• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.117-132
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary school teachers' awareness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and find out how to apply it in elementary science education. The survey was conducted online and involved 95 teachers working in the metropolitan area. The results of this study are as follows. First, teachers need to learn about the general characteristics of AI and how to apply it to education. Second, science classes had the highest preference for AI among elementary school subjects. Third, the preference for AI application by elementary science field was 68.4% for earth and space, 54.7% for exercise and energy, 32.6% for matter, 27.4% for life. Fourth, AI-based Science Education (AISE) teaching- learning strategies were developed based on AI characteristics and the changing perspective of elementary science education, AISE's teaching-learning strategies are five: 'automation', 'individualization', 'diversification', 'cooperation' and 'creativity' and teachers can use them in teaching design, class practice and evaluation stages. Finally, the creative problem-solving Doing Thinking Making Sharing (DTMS) model was devised to implement the creativity strategy in AISE. This model consists of four-steps teaching courses: Doing, Thinking, Making and Sharing based on the empirical learning theory. In the future, follow-up research is needed to verify the effectiveness of this model by applying it to elementary science education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.54-68
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate how elementary teachers perceive and practice using Visual Thinking (VT) in science classes. For this, we collected 161 VT teaching materials for science that uploaded on the elementary teacher's online communities, and analyzed the characteristics. Also we interviewed four elementary teachers who have used VT in science class. The results are as follows. First, VT teaching materials shared in teacher's online communities were most often used to review the science concepts that students learned. Most of the materials required 'remember' among the Cognitive Process, and most of them provided layouts for VT activities. Second, the participants were using VT materials to review the science concepts they learned, so that students remember them. Third, the participants were satisfied because of the beliefs of effects as follows: facilitating learning and reviewing what students had learned; increasing students' positive reactions and confidence; learning through the interation among learners; the formation of habits thinking visually; indirect experiences of science class; possibility of class corresponding to learner characteristics. Fourth, the participants had difficulties in preparing for the VT science class, such as the burden of making VT materials, the long preparation time, concerns over overlapping contents, consideration of learners' VT skills, and the themselves' drawing ability. Furthermore, they also had difficulties in proceeding for the class, like different preference among learners about Visualization and loss of objectives in science class using VT. Fifth, the participants needed support as follows: platform to share students' VT results; VT case books and teachers' guidebooks; physical environment.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.641-648
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to analyze pre-service science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge. For this study, two senior education students were selected. The data of this study were collected through interviews, CoRe questionnaire, and classroom observation recordings during the period of student-teacher practice. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. The results indicated that the two pre-service science teachers had low level pedagogical content knowledge. Two pre-service science teachers' knowledges of science curriculum were different from each other. Orientations toward teaching science shifted to undesirable direction after the experience of a student-teacher's practice-teaching. Their subject matter knowledges were imperfect. They also had low levels of knowledge of students' understanding.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.618-632
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• 2008

Despite the rapidly growing body of research on science teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), most of the research has mainly focused on the definition of PCK and its components. The main purpose of this research was to explore the operational definition of PCK and to suggest another form by re-conceptualizing PCK, with the newly defined and conceptualized PCK capable of being used as standards and/or criteria in selecting the curricular content of and deciding the subject area of science teacher education. In this research, the science teachers' PCK was defined as the "practical knowledge and skills that are acquired through the curriculum of science education and in the course of teaching experiences, and which are used in their teaching of secondary school science." The science teachers' PCK was further defined as consisting of two integrated and/or combined dimensions: subject matter and pedagogy, each of which comprises several components. In this paper, the PCK is called science education literacy. The paper also presents the ways to apply the operational definition of PCK and re-conceptualized PCK and a few suggestions for the research on science teachers' PCK.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.22-35
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• 2013

In this study, we analyzed the problems of grade 3~4 science textbooks developed for the 2007 revised national curriculum raised by elementary school teachers. 53 elementary school teachers were selected and asked to complete the open questionnaire to find out the problems they experienced or perceived when they taught the corresponding unit of the science textbooks. The responses were coded and categorized through researchers' cross analysis. The result revealed various problems in using the science textbooks in real classroom context. The problems were divided into three dimensions as inquiry activity aspect, science knowledge aspect, and science learning assessment aspect. Each dimension consisted of several categories. We explained the frequency and representative examples of the problems in each category. These can provide some guidelines and implications for new science textbook developers and science education policy makers.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.298-314
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to develop science research ethics guidelines for elementary school teachers. To develop the guidelines, authors have conducted the following procedures: Development of guidelines through literature reviews; and an application of the developed guidelines to classroom sites. Authors established sections and formats of guidelines for science research ethics through literature reviews and developed contents of major sections and subsections and their explanations and descriptions. After that, authors applied the developed guidelines at elementary science classes and collected data through semi-structured interviews with science class teachers and checklists to reflect on and complement the contents of the guidelines. To secure the validity of guidelines, authors requested a validity assessment to four science education experts and one ethics education specialist. As a result, the CVI for the guidelines was found to be 0.9. Finally, authors developed the final guidelines by adding "Case Examples of Application" by adopting requests of elementary school teachers who used the provisional guidelines.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.117-130
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• 2003

The study is to analyze the middle school-science parts among the products of nation-wide science exhibition for eleven years recently and the results of compared to the content of science-textbooks of middle school. The number of observation in the student parts among the products of nation-wide science exhibition was the highest in all methods studied, whereas, most teachers surveyed experiments in their products. The mean Shannon's diversity index (DI) was same trend for students and teachers. There was a non-significant difference of the methods in students and teacher groups according to years and the association between students and teachers were closely connected with methods. The correlation between the content of students' products and texts of middle-school was highly positive for earth science, chemistry, and biology, whereas physics showed negative correlation.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.583-594
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning elementary teachers' characteristics and improvement of their teaching skills in science class. The methodology of this study was a qualitative approach that included interviews, classroom observations, and teaching materials. In urban area, low beginning elementary teacher were selected. Four beginning elementary teachers were observed and recorded with VCR in their classroom at seven-times. The results showed that the beginning elementary teachers did not improve in their teaching skills in science teaching, and their characteristics of teaching skills in science were summarized as following; 1) their teaching methods were not inquiry-based science teaching, but explaining-based science teaching, 2) their main aims of the science teaching were focused on the science knowledges, 3) there were little students' science processes involved in their classes, 4) they focused on using textbook as teaching materials, 5) there were little waiting times after their questioning, and they usually used closed-questions rather than open-ended questions.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.539-550
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• 2016

The purpose of the study is to conceptualize SSI-PCK by identifying major components and sub-components to promote science teachers' confidence and knowledge on teaching SSIs. To achieve this, I conducted extensive literature reviews on teachers' perceptions on SSI, case studies of teachers addressing SSIs, SSI instructional strategies, etc. as well as PCK. Results indicate that SSI-PCK include six major components: 1) Orientation for Teaching SSI (OTS), 2) Knowledge of Instructional Strategies for Teaching SSI (KIS), 3) Knowledge of Curriculum (KC), 4) Knowledge of Students' SSI Learning (KSL), 5) Knowledge of Assessment in SSI Learning (KAS), and 6) Knowledge of Learning Contexts (KLC). OTS refers to teachers' instructional goals and intentions for teaching SSIs. Teachers often present a) activity-driven, b) knowledge and higher order thinking skills, c) application of science in everyday life, d) nature of science and technology, e) citizenship and f) activism orientations for teaching SSIs. KIS indicates teachers' instructional knowledge required for effectively designing and implementing SSI lessons. It includes a) SSI lesson design, b) utilizing progressive instructional strategies, and c) constructing collaborative classroom cultures. KC refers to teachers' knowledge on a) connection to science curriculum (horizontal/vertical) and b) connection to other subject matters. KSL refers to teachers' knowledge on a) learner experiences in SSI learning, b) difficulties in SSI learning, and c) SSI reasoning patterns. KAS indicates teachers' knowledge on a) dimensions of SSI learning to assess, and b) methods of assessing SSI learning. Finally, KLC refers to teachers' knowledge on the cultures of a) classrooms, b) schools, and c) community and society where they are located when teaching SSIs.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.261-277
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• 2013

This study aims to investigate the effect of a scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program on pre-service elementary school teachers' attitudes toward science and scientific inquiry in the class of elementary school science educational theory at education university. As for research subjects, this study selected 141 pre-service elementary school teachers who were in the third year of education university. The results of this study can be summarized as below. First, it was found that the scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program improved pre-service elementary school teachers' attitudes toward science and helped them realize it important to have knowledge about science, further making them find it more enjoyable to teach science at school in the future. Second, it was found that the scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program had positive effect on pre-service elementary school teachers' attitudes toward scientific inquiry. In other words, they came to think of inquiry-based learning styles as an important course of science class. Third, as a result of carrying out open-ended questions about what would be helpful in an actual education site through the scientific inquiry worksheet-making class program, this study found out that most of the research subjects responded it would be helpful when applying a class model, and thought it would be helpful for elementary school students to have scientific knowledge and understand the process of inquiry.