• School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.101-120
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• 2013

International comparative studies of students' performance in mathematics have shown that Korean students possess very negative attitudes toward mathematics, while they are ranked as one of the highest in the cognitive achievement of mathematics. This has prompted mathematics educators to seek for a way to improve the quality of mathematics education. In this context, this research has been conducted to investigate the learning style of Korean middle school students under the assumption that it is of essence to understand the characteristics of our students as mathematics learners. For the purpose, in-depth interview had been conducted and sixteen middle students participated in the interview. The students were chosen to represent the average group of their age-cohorts based on their performance in mathematics and their SES. The interview was designed as a semi-structured clinical interview. In the interview, the students were given mathematical tasks dealing with central themes in the domain of function. Each student was given about 30 to 50 minutes to solve the tasks. After an interviewee finished the tasks, s/he was asked to explained how s/he solved the tasks. The researchers asked additional questions to clarify the students' understanding of the mathematical themes in the tasks and to identify their strategies for learning mathematics. The analysis of the in-depth interview has primarily identified the characteristics of the students' understanding of the main themes in function and then has been extended to investigate their characteristic styles for learning mathematics. The analysis of the interview identified the learning styles of the students as 'inductive learning based on prototypical cases', 'repeated practice of exemplar mathematics problems', 'disengaged learning', and 'double standards in learning mathematics'. Based on the results of the analysis, this research presents the implications for the improvement of mathematics education.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.11-18
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• 2017

Objectives : In an effort to suggest a developmental plan of Traditional Korean Medicine health promotion project(TKM-HPP), this study was conducted to identify the problems experienced by public health Traditional Korean Medicine(PH-TKM) doctors in duty and to analyze successful cases of the health promotion project. Methods : Two PH-TKM doctors in duty at the Public Health Centre branch and Public Health Centre respectively, and one TKM doctor in charge of Public Health Centre participated in the in-depth interview. The research procedure was as follows; 1) inform study objectives and interview questions to participants, 2) in-depth interview with semi-structured questions, and 3) post-confirmation and verification. The interview was recorded and transcripted. In-depth interview was composed of 6 subsections: 1) Introducing participants and share purpose of interview, 2) Confirmation of the job status and difficulty of public health centre, 3) Reflecting and sharing experiences of public health clinic job performance cases, 4) Current status and improvement needs of TKM-HPP, 5) Discussions on improvement of TKM-HPP in public health center, 6) Sharing and reconfirmation of interview results. Thematic analysis was conducted from the narratives. Results : The study showed that; 1) the support from the local government was critical for the successful TKM-HPP and participation of the PH-TKMs; 2) the major problems experienced by PH-TKMs were lack of training for TKM-HPP in the field and lack of knowledge at local government level; 3) the suggestions to provide PH-TKMs with manual to educate residents effectively and redefine roles of PH-TKMs in the project. It also suggests that TKM-HPP model should be developed by the district in a way of reflecting regional characteristics. Conclusions : Firstly, more efforts should be made on the projects rather than medical treatment in public health centers, except for areas where medical institutions are scarce. Secondly, in order to facilitate participation of PH-TKM doctors, each local office should reduce medical care and increase efforts related with projects. Thirdly, the institution has to develop feasible TKM-HPP plans that can be carried out by PH-TKMs by the manual. Lastly, pre-training should be provided to PH-TKMs to understand contents of TKM-HPP related to public health centre work before the placement.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.211-236
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate teacher's knowledge of concept of equality and derive implications about proper teaching methods. To solve these study problems, three elementary school teachers are chosen for this study, and a pencil-and paper tests for comprehension of the equality concept targeting 72 students for elementary school that the teachers are in charge of the students was carried out. Also, The semi-structured interview(using a questionnaire) was conducted for analyzing of the teachers' knowledge of the equality concept. The findings are as follows. First, during the lesson, the teachers' reading of equal sign has a decisive effect on the students' the way of reading. Second, teachers tend to interpret the concept of equality as a systematic analysis rather than a relational analysis, and use a equal sign focusing on meaning of 'same result'. So, Students also can't interpret the concept of equality as a relational analysis. Third, under the influence of teacher's feedback or reaction, making the mistake of the using equal sign of students reoccurred continually. Fourth, teachers misjudged some of examples of the nonstandard context equation for teaching elementary school students. Furthermore, during the lesson, they usually used a limited equality context. So, students can't have a chance to learn equality in a plenty of context. Thus, the knowledge of teachers and their lesson has decisive influence on the comprehension of students about the equality concept. So, Teacher has to focus on the meaning of the equality as a relational analysis and teach them in a plenty of context. With this, lots of study and in-service training are needed to enhance knowledge of teachers. And more of lesson programs and materials have to provided on the instruction manual for teaching the meaning of the equality.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.170-184
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• 2024

This study focused on the practical research needed to improve elementary school science lesson plans. Specifically, a video clip-based pedagogical reasoning activity that included elementary student misconceptions was presented and the influences of this activity on preservice teachers' science lesson planning were assessed. First, the eight preservice teacher participants were asked to write a lesson plan for a dissolution and solution unit, after which a first semi-structured interview was conducted. Then, the participants participated in a video clip-based pedagogical reasoning activity. Based on the activity results, the participants revised their previously planned lessons, and second semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data from the preservice teachers' lesson plans and interview transcripts were analyzed using a constant comparative method to investigate the lesson plan changes. It was found that after the video clip-based pedagogical reasoning activity, the preservice teacher tightened the activity or changed the material to understand the students' thinking processes. In addition, they supplemented their goals and assessment criteria to accommodate the diverse students' thinking. Some also specified motivational strategies that considered student interests, motivation, and possible misconceptions. However, some preservice teachers still set goals that did not sufficiently account for student misconceptions and some planned the student assessments based only on the learning goals rather than the students' thinking. The few preservice teachers were able to develop motivational strategies that considered interest, motivation, and misconceptions. The preservice teachers claimed that they had difficulty predicting the misconceptions and connecting these to the lesson content. Discussions were then held to assist the preservice teachers to consider possible student misconceptions when planning their lessons.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.164-182
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was investigated the perceptions and expectations of science gifted elementary students in the laboratory-based science learning. For the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 science gifted elementary students in J city. The question of the interview is constructed with perception and expectation of science gifted elementary students in divided with 4steps of understanding of lesson object, planning experiment, performing experiment and drawing conclusion in laboratory-based science learning and an attitude for science. The interview is progressed per individual and all the content of the interview is recorded. The result of this research is as follows. The science gifted elementary students have a wish for building an assumption and expectation and planning an experiment with discussion more than following the textbook and teacher present. In the step of the experiment, they wanted general more discussion of their own activities rather than teacher's instruction and they wanted teacher's instruction and they wanted teacher's mediation conflicts within small groups and comments for students' experiment results. The science gifted elementary students wish to open a science lab, which man who likes science can go and come freely and to study with friends who have a same interest to make a theme. And from top to bottom they want to test autonomous and ask to salute like a representative experiment of teacher. And they ask to have a chance to test individually and want to see a movie related to an experiment before doing an experiment. Like this, it presents that the scientifically gifted elementary students want to do an experiment what they can, want to have a class which can plan and can do an experiment by themselves through discussion with the unit more than following explanation of a teacher and a textbook without condition.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.137-161
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is identify the awareness and opinion of school librarians and teacher-librarians on the school library maker space. To do this, we used a semi-structured questionnaire to interview and analyzed in-depth telephone interviews of 7 school library professionals qualitatively. The recognition of makerspaces, the necessity of transforming school libraries into makerspaces and maker education, preparations and difficulties of implementation were investigated through the interview. As the result of interview analysis, school library professionals recognized that school library makerspace is essential to fulfill the users needs and important to enhance the library services. Also, school library professionals felt that it is desirable for the school library to function as a center for the in-school maker education program. Other important issues of the makerspace in school library were also identified. The key findings of this study are expected to be used as a momentum to activate the maker education centering on the school library.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.501-508
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to qualitatively analyze the perceptions of aesthetic values of working women taking ballet fitness classes and to find ways to properly establish ballet fitness classes according to the opinions of the study participants. Participants in the study were 9 working women taking ballet fitness classes at local educational institutions, and FGI (Focus Group Interview) was conducted, and the interview was conducted based on a semi-structured questionnaire. Subsequently, the categorization content was derived through expert review and peer review. As a result, first, the study participants expressed their dissatisfaction, hoping that the ballet fitness class helped improve their daily enjoyment and pain, and even watched ballet performance with interest. Second, the participants of the study were actively publicizing the benefits of ballet fitness classes to their families and nearby acquaintances, and hoped that this exercise would help improve the difficult image of ballet. Based on this study, ballet fitness classes were expected to be sufficiently established as a hobby exercise for working women.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Rural Health Nursing
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.55-65
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• 2024

Purpose: This study was intended to gain an in-depth understanding of and explored the experiences and meanings of participating in care services among community-dwelling older adults. Methods: A focus group interview approach was adopted. Twenty older adults were interviewed from November to December 2021 using semi-structured interview questions. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Three main themes and seven sub-themes emerged for the elderly people living alone. One main theme was "ambivalence of elderly care services," the second was "desperate need for care services," and the third was "positive changes and expectations experienced with care services." For the elderly people living with their families, two main themes and four sub-themes were identified. One main theme was "care services met within the family system," the second was "needs for care services outside the family system." Conclusion: We aim to provide a basis for strengthening the quality of elderly community care services in the mid- to long-term and establish a system of close linkages between necessary services by understanding the needs of elderly people who live alone or with their families.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.273-290
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• 2011

This paper presents a case study involving one Korean primary school student and people around him in order to explore the reading process in English of a young Korean EFL learner and to investigate the social context in which his reading takes place. Six participants were included in the study (one primary school student and five adult participants). The student participant was asked to read a text in English and translate what he read into Korean and the teacher participants were asked to listen to the student's reading. Semi-structured interview was used to collect data from the student as well as five adult participants (his private tutor, his parent, his state school teacher, and two other state school teachers). The analysis reveals four characteristics of the way a young EFL learner approaches reading: word-by-word reading, disconnected word recognition, selective use of cues, and lack of awareness of difficulties. The four characteristics of Kilsu's reading suggest that reading can become a wild guessing game for young foreign learners, if they give selective attention to unimportant cues while reading. The pedagogical implications of this study are also discussed to help teachers designing reading lessons for young learners.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.111-133
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• 2020

Objective: The purpose of this study is to find out how teachers organize and operate early childhood classroom, as play areas. Methods: Four teachers who had been aware of importance of play and were motivated to form an early childhood classroom as a play area were selected as research participants. Semi-structured interview and participatory observations were conducted to collected data. Results: The findings of the study are as follows. First, in regard to the role of the early childhood classroom as a play space, teachers supported the play of children and wanted to organize and operate the classroom as a play space. Second, as, play space, the teachers wanted to construct the space according to their own perception with children. Conclusion/Implications: The conclusions of this study are as follows. First, the teachers attempted to create play space by recognizing the contradictions that the classroom had. Second, the teacher organized the classroom into a play area and allowed the children to transform and create the space in their own.