• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.26 no.5
• /
• pp.661-674
• /
• 2017

This study used questionnaires to investigate how pre-service elementary teachers understand ocean acidification. As a result of gender, female teachers were more aware of ocean acidification than male teachers, but male teachers had a higher average rate of correct answers, with a lower standard deviation. Teachers from the natural sciences knew more about ocean acidification than did teachers the liberal arts. Teachers ranked environmental crisis in order of most dangerous to least dangerous as follow: global warming and the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, ocean acidification, and acid rain. About 46.7% of teachers learn about ocean acidification through education, followed by broadcasts, school lectures and the internet. The educational materials most desired for teachers were videos related to ocean acidification. Pre-service elementary teachers have two broad perspectives on ocean acidification. Firstly, they refer to economic loss and food shortages, and secondly, they note that there is a need for improved awareness and publicity about ocean acidification. The role of elementary school teachers is important because their awareness of environmental issues has a considerable effect on teachers perception of the environment. Revitalizing education on ocean acidification and government support are necessary to effectively communicate the seriousness of ocean acidification. Lastly, we need to study ocean acidification in detail so as to be able to persevere toward protecting our ocean ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.378-392
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate the depth of earth science teachers' concern over the 7th Science Curriculum and levels of their use of it in reality, using the tools "Concern" and "Levels of use" which are two important tools use in CBAM. The results of the study are as follows. How much concern do the earth science teachers have over the 7th Science Curriculum? There are seven stages (from 0 stage to 6 stage) of teachers' concern over the curriculum. o stage represents teachers' indifference to the curriculum and 98% teachers are placed in this stage. According to the study on teachers' teaching experience, teachers having from 10 to 14 years of teaching experience are the most indifferent to the 7th Science Curriculum, compared to other teachers. Which levels of use of the 7th science curriculum do earth science teachers choose in reality? There are five levels of use (from 1 to 5) of the 7th curriculum. 43.97% of teachers are placed in the 3rd level called "Mechanical level", which represents a teacher-concerned learning method with consideration of learners' response. According to the study on teachers' frequency of level of use in the fields of "Instruction objects, Instruction contents, Instruction methods, Instruction materials and Evaluation.", teachers chose high levels of use in the fields of "Instruction objects and Instruction contents" and low levels of use in the other three fields. What factors are barriers for earth science teachers to perform the 7th Science Curriculum in reality? 80.9% of teachers have trouble performing the 7th Science Curriculum in reality because of too much routine work, official papers, and lack of instructional materials, laboratories, training systems and workshops. The two biggest barriers among the above are routine work and of official papers. According to the study on teachers' teaching experience, teachers having from 0 to years of teaching experience have the most trouble in performing the curriculum in reality, compared to other teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.8
• /
• pp.1356-1366
• /
• 2012

As the recent demand for human resources in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the development of professional STEM teacher is called worldwide. It is becoming a critical need in teacher education in order to educate student teachers, and prepare pre-service and beginning teachers for high quality of teaching competency. To promote the competency for $21^{st}$ century STEM teachers, the epistemology of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is currently considered as the essential qualities of knowledge for highly qualified teachers. The aim of this study is explore the effect of case-based learning approach on TPACK competency of pre-service STEM teachers. In order to develop the pre-service teachers' competency regarding effective integration of technologies into teaching specific content areas, a series of innovative case study teaching in science and mathematics was presented to 43 participants of pre-service physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and computer teachers during a course of information and communication technology (ICT) in Education at Khon Kaen University, Thailand. After finishing a case presentation, the pre-service teachers were encouraged into a forum of critical open discussion by considering the potential impact of the case and the TPACK framework. They were investigated instructional design competency of using ICT tools into student learning process and their personal beliefs about ICT in educational process both before and after. The participant's reactions and learning was evaluated by using a self-reported questionnaire and an implementation log of content-specific learning process design, respectively. Results showed a change of their beliefs and the transformation of their TPACK competency in STEM teaching. In an effort to better serve the needs of high quality STEM teachers, the results of this study illustrated that the competency of TPACK could be particularly considered as a core attributes for future STEM teachers. By the way, case-based learning approach can play an effective part in preparing and professing the TPACK competency for STEM teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.221-229
• /
• 2016

This study aimed to investigate the effects of portfolio application on pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking. For the purpose, we used narrative inquiry on pre-service science teachers' portfolios. We also analyzed the dimensions and levels of pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking. Analysis results showed that the pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking was mostly centered on focus at the beginning of semester. In addition, they exhibited routine and technical levels of reflective thinking. Analysis of pre-service science teachers' reflective thinking showed it as gradually extending to the dimension of inquiry and dimension of change by the end of semester. Here, the level of reflective thinking was higher at the dialogic level and transformative level. Pre-service science teachers showed that they had difficulties in making portfolios. However, they answered positively about application of portfolios. The results of this study suggest that there is a need to actively introduce portfolio assessment in teacher education courses in order to increase the reflective thinking of pre-service science teachers.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.454-469
• /
• 2014

Teachers' presuppositions of nature of science, scientific causality, and nature are unconsciously constructed through interactions with his or her physical and social environment everyday and it began even before they were in any formal education. It directly influences their teaching later. Thus, this study examined what comprehensive presuppositions in nature of science, scientific causality, and nature are held by in-service secondary science teachers. For the study, Q-methodology was used. Q-sorting was done on 81 statements from three instruments: Nature statements, the Test of Preferred Explanations, and the Nature of Science Scale with twelve in-service science teachers. Teachers sorted the statements along a presented agreement scale of their viewpoint and the collected data was analyzed using recommended procedures for Q-sorts in order to group teachers with similar views. As a result, ten participants were placed in five factors based on their presuppositions of science, scientific causality, and nature and distinctive features of each factor were discovered. In addition, the study confirmed that presuppositions of science, scientific causality, and nature are interrelated. This study method will be helpful to discover more relationships regarding teachers' various viewpoints further.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.32 no.5
• /
• pp.504-513
• /
• 2011

In this study, we investigated how elementary science teaching has changed with the introduction of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). Teachers are held accountable for student performance as measured by the mandatory nation-wide standards tests to satisfy the needs of accountability and quality assurance systems. In relation to the teaching of science in the elementary school, professionalism meets potential threats with the advent of national test. Through analysis of the classroom teaching and open-ended interviews, we explored the teacher's concerns about the national test and how their science classes have changed to prepare for this test. According to the results, the national test made elementary teachers accountable for the content of their science classes, limits teachers' autonomy in reconstruction of curriculum, and forced teachers to conduct conclusion-centered lessons even in elementary science classes. In addition, teachers argue that the national test precludes the possibility of differentiated education and differentiated assessment. Based on the results, we suggested a new professionalism in this accountability era, so called 'informed professionalism', which refers to the ability of teachers to interpret and implement curriculum and policy mandates at the local, school and classroom level to generate equitable and improved student outcomes through teaching and learning. We also suggested further research on the teacher professionalism in teaching science contents.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.3
• /
• pp.211-220
• /
• 2008

This study examined pre-service science teachers' perceptions of informal learning by adopting a discourse analysis method suggested by Mortimer and Scott(2003). The guiding research questions were: (1) What are some general patterns of the discourse occurring in science museums between a teacher and a student? (2) In what ways do the pre-service teachers perceive informal learning and teacher's role in informal settings? The 7 pre-service science teachers participated in this study. Each of them shepherd an elementary student around the museum and implemented their own instruction using a pre-planed lesson plan. Results indicated that even though the teachers had learned some characteristics of informal teaming in their college courses, they tended to implement their traditional view of science teaming into the instruction and the view affected them to set up their teaching purposes and contents, and to select communicative approach, patterns of discourse and ways of intervention.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.99-108
• /
• 2012

This study investigated the characteristics of preservice elementary teachers' science PCK through a mentoring program. Their perceptions of the mentoring program were also examined. The participants of this study were 33 preservice elementary teachers who prepared science lessons in small groups. A mentoring program was implemented in the processes of science lessons planning and evaluation to support their professional development. The characteristics of the preservice elementary teachers' science PCK exhibited through the mentoring program were as follows: They showed poor understanding of instructional models and logical connections of each instructional step. They also had problem in setting a clear learning goal for their science lessons. This was related with their poor understanding of the curriculum. They seldom considered students' misconceptions, and their perceptions of assessment were quite restricted. The analyses on their perceptions of the mentoring program revealed that the preservice teachers thought it was helpful for their professional development in several aspects. Mentoring could play an important role to examine and improve preservice elementary teachers' science PCK.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.392-403
• /
• 2024

This study investigated the perceptions of elementary school preservice teachers in their 4th year at K-Education University, an elementary school teacher-training institution, on the nature of science (NOS). To examine the differences in elementary school preservice teachers' perceptions of NOS according to their high school career aptitude, we conducted in-depth interviews with two students each in the humanities and social sciences (HS) and natural sciences (NS) based on the subjects that they had taken while attending high school. For this purpose, we used the Views of Nature of Science Form C (VNOS-C) and Views about Scientific Inquiry (VASI) questionnaires, which were reconfigured. The main research results were that the elementary school preservice teachers showed a positivistic perspective on the NOS, validity of scientific knowledge, difference between theory and law, and social and cultural embeddedness of science. However, they had a latest perspective on the tentativeness of scientific knowledge, observation and inference, and the role of imagination and creativity. In particular, there were clear differences in perception between HS and NS teachers in the areas of tentativeness of scientific knowledge and understanding of observation and inference. Based on these research results, educational implications for improving the science education competencies of preservice elementary school teachers were proposed.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.1
• /
• pp.23-39
• /
• 2013

Science teachers' perception on their preparation program can help in conceptualizing how science teachers could be prepared. Based on this premise, this study aims to investigate preservice and inservice science teachers' perception on their teacher preparation programs with a focus on the coherence and balance of program. For this purpose, 20 preservice and 39 inservice science teachers were participated. Selection form and open-ended form questionnaires were developed to survey science teachers' perception on their program. The results of study are as follows: Firstly, participating preservice and inservice science teachers perceived the coherence of their program as moderate. The most and least coherent category of program was 'planning & preparation' and 'professional responsibilities' respectively. Inservice teachers perceived the program less coherent than preservice teachers in all four categories. Secondly, participating preservice and inservice science teachers perceived that practical elements were deficient compare to theoretical elements in light of balance of the program. Lastly, participating preservice and inservice science teachers perceived that current science teacher preparation program was biased to test-driven curriculum, and four domains of the program (subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, and teaching practicum) need to be more strongly connected to secondary school context. Alternative ways to be more coherent and balanced science teacher preparation program were also discussed based on the research.