• Research in Mathematical Education
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.89-98
• /
• 1999

The purpose of this review of literature is to investigate what kinds of research have been done on social construction of mathematics understanding among elementary students in small groups. Only empirical studies were reviewed, and then grouping was done in terms of the purpose of the study. This grouping identified three categories: 1) Social and mathematical norms in mathematics classroom, 2) Teaching productive communication behaviors for active learning in small group, and 3) Participation roles and communication behaviors in different group structure. To enhance social construction of mathematics understanding in small group settings two suggestions are made: the importance of the selection of collaborative tasks or problems and teachers' beliefs about mathematics and the teaching an learning of mathematics.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.23 no.4
• /
• pp.1131-1148
• /
• 2009

Algebra is one of the important subjects that not only mathematics but many science major students should know at least at the elementary level. Unfortunately abstract algebra, specially, is seen as an extremely difficult course to learn. One reason of difficulties is because of its very abstract nature, and the other is due to the lecture method that simply telling students about mathematical contents. In this paper we study about the teaching and learning abstract algebra in universities in corporation of a programming language such as ISETL. ISETL is a language whose syntax closely imitates that of mathematics. In asking students to read and write code in ISETL before they learn in class, we observe that students can much understand and construct formal statements that express a precise idea. We discuss about the classroom activities that may help students to construct and internalize mathematical ideas, and also discuss about some barriers we might overcome.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.7
• /
• pp.697-712
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to seek strengths and weaknesses from analyzing Korea and U.S. science textbooks in terms of general structural features, contents, cognitive levels of questions and the purpose of questions used in science textbooks. This provided insight into improvement of textbooks that can effectively assist teaching and learning. To investigate organization of unit in textbooks in-depth, the evolution unit was selected and scrutinized as one example. The results showed that the number of pages, activities, vocabulary words, and vocabulary lists are considerably different between Korean and the U.S. Commonly, U.S. textbooks were more laden with information and lacking in coherence than those of the Korean textbooks. The findings on the cognitive levels of questions showed that the majority of questions in both nations are concerned with knowledge. However, the difference between the two nations is great in the ratios of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation questions. Questions are concentrated in review section (45% of Korean and 60.6% of U.S.) in textbooks. It suggested that well-planned questions in a review section can provide the basic guidance for strength in a science classroom.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
• /
• v.36 no.6
• /
• pp.472-479
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the concentration of indoor air pollutants at 63 elementary schools, 41 middle schools and 51 high schools in Ulsan from the beginning of May to the end of December, 2008. To assess the indoor air quality of the various classrooms, the 8 indoor air pollutants such as $CO_2$, CO, $NO_2$, $O_3$, $PM_{10}$, TVOCs, HCHO and TBC were measured and analyzed. The mean concentrations of $PM_{10}$ and TBC in the elementary schools were significantly higher than those of middle and high schools (p < 0.01). For the HCHO, the multi-use practice rooms showed an average 1.5 times higher than general classrooms. In schools located in urban areas, the concentrations of CO, $O_3$, $PM_{10}$, HCHO and TBC were lower than in the vicinity of industrial complexes. The exceeding rate of the school air quality maintenance limits in the 6 air pollutants by law were 6.7%, 3.5%, 1.7%, 18.2%, 13.0% and 18.4% for $CO_2$, $NO_2$, $O_3$, $PM_{10}$, HCHO and TBC, respectively. Based on these results $PM_{10}$ and TBC have to be in the order of priority of need to improve the classroom air quality in elementary school of Ulsan.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.29-38
• /
• 2021

The social studies, mathematics, and science textbooks of the elementary curriculum will begin to be authorized from 2022. This study explores the effect of textbooks based on a gamification motivation strategy on learner interest. For this purpose, this study analyzes whether the systematic application of the gamification motivation strategy to elementary studies textbooks, which will be authorized from 2022, can develop this textbook into a "learner-centered curriculum book that induces interest." More specifically, this study applied Kumsung Publishing's experimental social studies textbooks in class and conducted a questionnaire among 121 third graders to verify the effectiveness of the textbooks. The results show that studies textbooks based on a gamification motivation strategy greatly influence increased learner interest in the classroom. The textbooks also represent a positive influence in learner understanding, interest, and curiosity regarding the class content and assistance. Demonstrating that gamification motivation strategy is worthwhile to actively apply in future textbook development for the enhancement of learners' interests, this study is significant in that it has presented a meaningful textbook development model.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.246-258
• /
• 2010

A convective circulation box was redesigned after analyzing reasons why adolescent elementary school students could not derive a convective circulation concept from the convection circulation box experiments. Even though students were in the formal operational period of Piaget, the adolescents felt difficult to understand a concept of the natural phenomena they have never seen before. Thus, we designed a method to help students increase their scientific understandings about the concept through developing a miniature convective circulation box. Findings indicated that an application of redesigned convective circulation box in the classroom experiment significantly increased the students' understanding about the convective circulations of land and sea breezes, and as well as their participation in the activities. In addition, the redesigned convective circulation box motivated students to develop their scientific thinking skills by allowing them to decide where to put visible incenses inside the box and to directly observe the smoke currents circulation formed accordingly. Redesigning and using a convective circulationbox as a miniature of natural phenomenon helps students avoid having misconceptions. The biggest merits of the box are that it is observable in all directions, it provides much clearer convective circulations comparing to the extant box, and it requires low production costs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
• /
• v.51 no.1
• /
• pp.29-47
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study is to compare and analyze the inquiry tasks included in the elementary social studies with school library based instruction (SLBI) focused on the information literacy process and select teacher librarians' educational role under learning for social studies. For this purpose, national elementary curriculum of $4^{th}$, $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ social studies in the second term are analyzed. As results of analysis, the $4^{th}$ and $5^{th}$ students who take part in solving the inquiry tasks could compare and analyze illustrations, photographs and texts in their text books individually and present the results with speaking. The $6^{th}$ students could deal with their tasks using their experience, idea or information found from other resources and express the outcome orally according to the content of inquiry tasks. Therefore, teacher librarians could teach information literacy skills such as comparison, contrast, combination, distinction between opinions and facts, or prediction and inference of conclusion to the $4^{th}$ and $5^{th}$ elementary student. Teacher librarians can also participate in whole information literacy instruction for the $6^{th}$ students from building the solution strategies of tasks, collecting and using materials to completing and evaluating the results under the long term collaboration with the classroom teachers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.322-334
• /
• 2022

This study attempted to understand the difficulties experienced in program development and class operation of instructors in the hands-on science class and the needs for training based on them. For this study, an online survey was conducted on 193 instructors in the hands-on science class in 2022, and interviews were conducted on 13 instructors. As a result, the difficulties of developing programs for hands-on science class instructors were due to lack of class content, lack of program development budget, lack of equipment necessary for class operation, and difficulty in applying various educational methods such as discussion and practice. The preferred training contents were in the order of the latest science and technology, reconstruction methods of existing programs, and regional specialization technology. In addition, it was found that the difficulties experienced by instructors in class management stemmed from the method of operating hands-on science classes using experience kits. Accordingly, instructor education should be provided in the direction of helping instructors to provide the best education in the situation of the hands-on science classroom.

• Fire Science and Engineering
• /
• v.32 no.6
• /
• pp.134-140
• /
• 2018

This study examined the adequacy of a school classroom's occupant load density standard to cope with the issues associated with the decreasing number of students and regional variations. Therefore, this study analyzed the occupant load density standards of kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and universities using the data open to the public by the Ministry of Education. The results revealed a high variance in the occupant load density according to the school type. The median values were 1.49, 3.45, 2.64, 2.45, and $3.41m^2/person$ for kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, high school, and universities, respectively. Although the occupant load density was higher than the current standard ($1.9m^2/person$), except for kindergarten, the present standard did not need to be improved immediately, considering the purpose of calculating the maximum occupancy. On the other hand, if improvements are made in line with other enhancements of a national education policy, it will be possible to mitigate the measure to $2.5m^2/person$ based on the survey results.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.42 no.4
• /
• pp.497-512
• /
• 2023

While scientific explanation is a fundamental component of science, teachers often lack familiarity with the formal structure of scientific explanations and the criteria for assessing their quality. Consequently, this study aims to clarify the concept of scientific explanation and proposes a tool for constructing scientific explanations. The primary objective is to explore the tool's impact on enhancing the explanatory skills of pre-service teachers when it comes to the phenomenon of condensation. The research findings indicate that many pre-service teachers initially operated at a description level during the pre-test. However, the implementation of the tool enabled them to advance their explanatory skills beyond the associative level. Notably, the tool was analyzed for its ability to provide pre-service teachers with a conceptual framework for explaining phenomena and guiding logical explanations and micro-level interpretations. This study holds significance in demonstrating that pre-service teachers can comprehend the formalities and criteria of scientific explanations and apply them to enhance their own explanatory abilities. Moving forward, efforts should be made to enhance the scientific explanation level among pre-service teachers across various topics and subject areas. Furthermore, pre-service teachers need classroom experiences that foster the construction of scientific explanations in authentic contexts.