• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.113-123
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to understand the elementary student's growth and its implications from the students' experience participating in the science fair by phenomenological study. The results are as follows. First, the students have various experiences. They acquire scientific knowledge and inquiry skills by conducting in-depth experiments, visiting several places, and interviewing experts. They have some experience in writing experiment journals to record the inquiry process in their own language, and presenting their results in public. Second, the students suffer several difficulties while preparing for the science fair. They have some difficulties when the results were not consistent with the hypothesis, or they had to repeat the experiment over and over. They feel burdened in writing the experiment journal. They had a few time to meet friends or for hobbies. Third, the students improve scientific attitude through the science fair, and they receive a positive effect on the affective side. They developed scientific interest, curiosity, cooperation, etc. And they also gained a sense of accomplishment, confidence, friendship, good relationship with teachers, career interest, etc. This study finds out that students participating in the science fair have a lot of experience that cannot be done easily in a normal science class. Even though students confront some difficulties in the inquiry process, they make good progression and feel accomplished. So the science fair is valuable experience for them.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.23-46
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to obtain basic information for novice teachers' adjustment. The data from five novice teachers were collected by in-depth interviews of each subject, as well as reviewing a memo diary, journal and class diary. The results indicated that the novice teachers' experiences were categorized into difficulties in social relationships, heavy workload, stress related to making mistakes, obtaining support and assistance, adequate understanding of their field of work and so on. The model theory for their process of adjustment was found by grounded theory approach. The causal conditions include mistakes in performance of work and immaturity of managing social relationships. The contexts include age of the children, work conditions(i.e. time and space), amount of workload, unfamiliarity of new work assignments, personalities of colleagues, and high frequency of meeting parents of children. The intervening conditions are composed of a guidance program for novice teachers, support from colleagues, work rewards, and the personalities of novice teachers. The novice teacher use three strategies: trying to ignore, sharing difficulties and accessing support from friends or family, as well as willful efforts to transfer negative emotions into positive ones. The consequences of the strategies include: successful career progression, survival, and desire for leaving the field of work.