of various clinical variables. These findings would suggest that cognitive dysfunction in SLE may be explained by reflecting subclinical central nervous system(CNS) involvement, rather than coexisting psychological distress due to chronic illness or side effect of medication.

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A Study on Efficiently Designing Customer Rewards Programs (고객 보상프로그램의 효율적 구성에 관한 연구)

  • Kim, Sang-Cheol
    • Journal of Distribution Science
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    • v.10 no.1
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    • pp.5-10
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    • 2012
  • Currently, the rewards programs offered by many companies to strengthen customer relationships have been working quite well. In addition, many companies' rewards programs, designed for stabilizing revenue, are recognized to be effective. However, these rewards programs are not significantly differentiated between companies and there are no accurate conclusions currently, which can be made about their effects. Because of this, a company with a customer rewards program may not comprehend the true level of active participation. In this environment some companies' rewards programs inadvertently hinder business profitability as a side effect while attempting to increase customer loyalty. In fact, airline and oil companies pass on the financial cost of their programs to the customer, and as a result, they have been criticized publicly. The result of this is that the corporations with bad rewards programs tend to get a bad image. In this study of stores' rewards programs, we centered our focus on the design of the program. The main problem in this study is to recognize the financial value of the rewards program and whether it can create a competitive edge for the companies despite the cost issues experienced by them. Customers receiving financial rewards for their business may be just as satisfied with a particular company or store versus those who are not, and the program, perhaps, does not form a distinctive competitive advantage. When the customer is deciding between competing companies to secure their product needs with, we wanted to figure out how much of an affect a valuable reward program had on their decision making. To evaluate this, we set the first hypothesis as, "based on the level of involvement of the customers, there is a difference between customers' preferences for rewards programs." In the results of Experiment 1 we saw that in a financial compensation program for high-involvement groups and low-involvement groups, significant differences appeared and Hypothesis 1 was partially supported. As for the second hypothesis that "customers will have different preferences between a financial rewards programs (SE) and a joint rewards programs (JE)," the analysis showed that the preference for JE was significantly higher than that for other programs. In addition, through Experiment 2, we were able to find meaningful results, which revealed that consumers have shown a significant difference in their preferences between SE and JE. The purpose of these experiments was to enable the designing of a rewards program by learning how to enhance service information distribution and strengthen customer relationships. From the results, there should be a great amount of value for future service-related endeavors and academic research programs. The research is significant, because the results can be found to have a positive effect on reward program designs however, it does have the following limitations. First, this study was performed using an experiment, and all experiments have limitations. Second, although there was an individual evaluation and a joint evaluation, setting a proper evaluation criteria was difficult. In this study, 1,000 Korean won (KRW) in the individual evaluation had a value of 2 points, and, in the joint evaluation, 1,000 KRW had a value of 1 point. There may have been alternative ways to differentiate the evaluations to obtain the proper results. In this study, since there was no funding, the experiments were performed orally however, this was complementary to the study. Third, the subjects who participated in this experiment were students. Conducting this study through experimentation was unavoidable for us, and future research should be conducted using an actual program with the target customers.

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The Effect of Users' Personality on Emotional and Cognitive Evaluation in UCC Web Site Usage (UCC(user-created-contents) 웹 사이트에서 사용자의 인성이 감정적, 인지적 평가와 UCC 활용에 미치는 영향)

  • Moon, Yun-Ji;Kang, So-Ra;Kim, Woo-Gon
    • Asia pacific journal of information systems
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    • v.20 no.3
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    • pp.167-190
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    • 2010
  • The research conducted here focuses on the effect of factors that affect the behavior of UCC (User Created Content) website users, other than user's rational recognition of how useful a UCC website can be. Most discussions in the existing literature on information systems have focused on users' evaluation how a UCC website can help to attain the users' own goals. However, there are other factors and this research pays attention to an individual's 'personality,' which is stable and biological in nature. Specifically, I have noted here that 'extroversion' and 'neuroticism,' the two common personality factors presented in Eysenck's most representative 'EPQ Model' and 'Big Five Model,' are the two personality factors that affect a site's 'usefulness,' by this I mean how useful does the user consider the website and its content. How useful a site is considered by the user is the other factor that has been regarded as the antecedent factor that influences the adoption of information systems in the existing MIS (Management Information System) research. Secondly, as using or creating a UCC website does not guarantee the user's or the creator's extrinsic motivation, unlike when using the information system within an organization, there is a greater likelihood that the increase in user's activities in relation to a UCC website is motivated by emotional factors rather than rational factors. Thus, I have decided to include the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable in the research model. Thirdly, when based on the S-O-R Paradigm of Mehrabian and Russell, the two cognitive factors and emotional factors are finally affected by stimulus, and thus these factors ultimately have an effect on an individual's respondent behavior. Therefore, this research has presented an assumption that the recognition of how useful the site and content is and what emotional pleasure it provides will finally affect the behavior of the UCC website users. Finally, the relationship between the recognition of how useful a site is and how pleasurable it is to useand UCC usage may differ depending on certain situational conditions. In other words, the relationship between the three factors may vary according to how much users are involved in the creation of the website content. Creation thus emerges as the keyword of UCC. I analyzed the above relationships through the moderating variable of the user's involvement in the creation of the site. The research result shows the following: When it comes to the relationship between an individual's personality and what they find pleasurable it is extroverted users who have a greater likelihood to feel pleasure when using a UCC website, as was expected in this research. This in turn leads to a more active usage of the UCC web site because a person who is an extrovert likes to spend time on activities with other people, is sensitive to new experiences and stimuli and thus actively responds to these. An extroverted person accepts new UCC activities as part of his/her social life, rather than getting away from this new UCC environment. This is represented by the term 'Foxonomy' where the users meet a variety of users from all over the world and contact new types of content created by these users. However, neuroticism creates the opposite situation to that created by extroversion. The representative symptoms of neuroticism are instability, stress, and tension. These dispositions are more closely related to stress caused by a new environment rather than this creatingcuriosity or pleasure. Thus, neurotic persons have an uneasy feeling and will eventually avoid the situation where their own or others' daily lives are frequently exposed to the open web environment, this eventually makes them have a negative attitude towards the web environment. When it comes to an individual's personality and how useful site is, the two personality factors of extroversion and neuroticism both have a positive relationship with the recognition of how useful the site and its content is. The positive, curious, and social dispositions of extroverted persons tend to make them consider the future usefulness and possibilities of a new type of information system, or website, based on their positive attitude, which has a significant influence on the recognition of how useful these UCC sites are. Neuroticism also favorably affects how useful a UCC website can be through a different mechanism from that of extroversion. As the neurotic persons tend to feel uneasy and have much doubt about a new type of information system, they actively explore its usefulness in order to relieve their uncomfortable feelings. In other words, neurotic persons seek out how useful a site can be in order to secure their own stable feelings. Meanwhile, extroverted persons explore how useful a site can be because of their positive attitude and curiosity. As a lot of MIS research has revealed that the recognition of how useful a site can be and how pleasurable it can be to use have been proven to have a significant effect on UCC activity. However, the relationship between these factors reveals different aspects based on the user's involvement in creation. This factor of creationgauges the interest of users in the creation of UCC contents. Involvement is a variable that shows the level of an individual's mental effort in creating UCC contents. When a user is highly involved in the creation process and makes an enormous effort to create UCC content (classed a part of a high-involvement group), their own pleasure and recognition of how useful the site is have a significantly higher effect on the future usage of the UCC contents, more significantly than the users who sit back and just retrieve the UCC content created by others. The cognitive and emotional response of those in the low-involvement group is unlikely to last long,even if they recognize the contents of a UCC website is pleasurable and useful to them. However, the high-involvement group tends to participate in the creation and the usage of UCC more favorably, connecting the experience with their own goals. In this respect, this research presents an answer to the question; why so many people are participating in the usage of UCC, the representative form of the Web 2.0 that has drastically involved more and more people in the creation of UCC, even if they cannot gain any monetary or social compensation. Neither information system nor a website can succeed unless it secures a certain level of user base. Moreover, it cannot be further developed when the reasons, or problems, for people's participation are not suitably explored, even if it has a certain user base. Thus, what is significant in this research is that it has studied users' respondent behavior based on an individual's innate personality, emotion, and cognitive interaction, unlike the existing research that has focused on 'compensation' to explain users' participation with the UCC website. There are also limitations in this research. Firstly, I divided an individual's personality into extroversion and neuroticism; however, there are many other personal factors such as neuro-psychiatricism, which also needs to be analyzed for its influence on UCC activities. Secondly, as a UCC website comes in many types such as multimedia, Wikis, and podcasting, these types need to be included as a sub-category of the UCC websites and their relationship with personality, emotion, cognition, and behavior also needs to be analyzed.

Interleukin Levels in the Bronchoalveolar Lavage Fluid of Patients with Pulmonary Sarcoidosis (유육종증환자의 기관지폐포세척액내 Interleukin에 대한 연구)

  • Song, Jeong-Sup;Ahn, Joong-Hyun;Kim, Chi-Hong;Kim, Kwan-Hyoung;Moon, Hwa-Sik;Park, Sung-Hak
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.45 no.5
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    • pp.1047-1057
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    • 1998
  • Background : Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disorder of unknown origin and characterized by accumulation of T cells and macrophages. Various cytokines may play crucial roles in the activation of T cells and macrophages, and thereby in the formation of granulomas. However, little is known about the balance between proinflammatory cytokines and antiinflammatory cytokines in the development of sarcoid granulomas and disease activities. In the present study, we measured IL-6, IL-8 and IL-10 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid(BALF) from patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis to find out whether there is an imbalance between proinflammatory cytokines and antiinflammatory cytokines in the lung. Methods: Fourteen subjects with the diagnosis of sarcoidosis and six healthy volunteers were included. BALF was concentrated ten-fold by pressure ultrafiltration and each cytokine levels were measured by EUSA method. Active sarcoidosis was defined by major organ involvement or clinically progressive diseases. Results: The mean IL-6 levels in the BALF of the active sarcoidosis group were significantly increased than in controls or inactive sarcoidosis group(p<0.05). Meanwhile, the IL-8 levels were increased and IL-10 levels were decreased in the active sarcoidosis group than in controls or inactive sarcoidosis group without significance(p>0.05). In active pulmonary sarcoidosis patients, the IL-6 levels in BALF correlated with the BALF CD4/CD8 ratio(r=0.768, p<0.05) and IL-8 levels(r=0.564, p<0.05). Conclusions : The data presented showed that pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 is important in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis and decreased tendency of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 might also be involved in the development of granulomatous inflammation in sarcoidosis.

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Drug-Resistant Pulmonary Tuberculosis In Kosin Medical Center (부산지역의 한 3차 진료기관을 방문한 폐결핵 환자의 약제내성률)

  • Kim, Ji-Ho;Kim, Ji-Hong;Jang, Tae-Won;Jung, Maan-Hong
    • Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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    • v.42 no.6
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    • pp.831-837
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    • 1995
  • Background: We conducted a study to determine the factors associated with, patterns of, and proportion of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis with multiple drug-resistance at Kosin medical center in Pusan. Methods: We abstracted data from 141 patients, who had active pulmonary tuberculosis and report forms of drug susceptibility between 1986 and 1994, and related the previous treatment history, the extent of lung involvement and the presence of cavities on chest X-ray films to the drug resistance. Results: Overall, 59(41.8%) of the 141 cases of tuberculosis were resistant to at least one drug and 29(20.9%) of the 139 cases were resistant to isoniazid(INH) and rifampin(RIF). Among the 63 patients with previous tuberculosis therapy, 40(63.5%) had isolates that were drug-resistant and 24(38.1%) were multi-drug resistant. Among the 78 without previous therapy, 19(24.4%) had isolates that were drug-resistant and 5(7.5%) were multi-drug resistant. For all 141, resistance to INH was most common(39.0%) followed by RIF(21.6%), ethambutol(EMB, 16.3%), $\rho$- aminosalicylic acid(10.8%), streptomycin(SM, 8.7%), and pyrazinamide(PZA, 8.0%). INH, RIF and PZA resistances were independently associated with a history of previous tuberculosis therapy (odds ratio; 3.3, 7.2 and 10.8 respectively), and RIF and SM resistance were significantly high according to the extent of lung involvement on the chest films(odds ratio; 2.9 and 2.8 respectively). Conclusions: We conclude, (1) that all persons in whom pulmonary tuberculosis is diagnosed should initially receive at least four-drug therapy(INH, RIF, PZA, and EMB or SM), (2) that susceptibility testing be done in all culture-positive patient, and (3) that those with a history of previous tuberculosis therapy or those who have advanced pulmonary tuberculosis need very careful clinical and microbiological follow-up.

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Summative Evaluation of 1993, 1994 Discussion Contest of Scientific Investigation (제 1, 2회 학생 과학 공동탐구 토론대회의 종합적 평가)

  • Kim, Eun-Sook;Yoon, Hye-Gyoung
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.376-388
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    • 1996
  • The first and the second "Discussion Contest of Scientific Investigation" was evaluated in this study. This contest was a part of 'Korean Youth Science Festival' held in 1993 and 1994. The evaluation was based on the data collected from the middle school students of final teams, their teachers, a large number of middle school students and college students who were audience of the final competition. Questionnaires, interviews, reports of final teams, and video tape of final competition were used to collect data. The study focussed on three research questions. The first was about the preparation and the research process of students of final teams. The second was about the format and the proceeding of the Contest. The third was whether participating the Contest was useful experience for the students and the teachers of the final teams. The first area, the preparation and the research process of students, were investigated in three aspects. One was the level of cooperation, participation, support and the role of teachers. The second was the information search and experiment, and the third was the report writing. The students of the final teams from both years, had positive opinion about the cooperation, students' active involvement, and support from family and school. Students considered their teachers to be a guide or a counsellor, showing their level of active participation. On the other hand, the interview of 1993 participants showed that there were times that teachers took strong leading role. Therefore one can conclude that students took active roles most of the time while the room for improvement still exists. To search the information they need during the period of the preparation, student visited various places such as libraries, bookstores, universities, and research institutes. Their search was not limited to reading the books, although the books were primary source of information. Students also learned how to organize the information they found and considered leaning of organizing skill useful and fun. Variety of experiments was an important part of preparation and students had positive opinion about it. Understanding related theory was considered most difficult and important, while designing and building proper equipments was considered difficult but not important. This reflects the students' school experience where the equipments were all set in advance and students were asked to confirm the theories presented in the previous class hours. About the reports recording the research process, students recognize the importance and the necessity of the report but had difficulty in writing it. Their reports showed tendency to list everything they did without clear connection to the problem to be solved. Most of the reports did not record the references and some of them confused report writing with story telling. Therefore most of them need training in writing the reports. It is also desirable to describe the process of student learning when theory or mathematics that are beyond the level of middle school curriculum were used because it is part of their investigation. The second area of evaluation was about the format and the proceeding of the Contest, the problems given to students, and the process of student discussion. The format of the Contests, which consisted of four parts, presentation, refutation, debate and review, received good evaluation from students because it made students think more and gave more difficult time but was meaningful and helped to remember longer time according to students. On the other hand, students said the time given to each part of the contest was too short. The problems given to students were short and open ended to stimulate students' imagination and to offer various possible routes to the solution. This type of problem was very unfamiliar and gave a lot of difficulty to students. Student had positive opinion about the research process they experienced but did not recognize the fact that such a process was possible because of the oneness of the task. The level of the problems was rated as too difficult by teachers and college students but as appropriate by the middle school students in audience and participating students. This suggests that it is possible for student to convert the problems to be challengeable and intellectually satisfactory appropriate for their level of understanding even when the problems were difficult for middle school students. During the process of student discussion, a few problems were observed. Some problems were related to the technics of the discussion, such as inappropriate behavior for the role he/she was taking, mismatching answers to the questions. Some problems were related to thinking. For example, students thinking was off balanced toward deductive reasoning, and reasoning based on experimental data was weak. The last area of evaluation was the effect of the Contest. It was measured through the change of the attitude toward science and science classes, and willingness to attend the next Contest. According to the result of the questionnaire, no meaningful change in attitude was observed. However, through the interview several students were observed to have significant positive change in attitude while no student with negative change was observed. Most of the students participated in Contest said they would participate again or recommend their friend to participate. Most of the teachers agreed that the Contest should continue and they would recommend their colleagues or students to participate. As described above, the "Discussion Contest of Scientific Investigation", which was developed and tried as a new science contest, had positive response from participating students and teachers, and the audience. Two among the list of results especially demonstrated that the goal of the Contest, "active and cooperative science learning experience", was reached. One is the fact that students recognized the experience of cooperation, discussion, information search, variety of experiments to be fun and valuable. The other is the fact that the students recognized the format of the contest consisting of presentation, refutation, discussion and review, required more thinking and was challenging, but was more meaningful. Despite a few problems such as, unfamiliarity with the technics of discussion, weakness in inductive and/or experiment based reasoning, and difficulty in report writing, The Contest demonstrated the possibility of new science learning environment and science contest by offering the chance to challenge open tasks by utilizing student science knowledge and ability to inquire and to discuss rationally and critically with other students.

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