• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.65-83
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to survey science teachers, perception and attitudes on disposal of school laboratory waste water and materials. To fulfill this aim, a questionnaire was administered to 244 secondary school science teachers. The result of this study revealed that there was no large disparity in the degree of understanding of laboratory waste disposal and the laboratory waste water treatment, and in secondary science teachers' perception and practicing attitude on the environment. While science teachers had deep understanding of laboratory waste disposal and its influence on environmental pollution, they expressed less positive attitude toward the actual disposal of waste materials and waste water, and participation in teacher training. Therefore, it is necessary to provide standards of systematized disposal methods and proper disposal facilities in middle and high school laboratories, as well as to investigate teachers' needs before providing teacher training program.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.32-46
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine preservice elementary teachers' understandings and instructional strategies about children's science misconceptions. The participants were sixty senior students from a national university of education located in the midwestern area of Korea. A questionnaire, developed on the basis of Gomez-Zwiep's semi-structured interview questions, was used. The results of this study are as follows: first, many of the preservice teachers showed appropriate understanding of 'definition of misconceptions' (96.67%), 'examples of misconceptions' (78.33%), 'resistance to change of misconceptions' (71.67%), and 'impact on instruction of misconceptions' (91.67%), except for 'sources of misconceptions' (45.00%); second, although almost all the preservice teachers (96.67%) appreciated the necessity of identifying children's misconceptions before instruction, 43.33% of the preservice teachers did not show appropriate understandings on when and how to identify children's misconceptions; third, most of the preservice teachers (81.67%) were generally aware of instructional strategies to address children's misconceptions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.417-428
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• 1995

This study investigated Korean science teachers' concerns and needs regarding inquiry testing to cope with the innovation called College Scholastic Abilities Test(CSAT), which was officially first administered as the nation-wide college entrance exam in 1994. This study adopted Concerns Based Adoption Model(CBAM) as the theoretical framework developed by Hall et al. 60 high science teachers (30 physics, 20 earth science, 10 others) were involved for the main study in August, 1992. In general. science teachers demonstrated a concern profile similar to that of 'nonusers'. They showed high level of concerns on the 'information' and 'personal' stage, while low level of concerns on 'management' and 'consequence' stage. Science teachers expressed their strong needs for knowledge and support to facilitate inquiry teaching and testing, text books written in inquiry mode. It is recommended that in-service trainings be provided based on the concerns and needs of teachers for a better teacher training and successful implementation of the innovation.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.377-391
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• 2024

This study aimed to explore the characteristics and dimensions of of systematic functional gestures employed by pre-service Earth science teachers during instructional sessions. Data were collected from eight students enrolled in a university's Department of Earth Science Education. The data included lesson plans, activity sheets, and recordings of one class session from participants. The analysis, conducted using the systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis framework, categorized gestures into scientific and social functional dimensions. Further subdivision identified meta gestures, analytical gestures, and interrelated gestures. Additionally, pre-service teachers used gestures to explain scientific concepts, concretely represent ideas and facilitate communication during instruction. This study emphasizes the nonverbal strategies used by pre-service Earth science teachers, highlighting the importance of noverbal communication in teachers' professional development and the need for its integration into education. It also establishes a systematic conceptual framework for understanding gestures in the instructional context.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.271-294
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to explore the meanings of science classes to elementary school teachers from a phenomenological perspective. Participants were twenty-eight elementary teachers who majored in elementary science education in a graduate school of education. The study revealed that meanings of science classes were not consistent but rather varied with what the teachers experienced. In their early career years, when the teachers were filled with enthusiasm, they devoted themselves to doing science-related school works as well as science lessons. But, the teachers were gradually concerned about good science teaching, and this concern became more severe as they realized the characteristics of science experiments and elementary school students. The teachers' concern did not actually develop into good science teaching practices because of such constraints as lots of school works, accidents in science labs, and household affairs. Despite these difficulties, the teachers revitalized their interest in science and resumed their effort for good science teaching. However, for "unfillable cups" to the elementary school teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.880-889
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• 2008

Research-based professional development is essential for in-service and pre-service science teachers across the nation. The purpose of this study was to examine in-service science teachers' and pre-service teachers' perception of the training program for professional development using advanced science laboratory equipment and experiments. Science teachers (N= 43) in science high schools and pre-service science teachers (N=189) were selected as research subjects. As a result of this study, in-service teachers and pre-service teachers recognized that they lacked understanding and experience in advanced science laboratory equipment, although they perceived the importance of its use. They wanted to attend training programs during vacation if they would have the opportunity. Both groups felt that they needed to improve their ability to operate the advanced science lab equipment, preferring to practice these instruments in the training programs. In-service teachers preferred the development of teaching and learning programs for use of the advanced science laboratory equipment. However, pre-service teachers preferred using the advanced science laboratory equipment. The study gives implications for teachers' professional development.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.102-116
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• 2008

In their teaching practice, teachers encounter multi-dimensions of pedagogical challenges. The recognition and reflection on these challenges is crucial to advance our science teaching. This study looked into science teachers' dilemmas of their teaching practical work through their written cases. Dilemma cases are teachers' narratives organized around important events of teaching and learning. It can reveal teachers' situated cognition and be used as lens to investigate complex realities of science teaching and learning. 26 pre- and in-service elementary teachers' dilemma cases of science practical work were carefully collected and analysed to interpret what constitute tensions in elementary science practical works. They were largely grouped into three: Curriculum and Institutional Relevance, Students Relevance, Nature of School Experiments Relevance and divided into 7 subheadings: 'Authority of Curriculum(textbook)', 'Disappointment at external support', 'Students' interests and safety', 'Students' unscientific and inert attitude', 'Difficulty of showing expected results', 'Generalization through experiment', 'Knowledge acquisition and authentic inquiry'. Each dilemma was interpreted in terms of the tensions which constitute contradictory beliefs, values, expectation and realities. These dilemmas enabled to expose actual conditions of elementary science practical work and teachers' challenges otherwise can not be seen easily. Science teacher educators also can get some implications to overcome the gap between theory and practice in their teacher education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of lesson planning of pre-service elementary teachers to develop scientific communication skills for elementary school students. For this purpose, lesson plans and lesson planning journals written by the 53 pre-service teachers were collected and analyzed. The results of the research were as follows. The pre-service elementary teachers used an implicit and contextual approach to develop scientific communication skills. Teaching and learning activities for enhancing scientific communication were mainly conducted in words or in writing. There were many activities expressing elementary school students' thoughts and presenting the results of experiments in the lesson plan. There were many cases in which the pre-service teachers' lesson plans did not include the evaluation of scientific communication skills. In their lesson plans, there are a lot of mutual activities between teachers and students, team and whole students, and inter-students within teams together, and students' individual activities from requests of teachers. We found that the pre-service teachers had various difficulties when they planned the science lesson to develop scientific communication skills. The pre-service teachers were less likely to refer to specialized materials related to science education when planning their classes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.109-124
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• 2012

Developing pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has been emphasized for teacher's professionalism and it should be done from systematic teacher training courses. In this study, we investigated changes of elementary pre-service teachers' PCK of science teaching and motivational strategies before and after a training course. For the analysis of pre-service teachers' PCK, their lesson plans, surveys, and interviews were collected. According to the results, in the beginning of the semester, pre-service teachers in the experimental group usually used didactic or combination of didactic and inquiry teaching strategies and a few pre-service teachers used inquiry or discovery teaching strategies when making lesson plans. However, at the end of the semester many pre-service teachers used inquiry teaching strategies in their lessons which included activities of asking students' prior knowledge, conducing experiments, finding conclusion, and comparing teachers' explanations with students' explanations. Regarding motivational strategies, in the beginning of the semester they focused using activities to create student's emotional interest in science lesson but at the end they used other strategies to create positive atmosphere for learning, capture intellectual interest in science, and connect science to students' everyday lives. The changes in pre-service teachers' PCK in the experimental group was meaningful because there was less change in pre-service teachers' PCK in the control group. This study implies the need for effective professional development programs for developing pre-service teachers' PCK.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.203-213
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• 2014

This study investigates the implementation of the Converged Science, and what teachers and students think of it in order to understand how it is taking root in schools. The results identify ways in which the new curriculum can establish itself in schools. One hundred and two science teachers, who had participated in the mandatory workshop for the 2009 Amended Course of Science, were given the first survey regarding their general perception of the converged science curriculum. A year after the first implementation of the new curriculum, one hundred and seventy one science teachers were given the second survey in order to determine their general perception and actual results in the classrooms. A similar survey was given to one hundred and forty nine tenth grade students. In addition, one hundred and forty eight tenth grade students, who had experienced the new science curriculum, took part in another survey revealing their general thoughts the course. The results show that the teachers' responses are rarely positive. The teachers claimed that the contents were too extensive while the level of fundamental concepts were too rigorous for tenth graders. They also asserted that the contents contained too much of a particular subject, and that it is necessary to lower the level of rigor. With regard to the level of unification of converged science textbooks, the teachers expressed that they are still slightly inadequate. The subject of science in the seventh curricula was criticized due to its lack of convergence: over 90% of the respondents answered negatively. On the other hand, the students responded more positively: they said that the new converged science was difficult to learn, but was interesting. In Busan, most high schools adopted the new curriculum in the first year when it was introduced for the first time. In most cases (over 80%), several teachers divided and taught the contents either according to their majors or regardless of their majors.