• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.201-211
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• 2007

The purposes of this study were to examine trends in Korean middle school students' attitudes toward science and the differences in boys' and girls' attitudes toward science as well as to analyze Korean middle school students' attitudes toward science compared to those in Singapore, Chinese-Taipei, Hong Kong, and Japan. In order to achieve these purposes, we analyzed students' survey data on self-confidence in science, interests in science, external motivation for science, and career preference for science collected from TIMSS 1995, TIMSS 1999, and TIMSS 2003. Korean students' interests in science and external motivation for science reduced in TIMSS 1999 and increased again in TIMSS 2003. The amount of change was greater in interests in science. On the other hand, self-confidence in science and career preference for science consistently declined from TIMSS 1995 to TIMSS 2003. Self-confidence in science among boys and girls was similar in TIMSS 1995 and 1999. But self-confidence of girls in science declined rapidly from TIMSS 1999 to 2003, while self-confidence of boys in science remained almost the same. Trends of interests in science were similar between boys and girls; they declined in TIMSS 1999 and increased again in TIMSS 2003. External motivation for science of both boys and girls increased, and the increase among girls was greater. The percentage of boys who wanted to have a job using science consistently declined from TIMSS 1999 to TIMSS 2003, while the percentage of girls declined in TIMSS 1999 and increased in TIMSS 2003 again. The results from an international comparison with other Asian countries having similar cultures showed that Korean students' self-confidence in science, career preference for science of middle school students was the lowest.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.536-549
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• 2008

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.157-182
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• 2008

TIMSS 2003 is the third and most recently round of IEA's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. In this study, I considered the changes of the mathematics cognitive domain in TIMSS and got some facts for developing assessment framework. And I analyzed 7 countries' achievement in the view of our country Korea, i.e. Singapore, Hongkong, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Netherlands, and Unites States. With the reliable and valid achievement scales for cognitive domains given by ISC, students' achievement scales were analyzed according to country, percentile, and sex in each cognitive domain.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.99-121
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• 2009

This study analyzed the difficulty trend of item which are common with TIMSS 1999, 2003, 2007 and are released since TIMSS 2007. The results show that the 7th curriculum has positive effects on the students' achievement in the domain such as spatial sense of rotation, ratio proportion percent, pattern, calculation of decimal numbers, concept of angle, area of triangle, and qualitative approach to graph. And the results leaved the consideration for the process of scoring, teaching method of statistical probability concept, and making table as a problem solving method.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.99-113
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• 2006

In this study, Korean middle school student science achievement results in the "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study" (TIMSS 2003) were analyzed according to international benchmarks, content area, gender and student attitudes toward science. Overall Korea ranked the third internationally and had a mean score of 558. Korean students achieved top ranking in physics, but fell to the ninth place in chemistry. Unliked their counter parts in similar countries such as Singapore and Chinese Taipei, Korean students did not reach the highest benchmark. Compared to previous assessment, Korean girls showed improved performance; however, significant gender differences still exist in Korea; apparent from the better performance of boys than girls in the study. It is also noteworthy that Korean students were found to have the lowest self-confidence in learning science, a lower valuing science, and less enjoying learning science even though they produced high achievement scores.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.383-401
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• 2003

This study intends to examine the characteristics of Korean students' mathematics achievement according to the TIMSS-R International Benchmarks in the relation with mathematics curriculum and text. The concrete contents of this study are as followings. First, we consider the Korean students' mathematical abilities according to the TIMSS-R international benchmarks classified into Top 10% Benchmark, Upper Quarter Benchmark, Median Benchmark, and Lower Quarter Benchmark. Second, we examine the precent correct and the error-types of Korean students on the anchor items of such benchmarks. From these examinations, we grasp the mathematical titles that Korean students showed insufficient performance and lead the educational implications.

• School Mathematics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.387-407
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• 2014

Gender differences have been given major attention in mathematics education in the context of pursuing gender equity in instructional and learning environment. It had been traditional belief that male students would outperform female students in mathematics, especially in the areas as geometry. This belief has been given doubts by cumulated empirical evidences that gender differences are gradually diminishing or even reversing its direction as time goes on. In this study, gender differences in geometry were explored using TIMSS 8th grade mathematics data administered in TIMSS 2003, 2007, and 2011, based on a cognitive diagnostic modeling(CDM) approach. Among various CDM models, the Fusion model was employed. The Fusion model has advantages over other CDM models in that it provides more detailed information about gender differences at the attribute level as well as item level and more mathematically tractable. The findings of this study show that Attribute 3(Three-dimensional Geometric Shapes) revealed statistically significant gender differences favoring male students in TIMSS 2003 and 2007, but did not show significant differences in TIMSS 2011, which provides an additional empirical evidence supporting the recent observation that gender gap is narrowing. In addition to the general trends in gender differences in geometry, this study also provided affluent information such as gender differences in attribute mastery profiles and gender differences in relative contributions of each attribute in solving a particular item. Based on the findings of the CDM approach exploring gender differences, instructional implications in geometry education are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.405-414
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• 2007

This study examined students' achievement of Earth science in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) that was conducted with 46 participating countries in 2003 and analyzed average percent-correct items for Earth science were analyzed in terms of subcategory, item type and cognitive domain. In addition, items showing a gender difference and a big difference in the test scores of Korean and international students were analyzed. Korean students performed higher than the international average, especially in the astronomy-related topic and in the cognitive domain of 'reasoning and analysis'. In an analysis of the five items that Korean students scored lower than the international average, Korean students performed not so well in demonstrating what they understood with drawings and writings. Korean female students showed a difficulty more than male students did in multiple-choice items that asked recalling of factual knowledge and demonstrated lack of confidence in the items that they have not learned yet. Based on the result content organization of Earth science curriculum and ways to improve teaching and loaming methods were recommended.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.492-501
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• 2006

Gender differences in TIMSS 2003 science achievement by item type, benchmark, and content area were examined by producing a Gender Differences Index (GDI) in this study. International trends identified that male students performed better than female students in TIMSS 2003 science achievement in all types of items. The overall achievement of Korean male students was better than Korean female students, especially in multiple-choice type items. Male students outperformed females in three benchmarks, including advanced, high, and intermediate international benchmark, but they did not outperform females in the low international benchmark when gender differences of the international average as well as the Korean average were taken into account. The results of the analysis of the international average and the Korean average by content area showed that gender differences were the greatest in earth science and smallest in chemistry. In life science, female students excelled when considering the international average while male students excelled when considering the average of Korean students' performance. In addition, the number of items in which male students outperformed females was larger in both factual knowledge and the conceptual understanding domain. Implications for reducing gender differences in science achievement in Korea based on the results were provided.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.200-211
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze Korean middle school student achievement in environmental science based on the TIMSS 2003 (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), a student comparison of 46 participating nations. Korea ranked the fourth with a mean score of 554 in environmental science. However, all 3 environment science topics assessed in TIMSS are not included in the Korean science curriculum through 8th grade, even though they are included in most other participating nations' curricula. The average percent correct of items was analyzed according to the main topic, the item type and the cognitive domain. Items that showed differences between the average percent correct of Korea and the international average as well as differences between the average percent correct of boys and girls were further analyzed. Results revealed that Korean students performed better than the international average, especially in 'use and conservation of natural resources', multiple-choice items, and items requiring 'factual knowledge'. Also, male students demonstrated significantly higher achievement than female students. On the other hand, Korean students showed relatively lower achievement in constructed-response items, items that contained content they had not learned in science lessons and items requiring descriptions of the uses and effect of science and technology. Moreover, Korean student lacked understanding about acid rain, global warming, and ozone layer destruction. Korean female students showed relatively lower environmental conceptions and lower performance on items requiring data analysis than Korean male students. On the basis of these results, this study suggested that topics of environmental science be included in the science curriculum and taught in the science classroom to help middle school students more fully comprehend environmental issues.