• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.291-305
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• 2010

The aim of this study was to survey the perceptions of the elementary school teachers on the smallscale chemistry(SSC) following its training session. The teachers participating in the survey were 266 teachers in the Gyeongnam province. They were given a questionnaire that focused on the nine areas of the SSC: Needs for the teacher training and its application, its benefits, issues of safety and danger as well as treatment of environmental pollution, its economic efficiency and the development of investigative skills. The designed questionnaire was checked by an authority, and the responses to each question were tallied and analyzed. The results are as follows. The biggest problems of the traditional experimental methods as rated by the teachers were, in the order of importance, the preparation time, the legal liability of teachers for the safety and accidents, financial issues, disposal of the experimental wastes and the lack of relevant data. Since most of the teachers had not experienced the SSC lab programs in the field, they responded positively to the questions of need for its introduction and training. The implementation of the experimental SSC lab programs should proceed in the following order: introduction into the textbook, teacher training program, after-school education and the invitation of instructors. The most useful materials for the SSC program were CDs, videos, books and various printed materials, in that order. The responses regarding benefits of the SSC program included its simplicity, convenience, time savings, diversity, qualitative and quantitative aspects, integration into the regular class and use of toys. In particular, the teachers mentioned the increased safety due to the small amount of experimental reagents needed and the durability of plastic instruments. The familarity from the use of everyday tools as well as easy access to and the low-cost of the instruments were other important benefits. The teachers in general rated the educational content of the program highly, but many also found it to be average. Some pointed out the lack of sufficient discussion due to the individual or pair groupings as a potential shortcoming. The potential for development of problem solving ability and improvement of skills was rated positively. The number of teacher who rated the development of creativity positively was just over the half. As for the area of improving investigative skills, many found its assessment difficult and confusing because of the lack of its systemic definition and categorization. Based on the findings of this study, I would like to recommend the application and a wider dissemination of the small-scale chemistry lab program into the elementary school science curriculum.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2004

The purpose of this study were to develop of courseware using scaffolding strategy and to investigate the effect of courseware instruction upon students' conceptual understanding and affective domain including effort and self-checking. 10th grade students in the experimental and control groups were selected from high school at Cheongwon-gun in Chungbuk, and taught about chemical reaction rate for 3 class hours. The students in the experimental group studied individually through courseware using scaffolding strategy and worksheet and teacher-centered expository lesson was used in the control group. Prior to the instructions, test specification for problem-solving assessment (TSPSA) was administered and the scores of the previous science achievement test were obtained. After the instructions, the posttest on conceptual understanding and TSPSA were administered. Results of this study revealed that the mean score of the experimental group in the conceptual understanding test was similar to that of the control group at statistically significant level. This result implies that the courseware using scaffolding strategy could be a tool of the individualized instruction. The experimental group improved significantly better in three components of the TSPSA such as effort, self-checking, and cognitive strategy. From this result, it is considered that learners' self regulation is improved by being taken over responsibility of learning. So, it is suggested that instruction using scaffolding strategy is needed in science class to improve self-leading learning ability.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.45-63
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to analyze the status and gifted students' perception on curriculum implementation for gifted education at Busan Science Academy. For the purpose, we investigated the curriculum documents, the process of implementing curriculum and the result of the questionnaire. The questionnaire about the curriculum courses, teaching strategies and evaluation method was answered by 143 students at Busan Science Academy. The curriculum courses are composed of general courses and specialized courses: general courses comprise of Korean language, social studies, foreign languages, arts, and physical education. Specialized courses consist of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, information science. Elective courses are divided into basic elective courses and in-depth courses. Each in-depth course deals with more specialized content. The significant results of the questionnaire are as follows: First, according to gifted students' perception, the credits of specialized courses and in-depth elective courses need to be increased and the credits of general courses need to be reduced. Second, teachers at this school mainly use teaching strategies such as lecture, group activities and discussion, but the students prefer diverse teaching strategies such as lecture, discussion, experiment, individual research, problem solving and field studies. Third, students prefer a paper-and-pencil testing assesment rather than a written report assesment and lab experiment assesment. According to this study, the characteristics of the acceleration curriculum at Busan Science Academy were too intensive. Thus it is difficult to implement the enrichment education according to the demand of gifted students in this school. Therefore, this study suggests that we need to revise the curriculum courses of Busan Science Academy and develop contents and strategies for gifted education in science and mathematics.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.781-792
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• 2018

In modern society, as technology develops and industry diversifies, students can choose from a variety of career paths. Since science, technology, engineering, and mathematics require a longer education and experience than other fields, it is important to design science education policies based on the competencies required for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations. This study explores the definition of science and technology manpower and STEM occupations and identifies core competencies of STEM occupations using standard job information operated and maintained by the US Department of Labor ($O^*NET$). We specially analyzed ratings of the importance of skills (35 ratings), knowledge (33 ratings), and work activities (41 ratings) conducting descriptive analysis and principal component analysis (PCA). As a result, core competencies of STEM occupations consist of STEM problem-solving competency, Management competency, Technical competency, Social service competency, Teaching competency, Design competency, Bio-chemistry competency, and Public service competency, which accounts for 70% of the total variance. This study can be a reference for setting the curriculum and educational goals in secondary and college education by showing the diversity of science and technology occupations and the competencies required for STEM occupations.