• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.122-131
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• 2002

Recently, performance assessment that makes growing use of free response items in a large scale assessment has been emphasized. This study is an empirical examination of the effectiveness of free response items in comparison with multiple choice items. Using the information function in Item Response Theory (IRT) framework, item information of free response items and multiple-choice items from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TlMSS-R) were obtained. Test information of the whole science area as well as each area of science contents was computed. On average, free response items yielded more information than multiple choice items, especially in earth science, physics, chemistry, and life science. This study also showed that free response items were appropriate for students in high science ability. Also, free response items estimated students' science ability more accurately than multiple choice items with smaller number of free response items.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.193-214
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• 2006

This study is focused on the trends in education and polices for women in Korea. First, historical background of education for women in Korea revealed that a biased view of education for women was deeply rooted. Next, several findings such as international comparison of performance on the PISA, TIMSS, and National Assessment including gender differences especially in Mathematical and Science performance were analyzed. In international assessments, female students perform better in reading literacy, but still fall behind male students in mathematical and scientific literacy, and the gap between the genders are wider than most OECD countries. The change in status of women in contemporary Korea is examined focusing on educational system and women's educational and vocational performance, etc. Additionally, policies planned by Ministry of Science and Technology which show the many execution plans for training and supporting female professionals were presented. Finally, possible reasons for gender differences in educational performance is examined and some suggestions are provided to reduce the gender gap in mathematical and scientific literacy of Korean students.

• School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.751-774
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• 2017

Having mathematics for everyone in terms of students' mathematics achievement and attitudes toward mathematics is challenging in high school in South Korea. To gain such purpose, teachers are supposed to have a considerable amount of knowledge and develop mathematical and pedagogical reasoning and insight because equity can be fulfilled in mathematics classroom when any student share their ideas and have mathematical discussions. As a part of a large project aimed to develop and enact professional development for equity and examine its effects and, finally, to propose the direction of professional development to help students cognitively and affectively balanced grow in mathematics, the current study briefly introduces how such professional development was designed and implemented. This study reports its effect based on the statistical analysis of students' responses for the three different surveys, which are parts of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement study, TIMSS Advanced, and the survey about classroom interaction. The data collected in all students in school whose three mathematics teachers had participated in the professional development for two years. The findings consistently indicate the strong and impressive growths in students' attitudes toward mathematics, which are statistically significant. Furthermore, their attitudes toward mathematics are also related to interactions in a mathematics classroom. Based on such results, this study claims expansion of professional development for equity.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.251-278
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to obtain implications for mathematical education by analyzing how the multiplication and division of decimal numbers are presented in the elementary mathematics textbooks in Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Finland. Compared to the fact that students often have misconceptions about multiplication and division of decimal numbers, there have been not many comparative studies in recent elementary mathematics textbooks. For this study, we selected elementary mathematics textbooks those are widely used in Japan, Singapore, and Finland along with Korean elementary mathematics textbooks. We chose the textbooks because the students in the selected countries have scored high in international achievement studies such as TIMSS and PISA. The analysis was examined in terms of elementary mathematics curriculum related to multiplication and division of decimal numbers, introduction and content, real-life situations, use of visual models, and formalization methods of algorithms. As a result of the study, the mathematics curricula related to multiplication and division of decimal numbers includes estimation in Korea and Finland, while Japan and Singapore emphasize real-life connections more, and Finland completes the operations in secondary schools. The introduction and content are intensively provided in a short period of time or distributed in various grades and semesters. The real-life situations are presented in a simple sentence format in all countries, and the use of visual models or formalization of algorithms is linked to the operations of natural numbers in unit conversions. Suggestions were made for textbook development and teacher training programs.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.159-170
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• 2012

Many obstacles have been found in the learning of ratio and rate. The types of epistemological obstacles concern 'terms', 'calculations' and 'symbols'. It is important to identify the epistemological obstacles that students must overcome to understand the learning of ratio and rate. In this respect, the present study attempts to figure out what types of epistemological obstacles emerge in the area of learning ratio and rate and where these obstacles are generated from and to search for the teaching implications to correct them. The research questions were to analyze this concepts as follow; A. How do elementary students show the epistemological obstacles in ratio and rate? B. What is the reason for epistemological obstacles of elementary students in the learning of ratio and rate? C. What are the teaching implications to correct epistemological obstacles of elementary students in the learning of ratio and rate? In order to analyze the epistemological obstacles of elementary students in the learning of ratio and rate, the present study was conducted in five different elementary schools in Seoul. The test was administered to 138 fifth grade students who learned ratio and rate. The test was performed three times during six weeks. In case of necessity, additional interviews were carried out for thorough examination. The final results of the study are summarized as follows. The epistemological obstacles in the learning of ratio and rate can be categorized into three types. The first type concerns 'terms'. The reason is that realistic context is not sufficient, a definition is too formal. The second type of epistemological obstacle concerns 'calculations'. This second obstacle is caused by the lack of multiplication thought in mathematical problems. As a result of this study, the following conclusions have been made. The epistemological obstacles cannot be helped. They are part of the natural learning process. It is necessary to understand the reasons and search for the teaching implications. Every teacher must try to develop the teaching method.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.571-587
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• 1998

This paper reviews and analyzes the conceptions of science achievement in the United States and Korean reform documents, including those on science content standards(NSES, Porject 2061, and Korean 7th science curriculum), performance standards(New Standards, and Survey of Ecucational Achievement in Korean Elementary and Secondary Schools), and large-scale assessment framworks(1996 NAEP, TIMSS, The National Assessment of Science Inqury Abilities, The National Assessment of Science Knowledge, and The National Assessment of Affective Characteristics related to Science). The analysis of these documents indicates that there is an overall agreement on the conceptions of science achievement. The documents consistently emphasize high achievement in terms of knowledge and abilities in scientific, technological, social, and environmental perspectives. In addition, these documents define science achievement at different developmental levels and at certain depths of knowledge and abilities for all students. Despite the overall agreement, there are also noticeable variations among the documents because of different contexts and purposes. There is a difference in the balance of representations or emphases among content and process standards in the documents. The conceptions of science achievement in the Korean documents are not as comprehensive or inclusive as those in the United States documents. There is no representation of the mathematical world, the nature of science, historical perspectives, unifying concepts, or scientific communication. From these results, two conclusions are drawn. First, more coherent conceptions of science achievement are needed for common understanding among educators and the public. Second, efforts are needed for developing more comprehensive and inclusive conceptions of science achievement in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Comparative Education
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.95-128
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• 2010

This article presents a one and half-year process of Lesson Study conducted at a K-8 school in an urban district in the eastern U.S. Lesson Study, a Japanese form of professional development that centers on collaborative study of live classroom lessons, has spread rapidly in the U.S. since 1999 and has been argued as a promising alternative model for teacher-led school reform through professional development. The Lesson Study group described here was composed of five teachers, one administrator, and one instructional improvement coordinator belonging to the participant school and two instructional super-intendants from the school district. Data was collected from October 2007 to February 2009 and a qualitative case study method was employed for this study. Drawing a case of Lesson Study, this article intended to show how Lesson Study group members participated in planning, teaching, observing, discussing, and improving lessons collaboratively for student learning by enhancing teacher professional competence so that find directions for future implementation in Korea. This article investigates (1) process of Lesson Study, (2) issues Lesson Study group members mainly dealt with, and (3) changes have taken place in Lesson Study as it is conducted over time. (4) Finally, this article concludes with challenges to adopting Lesson Study successfully in Korea.