• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.130-138
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of high school students and science teachers about high school fusing science. Science teachers and high school students perceived that high school fusing science was related to various areas and they preferred to be taught separately from each area. Science teachers perceived that high school fusing science improved the understanding in the area of scientific common knowledge, advanced technology, and the history of science, but neither scientific writing nor discussion were actively involved. It also didn't contribute to the enhancement of scientific thinking and communication skill. Especially, high school students believed that they were more interested in science through fusing science. On the other hand, teachers believed that this high school fusing science might not impact student's learning and generate negative perception. Science teachers and students perceived that they were more interested in fusing science because it was combination of many areas in science. They also perceived that contents in fusing science were more related to their daily life.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2010

In this study, elementary school teachers' needs for the website providing science instructional materials were examined. The participants were 151 elementary school teachers. The test for needs analysis consisted of fifty-three Likert-type items; 24 items for the content of website category and 29 items for the design of website category. Variables about participants' characteristics such as teaching career, the capability of using computers, and the frequencies of searching websites in obtaining science instructional materials were also examined. The results indicated that teachers' needs for the content of website category were significantly higher than those for the design of website category. Teachers' needs were relatively higher in the items concerning flawless materials, consistency of materials with science curriculum and/or learning objectives, information about target grade and/or related topics, free website, and the materials capable of immediate use in the content of website category. The items concerning the stability of website, the accuracy of links, providing easy and reliable searching methods, easy and fast downloading, and providing list of loaded materials showed relatively higher needs in the design of website category. In several items, teachers' needs were also changed with their individual characteristics.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.146-161
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• 2005

This case study searched two secondary school science teachers' faiths on experiments in science classes. For this study, scaled questionnaires, open-ended questionnaires, structured and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Classroom activities were observed, and instructional plans and materials were collected. In addition, students of the two teachers' classes were interviewed with respect to their thoughts on the lessons. Data sources were analyzed inductively. The triangulation and the member checking guaranteed the validity of this study. As the results, the teachers' faiths on experiments were related to the constructivism, but the faiths were not in accord with their classroom practices. From these results, it was concluded that the teachers' misjudgments about the students' inquiry levels and unfit reorganizations of the experimental activities were the causes of the gap between the teachers' faiths on experiments and classroom practices.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.194-204
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• 2004

The purpose of this literature review is to investigate what kinds of research have been done about scientific inquiry in terms of scientific argumentation in the classroom context from the upper elementary to the high school levels. First, science educators argued that there had not been differentiation between authentic scientific inquiry by scientists and school scientific inquiry by students in the classroom. This uncertainty of goals or definition of scientific inquiry has led to the problem or limitation of implementing scientific inquiry in the classroom. It was also pointed out that students' learning science as inquiry has been done without opportunities of argumentation to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed. Second, what is scientific argumentation, then? Researchers stated that scientific inquiry in the classroom cannot be guaranteed only through hands-on experimentation. Students can understand how scientific knowledge is constructed through their reasoning skills using opportunities of argumentation based on their procedural skills using opportunities of experimentation. Third, many researchers emphasized the social practices of small or whole group work for enhancing students' scientific reasoning skills through argumentations. Different role of leadership in groups and existence of teachers' roles are found to have potential in enhancing students' scientific reasoning skills to understand science as inquiry. Fourth, what is scientific reasoning? Scientific reasoning is defined as an ability to differentiate evidence or data from theory and coordinate them to construct their scientific knowledge based on their collection of data (Kuhn, 1989, 1992; Dunbar & Klahr, 1988, 1989; Reif & Larkin, 1991). Those researchers found that students skills in scientific reasoning are different from scientists. Fifth, for the purpose of enhancing students' scientific reasoning skills to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed, other researchers suggested that teachers' roles in scaffolding could help students develop those skills. Based on this literature review, it is important to find what kinds of generalizable teaching strategies teachers use for students scientific reasoning skills through scientific argumentation and investigate teachers' knowledge of scientific argumentation in the context of scientific inquiry. The relationship between teachers' knowledge and their teaching strategies and between teachers teaching strategies and students scientific reasoning skills can be found out if there is any.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.10-21
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• 2009

The purpose of this research was to investigate science teachers' thoughts about hypotheses and rules related to the contents of ninth grade 'Construction of Matter' and 'Rules of Matter Change' chapters. The changes of their thoughts through experience of the abduction viewpoint were also analyzed. Twenty-two science teachers in the masters course took lessons and discussions related to the abduction viewpoint in the course of three weeks. The changes in thought of four teachers selected among them were investigated through individual interviews and their reports. From the investigation, it was found that the two teachers who had not recognized the problems of textbook content order could distinguish rules and hypotheses after the lessons and discussions. The two teachers who had recognized the problems before the lessons gained the abduction viewpoint through the lessons. They also recognized new opinions related to teaching styles for students and the meaning of the abduction viewpoint on education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.42-53
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• 2010

Identifying students' misconceptions by teachers is the primary step in using constructivist teaching strategies. We investigated how secondary science teachers were aware of students' misconceptions about the particulate nature of matter and analyzed the total number of differences of predicted misconceptions by their background variables. We also investigated how they addressed students' misconceptions in their instruction, and how necessary they thought it was to identify students' misconceptions for teaching science concepts. A survey was administered to 87 science teachers at 28 middle schools in Seoul. Teachers' predictions were compared with the misconceptions of 240 seventh-grade students. The teachers, as a group, identified almost all the misconceptions held by the students. However, they were unable to predict which types of misconceptions were more frequent. The total number of misconceptions predicted by the teachers who had careers of less than 10 years, possessed Master's degrees, or majored in chemical education was significantly higher. Although most teachers stated that knowing students' misconceptions was needed for their instruction, they rarely and simply addressed them in their instructions. Many techers faced misconceptions in classroom activities, and only few teachers found them through publications relating to students' misconceptions, teacher preparation courses and/or in-service training programs. Educational implications are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.143-160
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• 2019

This study investigated 15 science teachers' perception and practice on free semester and science assessment. We analyzed frequencies of teacher choice for closed questions and used constant comparative method for teacher description and individual interview. Most teachers determined a low ranking for changes in assessment methods and mentioned a lack of objectivity on free semester assessment, unsystematic free semester assessment, and more importance on student activity and interest in science instruction. Most teachers understood process-based assessment as a direction of free semester assessment and teachers mentioned positive aspects for students or teacher difficulties dependent on their perception on process-based assessment. Half of the teachers failed to implement student self-assessment and student peer-assessment due to subjectivity and complexity. Some teachers did not provide feedbacks to students due to a lack of time and did not use certain assessment methods due to a lack of knowledge of the assessment. Teachers who did not have an experience of discussions in a teacher learning community mentioned reasons regarding a small number of the same grade teachers and inactive attitude of colleagues. Teachers who did not participate in professional development programs mentioned a lack of teacher understanding of free semester, participation of the teacher in charge, and teacher choice of participation as reasons.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 1998

Scientific literacy implies an adequate understanding of the nature of science. However, little is known about factors that can influence students' conceptions of the nature of science. The purpose of this study was to test the validity of the prevalent assumption that teachers' philosophical perspectives of science directly influence their students' conceptions of the nature of science. A comparison between science teachers' and students' perspectives of science did not support the assumption that a science teachers' perspectives of science is significantly related to students' conceptions of science. The data clearly indicated that there was no relationship between teachers' philosophical perspectives and those of their students. The results convincingly indicated that the nature of science was not being considered or taught to students as a consequence of students' needs and curriculum guide objectives. It is believed that the results of this investigation will help to redirect the focus of future efforts to promote more adequate conceptions of the nature of science in our secondary schools.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.796-808
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• 2007

There are various definitions of Science Culture nowadays. In this study we redefine Science Culture as a union between Science and Culture. We also develop the Framework of Science Culture Indicator (FSCI). which consists of five fields; History of Science, Philosophy of Science, Literature and Art of Science, Scientific Social Activity and Scientific Media. In this study we also investigated the level of the Science Culture of secondary school teachers, and compare them by teachers' majors: Science, Liberal Arts and Social Studies. To analyze the data, the Kruskal-Wallis Test is adopted. It is found that there are significant differences in the level of Science Culture by teachers' major, and the group of science teachers has the highest level of science culture.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.753-763
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• 2018

The image of scientists that learners have has an important impact on science learning and on science-related career choices. The image of the scientist was mainly analyzed using the drawing analysis method. Drawing analysis has limitations on drawing, mainly analyzing the external image of scientist. Science teachers' images of scientists and their perception of science-related careers are important factors in students' science learning and science-related career choices. However, research on science teachers is lacking. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the usefulness of measurement tools by developing and applying a scientist image measurement tool through the semantic analysis method, and to discuss the educational implications of the research by investigating the image of scientists and science-related professions of secondary pre-service science teachers. The subjects of the study were 79 male and 55 female for a total of 134 students in the 2nd and 3rd grades majoring in science education at a teachers college. The results of the research show that the image measurement tool consisted of four components: 'ability,' 'evaluation,' 'activity,' and 'emotion,' in 24 items. As a result of applying the developed measurement tool to the secondary pre-service science teachers, the image of the 'evaluation,' 'ability,' and 'activity' elements of the scientist were high, but 'emotion' was low. There was no statistically significant difference according to gender. It is found that science-related career perceive them as 'hard,' 'professional,' 'smart,' and 'complex.' In particular, male students perceive themselves as 'hard and difficult' while female students perceive it as 'challenging and complicated'. Finally, we discussed the usefulness of using the image measurement tool of the scientists, the image of the scientists of the secondary pre-service science teachers, and the educational implications on science-related career.