• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• 제9권3호
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• pp.276-291
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• 2016

This study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring students' creative engineering problem solving propensity. The creative engineering problem solving is operationally defined in this study as a creative problem solving skill in an engineering context. To develop the instrument, first we define seven common constructs between engineering problem solving skill and creative problem solving skill through an intensive literature review; motivation, context, personal character, engineering design, engienering habits of mind, understandings of engineering and engineers, communication skill, and collaboration skill. Based on the seven constructs and the face validity test conducted by two in-service science teachers and 4 experts in science education research, 40 preliminary items were developed. Then the preliminary instrument was implemented in a science gifted highschool to measure the reliability of the instrument. From the 40 items, 34 items were selected through the initial reliability test by Cronbach's ${\alpha}$(>.75). Finally through the three times of factor analysis process, 28 items in five construct categories were selected; motivation (3 items), engineering design (6 items), engineering habits of mind (9 items), understandings of engineering and engineers (4 items), communication and collaboration skill (6 items). The factor analysis result showed that the reliability of each construct category was between .733 to .892., meaning that the instrument is reliable in terms of the higher structural validity (each item is categorized in an appropriate construct category). We expect that the creative engineering problem solving propensity instrument developed in this study can be used in various contexts for STEAM education research as a reliable and valid instrument.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• 제20권10호
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• pp.1852-1859
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• 2016

The effectiveness of a binarization algorithm in image processing depends on how to eliminate the uncertainty of determining threshold in a reasonable way and on minimizing information loss due to the binarization effect. Fuzzy binarization technique was proposed to handle that uncertainty with fuzzy logic. However, that method is known to be inefficient when the given image has low intensity contrast. In this paper, we propose an improved fuzzy binarization method to overcome such known drawbacks. Our method proposes a trapezoid type fuzzy membership function instead of most-frequently used triangle type one. We also propose an adaptive ${\alpha}$_cut determination policy. Our proposed method has less information loss than other algorithms since we do not use any stretching based preprocessing for enhancing the intensity contrast. In experiment, our proposed method is verified to be more effective in binarization with less information loss for many different types of images with low intensity contrast such as night scenery, lumber scoliosis, and lipoma images.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.1-14
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to examine North Korean defector students' characteristics in science learning through their voice in an "Angbuilgu" program, one of the Korean traditional science knowledge (TSK). We compared them with two other groups of contrasting backgrounds. The Angbuilgu program contains meaningful questions of time, everyday-life knowledge, Korean TSK, and western modern science (WMS). The teaching strategy consists of interactions between teacher and students, and scientific experiments. We applied this program to three groups and analyzed: North Korean defector students, elementary science gifted students, high school students in an advanced class. The characteristics of their science learning show the following: First, their interpretation of time as nature itself in their everyday life. They have rich experience and are familiar with time in nature. Second, they prefer science with complementary, caring, and humanist perspectives, which is in contrast to other groups with preference to the updated and practical science. Third, they lack scientific concepts but possess an abundance of everyday-life knowledge. Their linguistic expressions are ordinary rather than scientific. Fourth, they are familiar with narrative thinking more than scientific thinking. The results show that the science program using Korean TSK can help them accept new scientific knowledge as well as cultural pride, which plays a role in reconfirming their identity as one ethnicity. We expect that the contents of Korean TSK can be an intercultural field between North Korean defector students and our science curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• 제35권1호
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• pp.85-94
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• 2015

Constructivism gave many implications to science education but at the same time it has brought confusion about its implication to the field of science education. Hermeneutics has possibilities of being able to reduce confusion as well as opening a new horizon. Hermeneutics seeks the meaning of 'real understanding' through the concepts of horizon, hermeneutical circle, and fusion of horizons. Both hermeneutics and constructivism have positive attitude to students' pre-understanding and accept contextualization of knowledge. Thus, they both can criticize traditional teaching method and propose an alternative. Moreover, hermeneutics approaches human understanding holistically with the concept of horizon, and pays attention to the circularity of the process of human understanding. As a result, hermeneutics can open a new horizon and give new discourse to science education and contribute to the development of research and practice of science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• 제39권4호
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• pp.511-523
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• 2019

In this age of the $4^{th}$ industrial revolution, we, science educators, are giving more light on students' agentic behavior in the process of educating future scientist. This study, with the analytic lens of epistemic agency, explores the key stages of a student-driven R&E program rather than the scientist-led R&E program. It also examines to understand the emergence of students' epistemic agency in each stage of R&E. Data from participant observation for 18 months and in-depth interviews were collected and analyzed with the constant comparative method of grounded theory. This study identifies and describes five key stages of student-driven R&E: The stage of exploring research theme, designing research, performing lab activity, interpreting results, and communicating research. It also finds that (a) students' epistemic agency emerged with the constant interactions with the R&E structure; (b) students' epistemic agency has deep relations with the epistemic beliefs of the students; (c) students positioned themselves as decision-makers in the R&E practice; (d) the redistributed power and authority of the R&E contributed to the emergence of students' epistemic agency.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• 제36권1호
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• pp.15-28
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes of students' modeling ability in terms of 'meta-modeling knowledge' and 'modeling practice' through co-construction of scientific model. Co-construction of scientific model instructions about astronomy were given to 41 middle-school students. The students were given a before and after instruction modeling ability tests. The results show that students' 'meta-modeling knowledge' has changed into a more scientifically advanced thinking about models and modeling after the instruction. Students were able to be aware that 'they could express their thoughts using models', 'many models could be used to explain a single phenomena' and 'scientific models may change' through co-construction modeling process. The change in the 'modeling practice' of the students was divided into four cases (the level improving, the level lowering, the high-level maintaining, the low-level maintaining) depending on the change of pre-posttest levels. The modeling practice level of most students has improved through the instruction. These changes were influenced by co-construction process that provides opportunities to compete and compare their models to other models. Meanwhile, the modeling practice level of few students has lowered or maintained low level. Science score of these students at school was relatively high and they thought that the goal of learning is to get a higher score in exams by finding the correct answer. This means that students who were kept well under traditional instruction may feel harder to adapt to co-construction of scientific model instruction, which focuses more on the process of constructing knowledge based on evidences.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• 제33권7호
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• pp.1431-1449
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• 2013

This study is based on the assertion that science museums should consider visitors' views and expectations as they are not satisfied in many cases. In this study, we investigated 31 scientifically gifted students and 177 science high school students about their image of science museums. Using the questionnaire, it was found that only 51% of students visited science museums; however, the average number of visits was 4.2. This means that students tended to re-visit after the first visit of the science museum. Students had a 'good' image of science museums when they incurred hands-on experiences and observed new, interesting, curious and funny exhibits. And students had a 'bad' image of science museums due to the following aspects: lack of new and interesting exhibits, information and guide, diverse contents, and hands-on experience; deficiencies in environment; and inadequacy of the management, operation and composition of exhibits. Therefore, they hoped that science museums will provide more hands-on experiences and experiments, new and interesting exhibits, systematic management and composition of exhibits, information and guides, and a good environment. So science museums need to pay special attention to aspects like management, information guides and environment for the first-time visitors. Based on the above results, we suggested "Directions for a good science museum based on students' views". While asking students what topics they wanted to know and learn in a science museum, each student was given the choice of four topics; eventually, 2.9 answers overlapped for each topic. When classifying students' topics into four main themes for the Gwangju National Science Museum, the order from the most popular theme to the least one was 'science in everyday life', 'ocean/space/future science', 'light and science', and 'culture, art and science'. Among the topics mentioned by students, only 37% are exhibited in Seoul, Gwacheon, Daejeon, or Gwangju science museums. We hope that the results and research methods will be used for evaluation, re-construction, and reinvigorated presentation of science museums.