• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.367-376
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• 2005

As computers are recognized as essential tools for our life and society, the use of computers has become increasingly important in education. The propose of this study is to grasp the level of students' understanding on basic terms used in computer textbooks for $4th{\sim}6th$ graders in Chungbuk and to investigate the existence of differences in students' understanding according to personal variables. The result of this study indicates that the level of students' understanding on basic terms in computer textbooks is very low. Also significant differences are found in students' understanding of terms according to location, grade, the possession of computers, computer-related learning experiences, instructional methods used in computer classes, interest in computer classes, participation level in computer classes and grade level.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using graphing calculators on students' understanding of the linear and quadratic function concepts. The populators of this study are tenth graders at high school in Seoul, one class for the treatment group and another class for the comparison group, and experiment period is 14 weeks including two weeks for school regular exams.Function tests used in the study was proposed which described a conceptual knowledge of functions in terms of the following components: a) Conceptual understanding, b) Interpreting a function in terms of a verbal experission, c) Translating between different representations of functions, and d) Mathematical modeling a real-world situation using functions. Even though the group test means of the individual components of conceptual understanding, interpreting, translating, mathematical modeling did not differ significantly, there is evidence that the two groups differed in their performance on conceptual understanding. It was shown that students learned algebra using graphing calculators view graphs more globally. The attitude survey assessed students' attitudes and perceptions about the value of mathematics, the usefulness of graphs in mathematics, mathematical confidence, mathematics anxiety, and their feelings about calculators. The overall t-test was not statistically significant, but the students in the treatment group showed significantly different levels of anxiety toward mathematics.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of science toy making activities on the scientific interest and the conceptual understanding of elementary school students. In this study, science toy making activities were applied to an experimental group and traditional learning activities were applied to the control group. The science toy making activities comprised thirteen steps and were administered during class. In the scientific interest test, there was a statistically significant difference between the score of the experimental group and that of the control group. In particular, post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores in the experimental group, while they were lower than this in the control group. It appeared that students had positive thoughts about science toy making activities. These science toy making activities had positive effects on the conceptual understanding of the experimental group students. The post-test scores of the experimental group were higher than that of the control group in all domain concepts. From these results, it can be deduced that the science toy making activities were more effective than traditional teaming activities. They were an effective teaching technique which enhanced the scientific interests and the conceptual understanding of the students in question.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.908-919
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• 2010

The objectives of this study were to investigate what kind of background concepts is necessary to help that high school students easily understand meiosis and to find out how these background concepts affect students' understanding of meiosis. To achieve these objectives, first this study surveyed meiosis background concepts that high school teachers think. Based on 8 background concepts - nuclear phases, chromosome, mitosis, reproduction, gamete, gene, mother/daughter cell - of previous survey, the questionnaire was made for the 10th(724) and 11th(862) grade students and then was analyzed for the effect of meiosis background concepts on the high school students' understanding of meiosis. Results of the analysis revealed that the influential background concepts are as follow; cell cycle, chromosome in the advanced level, mother/daughter cell, mitosis, chromosome, nuclear phases in the intermediate level, mother/daughter cell, nuclear phases, gene in the low level. And the achievement according to item types was differed not by meiosis achievement, but by each background concepts.

• School Mathematics
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.373-399
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• 2001

The function is a basic and key concept to understand mathematical problems. However, many students have difficulties to expand the knowledge to other related concepts and to transfer the knowledge to real world problems. The reasons for the problem may be that the concept of function is taught by simplified and abstracted formula without fully understanding of the reasoning process. Also, the examples for the concepts are artificial and not related to students' experiences. Situated learning theory provides great implications to solve these problems. So, this study was designed to teach the concept of function more meaningful to students by appling situated learning theory. Thirty-eight middle school students were participated in this study. Students were provided the instruction designed according to the principles of situated learning theory. Then, they were asked to complete attitude survey questionnair and a performance assessment task. The result showed that the instruction based on situated learning theory was useful to Promote students' understanding and motivation for learning. More implications of the study was provided in the paper.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.113-137
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• 2001

English has been taught as a compulsory subject at elementary schools since 1997 starting with third graders, to sixth graders. We have seen active research on teaching methods for elementary English, but little has been done from the learners' perspective. It is very proper time for English educators to review what the elementary students think about their English classes. The purpose of the present study is as following. First, we tried to find out how the students' attitude toward and interest in English have changed over the four-year English education. Second we attempted to suggest the ways to promote the students' interests, and to increase understanding and participation in English classes. We also suggest that curriculum developers need to consider the students' lower interests and understanding in English classes as they move to higher grades, and that classroom teachers need to have a better understanding of what their students do and feel in the English classes.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.569-594
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• 2010

On the standards or elements of teaching evaluation, the Korea Institute of Curriculum and Evaluation(KICE) has carried out several research as follows : 1) establishment of observation elements for selecting examples of good mathematics instruction between 2001 and 2002, 2) development of the standards on teaching evaluation between 2004 and 2006, and 3) investigation on the elements of Pedagogical Content Knowledge including understanding of learners between 2007 and 2008. The purposes of development of mathematics teaching evaluation standards through those studies were to improve not only mathematics teachers' professionalism but also their own teaching methods or strategies. In this study, the standards were revised and modified by analyzing the results of those three studies (namely, evaluation standards) focused on the teacher knowledge of learners' understanding. For this purpose, the meaning of learners' understanding was also investigated in-depth. Finally, the concrete elements on teaching evaluation focused on the teacher knowledge of learners' understanding in math class were new developed, based on the literature reviews on learners' understanding. Then, those evaluation elements were developed according to the five domains of learners' understanding such as evaluation domains such as students' intellectual and achievement level, students' misconception in math, students' motivation on learning, students' attitude on mathematics learning, and students' learning strategies.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.415-430
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of high school students' conceptual understanding about minerals and rocks. A questionnaire was developed to examine students' conceptions of minerals and rocks. The data were collected from 93 students in 10th and 119 students in 11th grades in a high school. The result showed that students' understanding of minerals and rock was on the moderate level. The 10th grade students showed a relatively lower level of understanding about igneous rocks while the degree of the 11th graders' understanding about certain concepts related with melting point in the rock domain was a little bit lower than the average. Although the understanding levels between the two grade levels were similar, there were some items for which students understanding seemed to be more sophisticated with the grade. In the questions about the characteristic of basalt surface, however, the frequencies of non-scientific conceptions were not decreased, rather increased along with the grade. It was also found that the conceptions students acquired from other science lessons as well as earth science classrooms did rather interfere with students' construction of the scientific concepts of minerals and rocks even though sometimes they were helpful for learning. It was suggested that the teachers should understand that some specific terms in earth science have different meanings as they were used in other subjects.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.39-51
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• 2002

This study described an elementary teacher's practical knowledge of selecting and using mathematical tasks for promoting students' understanding and discourse. The informant of this ethnographic inquiry was a third grade teacher and has 10 years of teaching experience. According to the analysis of multiple data sources, this study showed that based on his beliefs about the development of understanding of mathematics and discourse, he continually employed two different types of tasks: open-ended tasks and tasks from students' mistakes and comments during discourse. Teachers' practical knowledge of teaching mathematics and the classroom norms for students' understanding and discourse are suggested to be given attention for further research on this area.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.127-141
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• 2007

This paper compares and analyzes mathematics teachers' understanding of students' mathematical comprehension after experiences with the Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) or the Development of Mathematical Ideas (DMI) teaching strategies. This report sheds light on current issues confronted by the educational system in the context of mathematics teaching and learning. In particular, the declining rate of mathematical literacy among adolescents is discussed. Moreover, examples of CGI and DMI teaching strategies are presented to focus on the impact of these teaching styles on student-centered instruction, teachers' belief, and students' mathematical achievement, conceptual understanding and word problem solving skills. Hence, with a gradual enhancement of reformed ways of teaching mathematics in schools and the reported increase in student achievement as a result of professional development with new teaching strategies, teacher professional development programs that emphasize teachers' understanding of students' mathematical comprehension is needed rather than the currently dominant traditional pedagogy of direct instruction with a focus on teaching problem solving strategies.