• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.18 no.2
• /
• pp.103-117
• /
• 1999

The importance of pedagogical content knowledge(PCK) has been recognized in learning science teaching. PCK is based partly on the essence of subject matter knowledges. Therefore, the effective teaching of science content knowledges is fundamental in preservice education of student teachers. But, particularly the science curriculum of primary teachers' colleges is composed of less lessons than needed. This research was executed to identify the content and context of earth science which were contained in questions by student teachers These questions which were written by the students about the earth science content in elementary science texts and teachers' guide books were collected and analyzed. Frequency and context concentration of questions about the themes of contents were obtained. In each unit of the text books, scatter diagrams of question frequency and context concentration of themes showed various features. The main results were as follows. first, in case of the units which contents ate composed of themes expected to be experienced in everyday life, the question frequency and context concentration showed positive correlation between them. But, other units, which everyday life experiences are not expected to influence, did not show distinct correlation.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.435-442
• /
• 2005

For this study we conducted a survey far elementary students from 3rd to 6th grade. We performed a frequence test using statistic program and the cross-tabs between gender and grade. We then conducted a thorough interview with the students, after constructing several meaningful questions reflecting the results of survey. As a result of this study, it was critical to arrange interesting inquiry activities in order to foster student's preference for science and attract them to get involved in the science class. We found that teachers were needed to be more flexible to make a group during the classes and teachers would succeed to reflect student's characteristics. In addition, it is necessary for the teachers to refrain from excessive advising or immoderate interrupting student's experiment activity. We conclude that only when the improvements in the curriculum for science education should be made, teachers would allow students to recognize its significances by themselves, and let them follow the inquiring process during the laboratory class for themselves.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.295-313
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to analyze the teaching strategies used in the teaching practice of teachers charged with science-gifted middle school students. For this study, 4 teachers belonging to a professional gifted education institute were selected. Data for the study were classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, report of students, and photographs. The data were analyzed through the constant comparison method. As results show, the four teachers used different teaching strategies, and the teaching strategies had a close connection with each other. According to the learning types they chose themselves - acceleration or deepening - they used different teaching strategies. The 4 teachers' teaching practice were clearly different in teaching strategies, classroom atmosphere, interaction style between teacher-student and student-student, and report draw-up style. The teaching strategies identified in this study may be helpful to the teachers short in teaching experience in organizing their lessons and promoting their specialty in teaching for science-gifted students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.167-180
• /
• 2023

Teacher interventions in science classrooms are important because they can have a major impact on students' practices. This study qualitatively analyzed what kinds of utterances teachers used to intervene in students' practices of constructing scientific explanations. Two elementary school teachers, L and K, participated in the study, and their lessons in the sixth-grade science unit, 'Structure and Function of Plants' were reorganized for students to engage in the scientific practice of constructing explanations. In each lesson, the two teachers were asked to support students' practices as part of responsive teaching. The results of the study showed that the two teachers mainly utilized empathetic and disciplinary utterances, respectively, which were used to support emotional, processual, and conceptual aspects of students' scientific practices. The empathetic utterances were employed to support students' practices in the order of noticing, actively accepting, and offering alternatives. By contrast, the disciplinary utterances were used in the order of finding deficiencies, evaluating, and urging to improve students' practices. The reasons the teachers made use of empathetic and disciplinary utterances, respectively, were discussed, and implications for science education were suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.10-20
• /
• 2014

This study compares the perceptions of elementary gifted child and science teacher in a science class for the gifted. In order to explore the research problem, students and teachers answered a written semi-structured questionnaire and participated in interviews regarding the gifted science class. The data was collected and analyzed. Science teachers recognized the characteristics of a good science class, especially in terms of educational content and teaching methodology. First, they suggested promoting inquiry skills, presenting a challenging task in atypical topic selection, student-centered curriculum, and controlling the pace of learning to recognize individual differences. Second, in terms of the science class skills and attitudes category, teachers recommended raising mutual satisfaction through vigorous interaction within a permissible atmosphere. Finally, science teachers need to strive for continued professional growth. Gifted children, meanwhile, want to investigate a wide range of topics without time constraints. Additionally, they may have to explore challenging topics further. They prefer to act like scientists in that they enjoy group activities, communication and cooperation. In particular, they want to be evaluated by others in a totally embedded assessment. Gifted children also expect teachers to understand the life circumstances and needs of the students. In addition, they asked for teachers to respect individual experiments and to show them how to safely use new equipment or research methods. As a result, gifted children and science teachers have to recognize the differences of opinion concerning a good science class for the gifted. This study can help formulate strategies to establish quality management of materials in gifted science classes.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.655-670
• /
• 2012

As a case study on the changes of beginning science-gifted education teachers' teaching professionalism through coteaching, this study deeply investigated the change processes in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science instructions for secondary science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed coteaching of science instructions of the teachers, and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for discussions between them and in-depth interviews with them, their reflective journals, and researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the coteaching positively changed the two teachers' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science contents although there were some limitations. The results suggest that the coteaching will be useful in improving beginning teachers' teaching professionalism, and provide practical implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.393-406
• /
• 2014

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is intrinsically domain/topic-specific knowledge for teachers' expertise. On the basis of this idea about PCK, we investigated in-service science teachers' topic-specific PCK on the unit of stars and universe in terms of teachers' knowledge and practices. We observed four middle school science teachers' classes for eighth graders, and took the videos of the classes. The topics of the classes covered constellation, annual parallax and the distance of stars, and the expansion of the universe. We also examined the teachers' pedagogical thinking through video stimulated recall interviews. In addition, we developed a protocol to analyze the levels of participant teachers' PCK and the characteristics revealed in their classes on each topic. Results of the study showed that the participant teachers' level of PCK varied across the topics of classes and the sub-components of PCK. We also identified teaching orientations played key roles in shaping overall characteristics of their PCK. Moreover, astronomical thinking such as spatial thinking and system thinking, was not appropriately embedded as the specific practices into the astronomical concepts in their instructions. We discussed the implications on the progressions of teachers' PCK in terms of their professional development.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.617-629
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to explore the elementary school teachers' perceptions about making a model of volcanic activity. Thirty elementary teachers participated in the study after they in which they conducted the experiment of "Making a Model of Volcanic activity". A questionnaire was used to investigate how the teachers understood the strengths and weaknesses of the experiment in terms of the goals of school science inquiry. The results showed that 50-60% of the teachers were able to conduct the experiment as guided in the textbook regardless of their career or area of concentration. The teachers perceived that the experiment of current textbook was safe and useful for students to develop their creativity. However, they pointed out three major weaknesses of the textbook experiment: First, the textbook experiment does not clearly present the main purpose of the activity. Second, it does not appropriately reflect the natural volcanic activity. Third, it is a merely simple craft activity. In addition, the teachers agreed that the main goals of school science inquiry are the application of scientific knowledge, development of inquiry skills and cultivation of student's curiosity. However, the teachers perceived that the experiment of current textbook did not meet these three goals. They suggest that the experiment reflect the nature of real volcanic activities.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.391-409
• /
• 2022

In this study, class demonstrations conducted integrating science education and 'Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)' by pre-service science teachers were analyzed, focusing on the concept of 'sustainable happiness' and the main elements of 'complexity theory'. In addition, changes before and after participating in such education implementation were analyzed from various angles. Through this, pre-service science teachers tried to derive implications for developing multidimensional teacher professionalism in ESD. The main findings are as follows. First, as a result of peer evaluation of class materials and class demonstrations designed by pre-service science teachers, the average of the integration for 'sustainable happiness' was relatively high. Next, it was analyzed that the elements of 'sustainable happiness' and 'complexity theory' generally had a positive correlation with ESD. In addition, after participating in the study, pre-service science teachers considered individual and social behavioral patterns as important in the sense of ESD. Regarding the need to integrate science education and ESD, pre-service science teachers thought it was necessary to deal with the concept of 'sustainable happiness' in science education to understand a sustainable way of life. It was analyzed that the elements of 'sustainable happiness' and 'complexity theory' generally had a positive correlation with ESD. It was found that pre-service science teachers' confidence in incorporating ESD in science classes was significantly higher after participation in the study. In addition, it was analyzed that pre-service science teachers have come to think more about the role of teachers who can communicate with students and think about happy lives together than before. Overall, it is thought that pre-service science teachers have come to think of multidimensional science teacher professionalism by applying the perspective of the teaching and learning strategy of the new ESD, which integrates the concept of 'sustainable happiness' and elements of 'complexity theory'.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.1049-1062
• /
• 2004

In this study, various scientific viewpoints of 'motion of objects' were analyzed from the Aristoteles age to the Newton age. From the analysis, a questionnaire was developed which was including causes of motion, forms of motion, and preservation quantity of movement. The conceptions of pre-service science teachers were researched by the questionnaire developed in this study based on the science historical viewpoints. The subjects were twenty sophomore students of physic education major and thirty four of other science education major who majored common science education also in a college. Most of the pre-service teachers of physical education major had inertia and Newton's force conception related to the question situations of 'causes of motion' and 'forms of motion'. But a lot of the pre-service teachers of physic education major and other science education major had viewpoints of Descartes or Huygens related to the question situation of 'preservation quantity of movement'. Only few pre-service teachers regardless of major had Newton's viewpoint which represented in current Korean science curriculum for secondary school.