• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.25 no.8
• /
• pp.719-730
• /
• 2004

The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) was established and its foundation were published by the Euro-Asian Astronomical Society (EAAS), in order to spread astronomical knowledge, promote international cooperation in astronomical education area, and recognize the importance of astronomy in far-reaching field of science and human culture. In 1996, the first IAO was held at the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of sciences (RAS) located in the north Caucasus of Russia. Since then, it has been held every year. Here, we will describe the present status of the International Astronomy Olympiad, its major results by year, related institutions, organizations, and the main regulations regarding its operation. In order to measure the levels of scientific knowledge and thinking abilities, we develop a rubric to analyze the characteristics of problems in the IAO with regards to cognitive aspects of scientific inquiry. These problems require high levels of content knowledge and scientific method knowledge. Also high order thinking abilities and high levels of convergent thinking skills, instead of divergent, are needed to solve these problems. Thus, the problems presented are set a high difficulty. Through this analysis, we can understand main purpose of the International Astronomy Olympiad and explore the future direction of the Korea Astronomy Olympiad.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
• /
• v.9 no.6
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2010

The existing survey of the actual use relevant transportation, implemented in order to reflect transportation policy, has been performed for users by researcher directly, or thereby analysing the data of particular date-oriented of transportation card business's content so that such method have many problems. To solve such problem, we developed a new system, Interoperable Traffic Information Collection System which include several functions of effective collecting of transportation use-data created from the Nation-wide Interoperable Transportation System, accurate counting and easy inquiry. This system consists of Link-server to collect and count for transportation use-data, DB-server to store for this data and Inquiry terminal to search for the information needed. To verify for developed this system, we run test-bed by connection between this system and the Nation-wide Interoperable Transportation System developed by the KOREA Financial Telecommunications & Clearings, the KORAIL NETWORKS and the HiPlusCard. And through result of test-bed, we proved that Interoperable Traffic Information Collection System practically works well. Thus we can look for systematic reflect of reliable information.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.62 no.2
• /
• pp.137-147
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study was to analysis total number of 123 SSI programs by SSI criteria. The criteria was consisted of subject, school level, starting point, scientific evidence, social content, use of scientific knowledge, level of conflict of interest, and evaluation and reflection. The results of the analysis are as follows. First, elementary school programs were the most and middle school programs were relatively few. Second, starting point was mainly in the actual situation, the fiction and nonfiction situation, and the situation including the controversy and conflict was less than 10%. Third, it was based on scientific evidence but mainly influenced by individual values and perceptions. Fourth, social contents were developed mainly in ethics/morality/value, political/social life/economy, environment contents. Fifth, the use of scientific knowledge mainly consisted of scientific decision making, scientific critical thinking, and information search. However, science inquiry, risk assessment, and cost effectiveness were less than 10%. Scientific inquiry is the essential factor of science education, and one of core competencies of national science curriculum. SSI program should be able to experience various kinds of conflicts, and to evaluate and reflect through reflection.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.5
• /
• pp.717-727
• /
• 2016

Using TIMSS survey data, we analyzed whether there were any significant changes in the learning environment of middle school science classes over the last 10 years. Our study selected questions from teachers and school principals' questionnaires and divided them by category: science class, teacher professional development, and school environment. The science class components were subdivided into three categories: science learning activities, evaluation, and homework. Within teacher professional development, the sub-categories included teacher training, collaboration to improve teaching, and teacher evaluation. School environment subdivided into two aspects, these being school characteristics and school system. Our research confirmed that there has been a positive change overall in learning environments. However, most classes are teacher-conducted and also teacher-oriented; the proportion of science investigation activities has declined compared against the prior ten years. Our study show that students do not engage in a range of inquiry-related activities. The questions on tests and examinations involve mostly knowledge application and understanding, although recent methods of evaluation show improvement. As for the science teachers, they participate in many professional development programs but focus on science content, science curriculum, and pedagogy. In addition, teachers do not have many opportunities to participate in the training to integrate information technology into science, science assessment, or improving students' critical thinking or inquiry skills. The teachers are satisfied with their profession, and the shortage of science resources does not seem to affect instruction.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.67 no.1
• /
• pp.42-53
• /
• 2023

The purpose of this study is to obtain basic data for constructing a modeling practice program integrated with meta-modeling knowledge by analyzing the cognition level for each meta-modeling knowledge components through modeling practice in the context of the chemistry discipline content. A chemistry teacher conducted inquiry-based modeling practice including anomalous phenomena for 16 students in the second year of a science gifted school, and in order to analyze the cognition level for each of the three meta-modeling knowledge components such as model variability, model multiplicity, and modeling process, the inquiry notes recorded by the students and observation note recorded by the researcher were used for analysis. The recognition level was classified from 0 to 3 levels. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the cognition level of the modeling process was the highest and the cognition level of the multiplicity of the model was the lowest. The cause of the low recognitive level of model variability is closely related to students' perception of conceptual models as objective facts. The cause of the low cognitive level of model multiplicity has to do with the belief that there can only be one correct model for a given phenomenon. Students elaborated conceptual models using symbolic models such as chemical symbols, but lacked recognition of the importance of data interpretation affecting the entire modeling process. It is necessary to introduce preliminary activities that can explicitly guide the nature of the model, and guide the importance of data interpretation through specific examples. Training to consider and verify the acceptability of the proposed model from a different point of view than mine should be done through a modeling practice program.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.546-564
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the types and characteristics of the knowledge constructed by pre-service secondary science teachers. Data included 26 student-teachers' narratives regarding their experiences in teaching high school students who were enrolled in extra-curricular science classes. It was revealed that the pre-service teachers awoke to the importance of subject matter knowledge, and learned it themselves in the situation of their own teaching. Especially their concern about science content knowledge was strongly associated with the matter of didactic transposition of the knowledge. The result also showed that the pre-service teachers constructed knowledge about the relationship with students as well as pedagogical knowledge to help students learn, and that they newly realized the nature of science in the context of teaching science. In addition, the teaching experiences allowed for the student-teachers to develop knowledge of oneself as a teacher and knowledge about science education in schools. It was believed that the knowledge constructed personally by the pre-service teachers from their teaching experiences could be a platform for the development of teacher expertise. Implications of the present study for science teacher education and relevant research were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.1235-1244
• /
• 2004

The purpose of the study was to produce resources to help develop instructional methods and programs for school science to reduce gender differences in science achievement by analyzing TIMSS-R results according to item type, benchmark, and content category. Korean male students performed higher than Korean female students and gender differences of Korean students were higher than international means in all item types including multiple-choice, short answer, and extended response type. GDI(Gender Difference Index) of Korean students was lower than international mean in top 10% benchmark but higher than international means in other benchmarks. Korean male students also exhibited higher performance than Korean female students in all content categories except scientific inquiry and the nature of science category. Regarding items that GDIs were higher than 10, the number of items belonged to life science and earth science category was relatively larger and a high percentage of them was not included in school science curriculum. In addition, the items were equally distributed in each performance category. In sum, the study showed various gender differences according to item type, benchmark, and content category. The results could be used to find appropriate instructional methods to reduce gender differences in science achievement.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.112-122
• /
• 2021

The goal of this study is to explore ways to restructure Convergence Elective Courses in science in preparation for the high school credit system, ahead of the 2022 revised science curriculum. This study started from the problem that the 2015 revised science curriculum has not guaranteed science subject choice for students with non-science/engineering career aptitudes. To this end, a survey was conducted by randomly sampling high schools across the country. A total of 1,738 students responded to the questionnaire of 3 science elective courses such as Science History, Life & Science, Convergence Science. In addition, in-depth interviews with 12 science teachers were conducted to examine the field operation of these three courses, which will be classified and revised as Convergence Elective subjects in the 2022 revised curriculum. According to the results of the study, high school students perceive these three courses as science literacy courses, and find these difficult to learn due to lack of personal interest, and difficulties in content itself. The reason students choose these three courses is mainly because they have aptitude for science, or these courses have connection with their desired career path. Teachers explained that students mainly choose Life & Science, and both teachers and students avoid Science History because the course content is difficult. Based on the research results, we suggested ways to restructure Convergence Electives for the 2022 revised curriculum including developing convergence electives composed of interdisciplinary convergence core concepts with high content accessibility, developing convergence electives with core concepts related to AI or advanced science, developing module-based courses, and supporting professional development of teachers who will teach interdisciplinary convergence electives.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.155-169
• /
• 2021

This study aims at exploring the features of science teaching orientation (STO) and its relationships with other PCK (pedagogical content knowledge) components. To do this, based on the definition of STO by Friedrichsen, Driel, & Abell(2011) and PCK model by Magnusson, Krajcik, & Borko(1999), we observed one experienced elementary teacher's science lessons for 21 lesson hours (10 hours of 'Motion of Objects' and 11 hours of 'Light and Lens') and carried out qualitative analyses of the data obtained from lessons observation, teacher interviews, and CoRe (content representation) responses. We analyzed the teacher's three aspects of STO (i.e. beliefs about the goals and purpose of science teaching, beliefs about the nature of science, and beliefs about science teaching and learning) which can converge into an overall STO of 'inquiry'. And these aspects of STO appear to interact differently with four PCK components (i.e. curriculum knowledge, learner knowledge, instructional knowledge, and assessment knowledge) depending on the topic of the lesson. It is hoped that this in-depth understanding of the features of STO and its relationship with other PCK components would provide useful information on how to monitor and improve STO and PCK of elementary teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.42 no.6
• /
• pp.611-619
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of applying big data analysis to provide appropriate feedback to students using evaluation data in science education at a time when interest in educational data mining has recently increased in education. In this study, we use the evaluation data of 2,576 students who took 24 questions of the national assessment of educational achievement. And we use K-means cluster analysis as a method of unsupervised machine learning for clustering. As a result of clustering, students were divided into six clusters. The middle-ranking students are divided into various clusters when compared to upper or lower ranks. According to the results of the cluster analysis, the most important factor influencing clusterization is academic achievement, and each cluster shows different characteristics in terms of content domains, subject competencies, and affective characteristics. Learning motivation is important among the affective domains in the lower-ranking achievement cluster, and scientific inquiry and problem-solving competency, as well as scientific communication competency have a major influence in terms of subject competencies. In the content domain, achievement of motion and energy and matter are important factors to distinguish the characteristics of the cluster. As a result, we can provide students with customized feedback for learning based on the characteristics of each cluster. We discuss implications of these results for science education, such as the possibility of using this study results, balanced learning by content domains, enhancement of subject competency, and improvement of scientific attitude.