• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.265-275
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to develop forensic science program for the improvement of scientific creative problem-solving abilities in gifted elementary-school students. A program that consists of six sessions (18 hours) is developed in accordance with the CPS model, which has been already proven effective for the improvement of creative problem-solving abilities. This program was applied to sixth-grade 18 gifted students in an elementary school in Gyeonggi province. Examinations of scientific creative problem-solving abilities were performed before and after applying the program in order to determine its effect on gifted elementary students. A qualitative analysis of students' activity sheets, peer assessment and teacher's class journal was made in order to examine the process of improvement of students' scientific creative problem-solving abilities. The results of this study are as follows: First, forensic science program to enhance the scientific creative problem-solving abilities of gifted students was developed. Second, forensic science program is significantly effective in the improvement of scientific creative problem-solving abilities of gifted children of elementary school (p<.05). Third, in early stage of the class, a student, who showed the highest range of change in pre and post tests, revealed the trend of responding in a short answer type. In the late stage of the class, he revealed the capability of producing various creative ideas promptly. On the other hand, students belonging to the upper group of both pre and post test revealed the improvement of divergent thinking skills such as fluency, flexibility, and originality. Fourth, after class, the students responded that the forensic science program developed in this study intrigued the interests and curiosities, and helped them break away from fixed ideas.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1170-1185
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• 2013

In this case study, we investigated the characteristics of secondary beginning science-gifted education teachers' reflection on their science teaching with coteaching through mentoring. We selected two beginning teachers with less than one year teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together on their science teaching for science-gifted students during twelve class hours over four times. Since the second class, pre-, during-, and post-mentorings were conducted. We observed their science classes with coteaching through mentoring, and analyzed their reflective journals in the views of productive reflection. The analyses of the results revealed that 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' and 'science-gifted students' were most frequently included in their reflection regardless of class time. 'Curriculum for science-gifted education' were also frequently included although fewer than the two aspects. However, 'subject matter knowledge' and 'assessment in science-gifted education' were hardly included. Two to four aspects of the five were variously integrated in their reflection. The integrations among three to four aspects were especially more frequently included than those between two aspects. The integrations of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' or 'science-gifted students' with the other aspects were also found to be the most frequent. These results suggest that coteaching through mentoring can promote beginning science-gifted education teachers' productive reflection on their science teaching.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.771-797
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to assess musically gifted students'needs in order to develop the gifted curriculum in music. The survey was carried out with 103 musically gifted students who are being educated in institutes for the gifted. The survey asked the needs about components of the gifted curriculum in music: the educational objectives, contents, teaching strategies, evaluation as well as educational environment influencing on the curriculum. As for the objectives, the result showed the highest needs was the ability to communicate with audience by expressing one's feeling. For the high school students, a large number items had significant differences between the necessary level and the current level. As for the contents, the highest needs were the class piano, second instrument, and the experience of the musical field. High school students needed the second instrument more than middle school students did. As for the teaching strategies, the highest needs were the autonomous choice by learners, the instruction pursuing learners' interests, and the field work. As for the evaluation, the highest needs were the peer evaluation and the evaluation on the collaborative performance or team work. As for the educational environment, the gifted in music strongly needed spaces to practice instruments. Additionally, high school students needed a space to perform like a concert hall. Thus the gifted curriculum in music must be thoroughly developed based on the result above.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.253-267
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• 2016

Everybody dreams of a bright future. A future career determines the direction and quality of an individual's life. Achieving positive career development is one of the most crucial tasks during adolescence. In both national and personal perspectives, the vocational identity of science-gifted students provides some important points to discuss. The purpose of this study is to examine the vocational identity of science-gifted students. Participants included 103 science-gifted students who have received an acceptance letter from a science-gifted school. The modified VISA (Vocational Identity Status Assessment) model was used to analyze the vocational identities of gifted students with 'a letter to myself in the future'. The study found that vocational identity status of the science-gifted students was determined as Foreclosed and Searching Moratorium. The science-gifted students demonstrated more Commitment than Exploration and Reconsideration. They also showed higher levels in Career Identification, In-Narrow Exploration, and Career Flexibility. In addition, they shared common orientations in vocational identity such as strong enthusiasm, challenging limits, and responsibility towards humanity. We expect that this study will contribute to the social interest of science-gifted students in the area of career education. In order for science-gifted students to nurture their full potential with a deeper awareness of education, follow-up studies have to be conducted to provide greater and ideal career education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2014

This study compares the perceptions of elementary gifted child and science teacher in a science class for the gifted. In order to explore the research problem, students and teachers answered a written semi-structured questionnaire and participated in interviews regarding the gifted science class. The data was collected and analyzed. Science teachers recognized the characteristics of a good science class, especially in terms of educational content and teaching methodology. First, they suggested promoting inquiry skills, presenting a challenging task in atypical topic selection, student-centered curriculum, and controlling the pace of learning to recognize individual differences. Second, in terms of the science class skills and attitudes category, teachers recommended raising mutual satisfaction through vigorous interaction within a permissible atmosphere. Finally, science teachers need to strive for continued professional growth. Gifted children, meanwhile, want to investigate a wide range of topics without time constraints. Additionally, they may have to explore challenging topics further. They prefer to act like scientists in that they enjoy group activities, communication and cooperation. In particular, they want to be evaluated by others in a totally embedded assessment. Gifted children also expect teachers to understand the life circumstances and needs of the students. In addition, they asked for teachers to respect individual experiments and to show them how to safely use new equipment or research methods. As a result, gifted children and science teachers have to recognize the differences of opinion concerning a good science class for the gifted. This study can help formulate strategies to establish quality management of materials in gifted science classes.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.1187-1203
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• 2012

This study investigated the changes in teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers through mentoring in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planed, performed and reflected on science instructions for secondary science-gifted students through mentoring during nine class hours over three times respectively. We observed their instructions and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for in-depth interviews with mentees, and discussions between mentor and mentee, researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the mentoring, although there were many limitations, positively changed the mentees' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science content. These results suggest that the mentoring will be useful in improving the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers and provide meaningful implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.373-389
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• 2013

This study investigated secondary beginning science-gifted education teachers' reflection on their science teaching through coteaching with the case study. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science teaching for science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed their science classes through coteaching, and analyzed the transcripts for reflective discussions between them and their reflective journals in terms of 'productive reflection,' a concept suggested by Davis (2006). The results revealed that the aspects of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' and 'science-gifted students' were most frequently included in their reflection processes on science teaching, regardless of the type of data and the class time. 'Curriculum for science-gifted education' were also frequently included although fewer than two previous aspects. However, 'subject matter knowledge' and 'assessment' was hardly included. Two to four aspects among five aspects of the science teaching for science-gifted students were variously integrated in their reflection processes. Especially, the integrations between 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' or 'sciencegifted students' and the other aspects were most frequent, and this tendency was stronger in more experienced teacher in science-gifted education. The integrations between 'subject matter knowledge' and the other aspects were often included in the more experienced teacher's reflection processes.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.149-168
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• 2014

Growing in its size, the contents of the teaching-learning programs for mathematically gifted children from A program in Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education were examined in terms of the individual subjects provided through the courses of gifted education programs, and it was evaluated based on the revised version of the existing module. As a result, the educational objectives of teaching-learning program were clear, differentiated and obtainable. Among the program, the advanced parts were more than the selective parts, which mainly consisted of numbers and calculation, shapes, regularity and problem solving parts and had latest contents of research in balance. Additionally, every part of the program needs mathematical and creative thinking and approach and has proper evaluation index for problem solving. The presented materials in the programs are specific and appropriate, though some of them did not suggest the evaluation index for cultivating personality and value clearly and the reference books. The teaching-learning programs were focusing on problem-based learning and cooperative learning and using performance assessment for evaluation.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.506-521
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• 2020

This study aims to develop a scientific creativity task which science-gifted elementary students can conduct on a field trip to a botanical garden, and to analyze the results from conducting the task. For this, 38 science-gifted fifth-graders from the Science-Gifted Education Center, located at the Office of Education, participated in a field trip to a botanical garden, as a part of their program. Prior to the program, researchers developed a scientific creativity task for outdoor education program, along with science education specialists and teachers. The tasks were to observe plants, and to create something new and useful, or, in other words, scientifically creative, based on the plants' characteristics. The students could submit at most three ideas. Also, they assessed their own ideas, and selected an idea that they thought was the most creative. The results were analyzed by using the scientific creativity formula. The main findings from this study are as follows. First, it was found that the scientific creativity formula had an upward bias in assessing originality. Second, the students tended to assess the usefulness of their own ideas more generously. Third, the correlation between self-assessment results and scores from the scientific creativity formula for originality was r=.43. Fourth, in formula-based assessments, the correlation between originality scores and usefulness scores was relatively high, at r=.56. Fifth, the correlation between a student's scientific creativity score and the number of his or her ideas was very low, at r=.23. Sixth, when the ideas chosen as the most creative by students were compared with the ideas that had the highest scores in formula-based assessments, it was shown that 8 out of 19 students (42.1%) did not choose the idea that appeared to be the most creative when graded by the formula. This study is concluded by discussing the lessons from the scientific creativity task analysis for primary science education and gifted education.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.867-883
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• 2010

Recognizing the importance of motivation, goal orientation, and attitudes toward schools is an important component for educators to consider as they establish positive learning communities for gifted learners. The purpose of this study was to describe attitudes toward school and self relationship to schoolwork for students who are enrolled in the 5th, 6th, and 7th grade, identified as gifted, accelerated in at least one subject (mathematics), and living in Korea or the United States. Comparisons were conducted for country of origin and gender for all subscales on the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (McCoach & Siegle, 2004). Of the 507 participants (278 Korean and 229 American), girls scored higher on the motivation/self-regulation scale than boys and American students scored higher than Korean students on attitudes toward school, academic self perceptions, goal orientation, and motivation. There were no differences by country or gender on attitudes toward teachers.