• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.257-273
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to describe how one woman became a science docent's exper and how she developed expertise in her field of work as a docent in science museum. A life history approach, one of the qualitative research methods was employed in this study. A docent Ms. Park, had her career as a docent for eight years and she was selected through the procedures as follows. The $1^{st}$ phase of selection, the researcher contacted 56 docents who were working using a convenience sampling method. In the $2^{nd}$ phase of selection, 11 of them were then selected on purpose for further study. Finally docent Paek was selected as a case for this study on the basis of her responses to survey questions and interviews as well as her willingness to participate. Research data were collected through mainly interviews, participant observations, and docents' artifacts. We analyzed data to reveal Ms-Park's life history of how she became a docent, how her work was as a docent, and what efforts she made to become an expert as a docent of science museum. Findings are as follows. First, docent Park demonstrated strong educational beliefs that influenced her field work, as the beliefs have continuously been formed throughout her life experiences. Second, she acquired and organized her practical knowledge of exhibit interpretation through real activities and experiences interacting whith visitors and demonstrating exhibits in science museums. Third, docent Park showed her ability to make full use of surroundings and resources available for developing her expertise on exhibit interpretation more effectively. With these findings in mind, we suggest that a well established docent system as well as its operation, and physical support be needed for increased docents' expertise and meaningful education in science museum.