• Journal of Fisheries and Marine Sciences Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.460-475
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• 2010

Professionalizing the teaching workforce has been recognized as one of the primary factors to reforming public education. In response to this challenge, it has been emphasized that an educational leader's role is to support professional learning communities more effectively. Although the academia of educational administration has increasingly drawn the significance of a teacher's professional development, understanding of an educational leader's role and contribution to this effort is quite limited and unclear. This article examines what factors and barriers affect teachers' participation in professional learning communities from the voices and experiences of teachers. The analysis found 1) identification, 2) autonomous will, 3) practical solution for factors to participation and 1) lack of theoretical foundation, 2) financial burden, 3) insufficient time for barriers to participation. In conclusion, the author suggests the strategies for an educational leader who has an important role in developing a teacher's professionalism: 1) create a strong network of university professors and other experts for career advice, 2) make an institutional effort to stimulate teachers' motivation to learn; 3) decrease the teachers' workload, 4) build a synthesized and consolidated system to establish communities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.29-40
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to explore how a high school science teacher (Teacher E) shifted her understanding and facilitation of scientific modeling through participation in a professional learning community (PLC) for over a year. Based on socially situated theory of learning, I focused on examining Teacher E's frames about scientific modeling from her social interactions. Teacher E participated in her school-based PLC over a year and collaborated with other science teachers, coaches, and researchers to improve science instruction. I qualitatively explored her participation in 6 full-day professional learning opportunities-studios-where the PLC members collectively planned, implemented, and debriefed modeling-based lessons. Especially, I focused on two Studios (Studio 2, 6) where Teacher E became the host teacher and implemented the lessons. I also examined her classroom teaching in those Studios. To understand how the PLC inquiry affected the shifts observed in Teacher E's understanding and practice, I explored how the inquiry evolved over the 6 Studios. Findings suggest that in Studio 2, Teacher E viewed students' role in scientific modeling as to fill out the worksheet with "correct" answers. Meanwhile, in Studio 6, she focused on helping students collaborate to construct explanatory models of phenomena using evidence. The PLC inquiry, focused on supporting students' construction of evidence-based explanations and collaboration in scientific modeling, seemed to promote the shifts observed in Teacher E's understanding and facilitation of scientific modeling. These findings can inform educational researchers and practitioners who aim to promote teachers' professional learning to support students' epistemic practices.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.203-214
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• 2010

This study will examine the current condition of outdoor play in child care centers and the overall perception of teachers on outdoor play in regards to its related programs and children's reaction to them. Through examining such issues, this study will provide the basic data that can be applied in planning appropriate outdoor play activities, programs and environments. For the study, we surveyed teachers and directors of child care centers using a structured questionnaire. The objects of the survey were 22 child care centers in Daejeon and Seoul, who agreed to conduct the survey. The survey was conducted from August 1 to September 30 2006; 220 copies were distributed, and 188 copies were collected. The results of the study can be summarized as follows: 1) The number of outdoor plays per week were on average 1~2 in most cases, although teachers believed the play should be done everyday. Outdoor play time was mostly 21~30 minutes, while teachers thought 31~40 minutes as appropriate. Children's reaction scored the highest when they played outdoors for 30 minutes every day with their teachers involved in the play. As a result, we have concluded that the appropriate outdoor play should be conducted everyday for 30~40 minutes. 2) Outdoor play was mostly conducted as part of the overall educational plan rather than a separate plan. Since outdoor play affects children's development as much as indoor play, there is a need for development of a specific and separate plan for various outdoor play programs. 3) The outdoor play program that was most often conducted was equipment play and sand play. This indicated the monolithic nature of the outdoor program. Given the fact that children enjoy outdoor plays a lot (M=4.71), various programs including adventure play, sensitive play, and carpenter play should be developed. 4) In outdoor play, the teacher's role included supervising and interacting with children. According to the survey, teachers had a good understanding of the importance on safety and supervising issues in outdoor plays. However they seemed to overlook the importance of having better programs and improving teacher's participation to the play. Despite the importance of outdoor play to children's development, the result shows that teachers have tendencies to limit and obstruct outdoor plays by emphasizing supervising and safety issues instead. 5) Children's safety should not be the only consideration for outdoor plays; teachers ought to better understand that children's development can be maximized by the play. Furthermore, there should be emphasis placed on the program development and teacher's participation; teacher's participation should actively encourage the interactions between a child and a teacher, as well as among children.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.263-288
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• 2002

'Science Garden' is a science program that develops acquirements of science & technology at an early stage through experiential study and inspire the spirit of scientific inquiry by carrying out laboratory work, science movie, science lecture, scientific work, outdoor activities, computer classes and science experiment which is hard to do through the regular educational course. It is targeted grade 4,5,6 students during summer and winter vacation. 'Science Garden' is conducted by selective participation freely. It is a wholelistic activity that develops children's potential talents or creativities, improves interest and attitude toward science, and also gives opportunity for self-realization by extending capacity for inquiry to show each student's ability. This study is observed and is compared how it is conducted in elementary school using qualitative study. This study is used narrative observation, in-depth interview and document analysis. Objects of narrative observation are two elementary schools, each from Jellabukdo and Gyeonggido, and 7 teachers were interviewed in-depthly. Here are results of the study. 1 A teacher in school G never takes part in student activities, tends to be indifferent to classes, but focuses on observation and experiment in laboratory. And feedback or evaluation about student's activity is never done. On the other hand, a teacher in school S guides students to understand the principals of science on themselves, and wide variety forms of activities such as role playing, discussion, and games are being done. But an effort to evaluate student's activity is not being made properly. 2. Teachers set a high valuation on the need of 'Science Garden'. Observing the way of conducting 'Science Garden', usually teachers who is in charge of science for official work is selected as a teacher in charge, and groan under a heavy burden of conducting it without anyone's help. Participating students are selected by volunteering or teacher's recommendation, but because of low Participation rate, teachers have difficulty in conducting it. Plan for conducting ‘science Garden’ is made 20 days before it, after getting an official document from Office of Education, refering to booklets produced by National Jungang Science Institute, or data from Office of Education, and internet. Teachers evaluate rarely Most school principals have interest in 'Science Garden' but parents are not well aware of it, The budget is made at the same time with the plan, and scale is varied between 200,000∼500,000 won. Because of the improper way of selecting teacher in charge, difficulty in selecting students, heavy works caused by planning, conducting the program, as well as reporting teacher's work, and lack of parents' awareness, 'Science Garden' has been conducted formally and superficially. Next gives you direction to change, for the right way of conducting' Science Garden'. It is important to motivate competent teachers to instruct students actively. For students' active participation, They should publicize thoroughly beforehand, and develope 'Science Garden' program for teachers to be able to make better use of it. Evaluation of student activities and program should be done in the aspect of developing students’ faculties. Beside of school facilities, they need to put diverse local facilities and places to practical use for immediate natural experience. And not only separate schools but also associated form of schools to conduct it is necessary.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.48 no.3
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• pp.311-321
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• 2004

This study was conducted to find out how many secondary school science teachers are aware and ready to implement new science curriculum as well as its revision process. For the purpose of this study, teachers had been asked to fill in a questionnaire. The results showed that teachers' overall understanding and readiness was low and that the implementation of new curriculum was a burden to a large number of teachers. Some teachers even expressed a negative opinion. Furthermore, it turned out that teachers didn't have an important role in revising the curriculum as a only small number of teachers participated. So, the second questionnaire and interviews were provided in order to ask for various opinions as to how new science curriculum should be communicated to schools and when school teachers should participate in the revision of curriculum, along with their role and participation methods.

• Educational Technology International
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.127-143
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to identify the interaction patterns in distance only mode e-Learning. In order to investigate this study, messages shown in the electronic notice board were analyzed to see how interaction occurs between teacher and learner or learner and learner under the e-learning of cyber university. To analyze messages was applied according to the framework by Henri's contents analysis model. As a result of contents analysis on electronic board, the participative dimension was 399 messages. A learner put on 7~8 messages a day. The number of messages was low compared to the number of learners, but the number of inquiries was about 140. That means that each learner contacts and checks messages at least once a day. The meaning dimension was 600 units. The main interaction patterns were Interactive-social-cognitive-metacognitive. This means that e-Learning in distance only mode leads a positive attitude of learners as a self-directed learning, and needs teacher's well-structured instructional strategies for increasing interaction. In conclusion, social dimension and interactive dimension of messages support learners psychologically in the process of learning though they directly guide learning under the circumstances of e-learning lacking face-to-face element. It can be interpreted that the teacher's role is significantly important in order to attract learners' positive participation and cognitive and meta-cognitive dimension of messages and activities

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.502-523
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between selected components of conceptual ecology that are reflected in high school science students' statements, when answering questions. This study follows from a position that there is reason to believe that, in the process of answering questions, many aspects of conceptual ecology are likely to play a role. Data were gathered through six audio-taped interviews, the science teacher's profiles of each student, the students' personal journals, their assignments, and their examinations and participation in class. Kay and KY were selected as the focus of this study because theirs were both dramatic as well as representative cases. As the findings suggest, learning styles differ according to distinctions within individuals' conceptual ecologies. Thus the way in which a person learns science varies according to the construction of her/his conceptual ecology. This suggests that different forms of pedagogy may be effective with different types of learners. This also suggests that science educators may have a role in assisting students to develop into constructed, rather than received, learners.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.745-752
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• 2023

This study aims to improve the quality of classes by analyzing the role and learning achievement of instructors in programming subjects for non-major students. In order to improve the quality of university education, universities provide various programs to strengthen the teaching capacity of instructors. Ultimately, in order to improve the quality of classes, instructors increase student participation in classes, respond sincerely to students' inquiries, and provide feedback that can assist students in various situations that occur during class and learning, thereby improving class satisfaction and achievement. should try to improve. In this paper, based on the teaching method, learning achievement, and teacher role satisfaction survey conducted in the liberal arts programming course of K University, we study the influence of the teacher's role on the quality improvement of the class. Examine the relationship with satisfaction.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.514-525
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• 2005

The most important factor in providing education to gifted students as well as to students in general are the teachers themselves. However, at present in Korea, most of the teachers in charge of education for the gifted are educated by in-service training programs only for a short period of time. It is doubtful whether the teachers, who have taught ordinary students in general, can teach gifted students effectively only after completing such a short course. This research investigated the relationship between the teachers' beliefs about educating the gifted and the teachers' classroom practices in a Science Academy through case studies. The guiding questions for this study are as follows: First, what beliefs do the participating teachers have about education for the gifted? Second, how are the participants' beliefs reflected in their classroom practices? Of the five participants, two are physics teachers, two are biology teachers, and one is an earth science teacher. I observed and videotaped four classroom practices for each participant and conducted an in-depth interview with each participant. Further data were collected through e-mails with the participants. All data were carefully transcribed and analyzed. The results are as follows: Beliefs about education for the gifted do not exist independently, and form a belief system connecting with beliefs about teaching and learning, and subject matter. And the belief systems of participants can be divided into "student-centered," "teacher-centered," and "conflict chaos." In the classes of the participants who have "student-centered" belief system, students' questions or opinions played an important role and the participation structure in the classroom was determined by the students. On the contrary, participants who have "teacher-centered" belief system focused on teaching contents as much as possible in their classes. These teachers played a heavy role and formed a participation structure where students depended on their teacher's intellectual authority and therefore participated in their class passively. A participant who have "conflict chaos" belief did not form a firm belief system yet, and traditional beliefs about teaching and learning were reflected a lot in her classes. The research results imply teachers' beliefs play an important role in classroom practices and beliefs about teaching and learning and subject matter as well as beliefs about education for the gifted are important factors for teachers who guide gifted students. Additionally, I make some suggestions for the improvement of teacher education for the gifted.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.430-453
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to explore how an elementary school teacher developed PCK by utilizing her knowledge domains in teaching practice, regarding the specific science topic of 'animals:' A case study approach was adopted with the participation of a 1st grade teacher, in a poor urban neighborhood elementary school in NYC. Data was collected through interview and the participant observation method in order to investigate: a) the teacher's existing knowledge base in terms of subject matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and contextual knowledge; b) how she develops PCK during classroom practice, centering on the relationship between knowledge domains. The findings illustrate the ways in which the three knowledge domains are closely related and developed as PCK through the whole teaching process. In particular, the findings indicate that the teacher's contextual knowledge plays a critical role in shaping and developing PCK. Before instruction, her contextual knowledge regarding the administrative policies and the school test system in the district enabled her to make decisions and plans about teaching science. During classroom teaching, her knowledge of students' sociocultural backgrounds and living conditions in the urban setting helped her to identify specific teaching strategies and resources suitable to the students' needs and interests. The study results imply that science instruction can be more feasible in meeting the demands of particular groups of students if teachers make an effort to become knowledgeable about their own teaching context and utilize it in developing their PCK.