• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.626-638
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of the scientifically gifted high school students to the research and education (R&E) program. 270 scientifically gifted high school students participating in R&E program were sampled and surveyed according to the R&E' purpose, the process of topic selection, the advantage, and disadvantage of R&E. 4 students among them were interviewed in depth. Students perceived the purposes and advantages of R&E as fostering the scientist' qualifications, providing the research opportunities, and improving the inquiry ability and the disadvantages of R&E as the time consumption in research, the participation as a sideline, and the difficulty of contents. The R&E program was mainly composed of a pre-determined topic, fixed procedures, and expert's settlements in the problem-emerging situation and was not cognitive but technical apprenticeship. In addition, students considered the participation of R&E as a chance of experience about the high techniques and the valuable instruments instead of the improvement on the creative problem-solving ability. The role of mentors in the R&E program is so important that it affects largely on the productive participation and the perceptions of science and scientists.