• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.123-139
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• 2011

The research paid attention to the fact that top 10% high achievers of girls in high schools are not equally provided with opportunities for science gifted education in Korea. For this reason, the research examined gender differences in science achievement and science affective domain through employing PISA 2006 science achievement test and survey of science affective domains. The research subjects of 132 students as top 10% high achievers extracted from those 1,409 students who were nationwidely sampled and responded to the science achievement test and science affective domain survey in July 2008. The responses by 132 students of top 10% high achievers were analyzed. The findings revealed that there is no significant difference of science achievement and most items of science affective domain survey between girls and boys of top 10% population in high schools. Further, it was indicated that top 10% high achieving girls have interest, self-concept, self-efficacy, future job aspiration in science as high as boys. In conclusions, further attentions to provide more opportunities of science gifted education for girls are called for.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.23-43
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• 2014

This study aims to develop strategies for improving the affective characteristics of Korean students based on results from international achievement tests. In pursuing the goal, different research methods are employed including a) analysis of the theories and literature regarding the affective domains included in PISA and TIMSS studies; b) analysis of the current situation and needs of Korean students with respect to the affective factors based on PISA and TIMSS results; c) case studies of best practices in relation to students' affective domains in Korea and abroad; and d) development of strategies for improving and supporting Korean students' affective characteristics. Especially, this paper describes meta-analyses of the results from the previous PISA and TIMSS studies. Afterwards, it reports statistical analyses results on the relationship between students' affective achievements and educational context variables. Data from TIMSS 2011, TIMSS 2007, PISA 2006, and PISA 2003 are used for the analyses, and contextual variables are selected through rigorous statistical analyses including frequency and correlation, and expert consultation. The effects of educational contextual variables on students' affective achievement in mathematics and science are analyzed through Hierarchical Linear Model.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.313-326
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze changes in gender differences of Korean students in PISA mathematics assessment and investigate possible factors influencing the decrease of gender gap in mathematics performances. According to the results of PISA mathematics assessment, Korea showed significant large gender differences in mathematics achievement in both 2000 and 2003. The gender gap in favor of boys, however, has decreased since 2006. An interesting point from these results is that Korean girls' significant improvement led to the decrease in gender difference in 2006 and 2009 assessment. Based on a review of literature on gender differences in mathematics, possible explanations for the girls' improvement in mathematics achievements are identified as follows: the Korean government policy to encourage and support girls' study in mathematics and science and supportive environments could influence positively girls' attitudes toward mathematics and their mathematics learning; the changes in the mathematics curriculum and textbooks which emphasize similar characteristics to PISA mathematics assessment could affect the girls' improvement by reducing their unfamiliarity with PISA mathematics assessment items.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.876-886
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• 2011

This study was carried out to investigate the difference of gender of academic self-efficacy, external motivation, interest and science achievement for high school students of Korea and to verify the structural relationship among these variables using PISA 2006 data. The major findings of this study are as follows. According to Multi-group analysis, Latent means analysis (LMA), where boys were used as the reference group, girls showed lower latent mean values on the academic self-efficacy, extrinsic motivation and interest. Academic self-efficacy was found to have a greater effect on achievement compared to external motivation and interest. According to structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, academic self-efficacy and extrinsic motivation affected interest. Academic selfefficacy, external motivation, and interest affected science achievement. Lastly, interest mediated academic selfefficacy and external motivation on science achievement.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.730-744
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• 2006

The United States curriculum reform movement has recently started in each area of science education. The initiatives on curriculum reform stem from a notion that the low rate of science curricula offered in schools has been a serious problem. The schools in the United States are not only facing a lack of offerings within science curricula but also low enrollment in science courses, especially in physics, chemistry, and earth science. This trend resulted in low performances on international achievement tests including TIMSS and PISA. This paper introduces the efforts to solve existing problems through curriculum reform; including ChemCom, BioCom, EarthComm, and Active Physics. In this paper, a discussion is presented to show how the curricula can help address the status quo in science education. More specifically, this paper focuses on curriculum reform in high school earth science (EarthComm), providing a closer look at the scope and sequence of the reform movement. EarthComm was chosen because it was released based on the development of the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996). Consequently, EarthComm became a curriculum that espoused the visions of the Standards, which has been guiding the reform of the US curriculum. At the end of this paper, two research outcomes of the EarthComm curriculum implementation in schools are discussed in terms of student learning and differences from conventional curricula.