• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.375-383
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to find out how middle school students evaluate scientific information in terms of hypothetico-deductive reasoning. A total of 66 middle school students completed a paper-and-pencil test on scientific information evaluation and 14 of them were individually interviewed for triangulation. The test includes six topics related to scientific or pseudoscientific information, and questions about each topic were sequenced based on a hypothetico-deductive reasoning. The hypothetico-deductive process consists of three steps: identifying predictions made by explanations in the information, identifying data actually obtained, and determining the fit between predictions and data to judge the validity of the explanations. Data analyses have focused on students' response types at each step, whether students used hypoethetico-deductive reasoning, and students' preference to evidence types in making decisions. The middle school students in this study answered the questions in various ways based on how they used the information given or personal knowledge and beliefs. A small portion of students evaluated information based on hypothetico-deductive reasoning. These students tended to give priority to scientific data in determining the validity of the information. On the other hand, students who did not use hypoethetico-deductive reasoning tended to prefer first-hand experience in the decision. The results provide implications for science lessons and the curriculum for scientific literacy. Further research should include student evaluation of the validity of data and other types of reasoning.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.3022-3029
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• 2011

One of the characteristics of the informatics subject implementing the revised national curriculum is to develop the practical attitude of the student as an active member of information society. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the units 'Information Society and IT' in middle school informatics textbooks reflect inquisitive tendencies to student's practice. After four textbooks that were widely selected by schools were selected from among the authorized textbooks, the sentences of the selected textbooks were analyzed by utilizing Romey's analysis method to see whether there was such an inquisitive tendency in them. As a result of analyzing six content elements of the textbooks, one textbook and two textbooks had an inquisitive tendency in three elements or more in terms of texts and activities index respectively. But there was no inquisitive tendency in the textbooks in terms of figure/diagrams, questions at the end of chapters and chapter synthesis. This study is meaningful in that it attempted to make a quantitative analysis of middle school informatics textbooks and to investigate an inquisitive tendency in the textbooks by analyzing every statement and sentence instead of analyzing just some parts of the textbooks.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 2024

This study analyzes the academic achievement characteristics of Korean fourth graders on the problem solving and inquiry tasks (PSIs) introduced in TIMSS 2019. TIMSS 2019 conducted a computer-based assessment in addition to the traditional paper-based assessment. The PSIs were included only in the computer-based assessment, so 30 countries participated in the PSIs of the computer-based assessment. PSIs consist of integrating multiple content and cognitive domains, including 10 or fewer items. Most of the items are constructed in an open-ended format rather than multiple-choice. The analysis results showed that there were differences in student achievement across countries depending on the inclusion of PSIs. Korea's average achievement score decreased by 1 point. The analysis of individual items showed that students' achievement was somewhat low, and the correct answer rate for male students was generally higher than that for female students in many items. Furthermore, item-by-item analysis revealed that there were items where countries such as England and Finland had higher correct answer rates than traditional high-achieving countries, i.e. Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea. Considering the recent emphasis on integrated education, it seems necessary to review the use of PSIs in assessments in Korea as well.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.91-100
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• 2023

Background: This study evaluated the learning outcomes of dental hygiene students' ethical consciousness and ethical decision-making competence through dental ethics courses conducted in some universities. Methods: The subjects were 35 and 29 fourth-year dental hygiene students at G University in the first semester of 2021 and 2022, respectively, and 53 and 43 third-year dental hygiene students at D University, respectively, for a total of 160 students. After implementing the dental hygiene ethics course, classroom performance was evaluated in terms of moral sensitivity, confidence in making ethical decisions, classroom practicality, learning outcomes, and class satisfaction. Statistical analysis was conducted using independent t-test and paired t-test, and the statistical significance level was 0.05. Results: Both universities reported an increase in moral sensitivity and confidence in ethical decision-making after the course (p<0.001). Classroom practicality and class satisfaction for the dental hygiene ethics course did not differ between disciplines and were rated positively with a score of 4 or higher (p>0.05). Learning outcomes were higher among 4-year students than 3-year students (p<0.001). Conclusions: It was evaluated that the ethics in dental hygiene curriculum can strengthen students' competence in ethical decision-making, including moral sensitivity and confidence in solving ethical problems in dental hygiene.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.762-774
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate misconceptions about plate tectonics which spread widely among freshmen at high school with drawing. For this, we chose 6 conceptions about plate tectonics by analysis of 7th curriculum and of 11 kinds of science textbooks. Questionnaire of drawing about plate tectonics were developed depending on them. Data was collected from 134 students who was freshmen at high school in Daegu. The result of this study was as follows. First, In structure of plate, 'upper mantle type' and 'crust type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Second, In distribution of plate, 'cracked earthquake zone type' and 'earthquake frequency type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Third, In formation of ocean ridge at oceanic crust- oceanic crust divergent plate boundary, 'divergence type' and 'collision type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Fourth, In formation of mountain ridge at continental crust- continental crust convergent plate boundary, 'collision type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Fifih, In formation of mountain ridge at oceanic crust- continental crust convergent plate boundary, 'subduction type' and 'fault type' misconceptions were more than half of the respondents. Sixth, In transform-fault at oceanic crust- oceanic crust transform-fault boundary, 'direction type' and 'section type' misconceptions were almost half of the respondents. In this study, students' drawings about plate tectonics showed similar misconceptions. This imply that drawing conceptions can be used by the strong evidence of misconceptions which spread widely among students. Furthermore, this study has a significance that this conclusion is useful to teachers as basic teaching-teaming materials of plate tectonics.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.591-606
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to develop the argumentation program to build scientific concepts on natural selection for science-gifted elementary students and to know how to implement this program. For this study, nine key concepts about natural selection such as the overproduction of offspring, limited resources, population stability, competition, variation, heredity of variation, differential survival, change of the population and speciation were selected through the literature study. The programs were developed by learning cycle instructional model. Argument writings and discourses have been collected, analyzed and compared before and after the program. Two questionnaires to compare pre and post concept change consist of multiple choice questionnaire and open-ended response question were developed and applied to 19 science-gifted elementary students. Sufficiency of the explanation and conceptual quality of the explanation were used to assess the quality of their arguments before and after the program. Discourse and visual models collected from the highest and lowest group about score improvement were compared. The scores of the gifted statistically improved significantly in multiple choice questionnaire. Students' alternative conceptions about natural selection at the beginning of the program decreased and changed scientifically after the program. Visual models drawn by the students supported the results as well. This study asserts that elementary science-gifted students are able to explain evolutionary perspectives about organism change and use the key concepts of natural selection. The study means that evolutionary perspective is possible to be reflected in elementary science curriculum for the gifted.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.292-303
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• 2021

This study identifies the terms frequently used together with energy in online science news articles and topics of the news reports to find out how the term energy is used in everyday life and to draw implications for science curriculum and instruction about energy. A total of 2,171 online news articles in science category published by 11 major newspaper companies in Korea for one year from March 1, 2018 were selected by using energy as a search term. As a result of natural language processing, a total of 51,224 sentences consisting of 507,901 words were compiled for analysis. Using the R program, term frequency analysis, semantic network analysis, and structural topic modeling were performed. The results show that the terms with exceptionally high frequencies were technology, research, and development, which reflected the characteristics of news articles that report new findings. On the other hand, terms used more than once per two articles were industry-related terms (industry, product, system, production, market) and terms that were sufficiently expected as energy-related terms such as 'electricity' and 'environment.' Meanwhile, 'sun', 'heat', 'temperature', and 'power generation', which are frequently used in energy-related science classes, also appeared as terms belonging to the highest frequency. From a network analysis, two clusters were found including terms related to industry and technology and terms related to basic science and research. From the analysis of terms paired with energy, it was also found that terms related to the use of energy such as 'energy efficiency,' 'energy saving,' and 'energy consumption' were the most frequently used. Out of 16 topics found, four contexts of energy were drawn including 'high-tech industry,' 'industry,' 'basic science,' and 'environment and health.' The results suggest that the introduction of the concept of energy degradation as a starting point for energy classes can be effective. It also shows the need to introduce high-tech industries or the context of environment and health into energy learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.437-447
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• 2014

Learning progressions (LP), which describe how students may develop more sophisticated understanding over a defined period of time, can inform the design of instructional materials and assessment by providing a coherent, systematic measure of what can be regarded as "level appropriate." We developed LPs for the nature of matter for grades K-16. In order to empirically test Korean students, we revised one of the constructs and associated assessment items based on Korean National Science Standards. The assessment was administered to 124 Korean secondary students to measure their knowledge and submicroscopic representations, and to assign them to a level of learning progression for the particle nature of matter. We characterized the level of students' understanding and models of the particle nature of matter, and described how students interpret various representations of atoms and molecules to explain scientific phenomena. The results revealed that students have difficulties in understanding the relationship between the macroscopic and molecular levels of phenomena, even in high school science. Their difficulties may be attributed to a limited understanding of scientific modeling, a lack of understanding of the models used to represent the particle nature of matter, or limited understanding of the structure of matter. This work will inform assessment and curriculum materials development related to the fundamental relationship between macroscopic, observed phenomena and the behavior of atoms and molecules, and can be used to create individualized learning environments. In addition, the results contribute to scientific research literature on learning progressions on the nature of matter.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.77-87
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• 2007

This research investigated the eating out and snack intakes situation of five hundred eighty five $5^{th}\;and\;6^{th}$ graders living in the city and rural parts of Jeonbuk province. The results of this study are as followed: Nuclear families in urban area and rural community are 84.5% and 64.7% respectively. On the other hand, extended families are 7.9% in urban area and 18% in rural communities. Out of all the households, 34.3% (urban: 37.2%, rural community: 31.5%) answered they like to eat out. Over 50.3% preferred eating Korean style food and the reason was 'the taste': urban (71.4%) and rural community (67.8%). People living in urban communities seemed to eat out more frequently than rural places and $3{\sim}4$ times a month was the average. Usually people seemed to eat out during the weekends and in the evening time 84.3% (after 7:00 p.m.). Based on each family's living standard, people answered 'we hardly ever eat out' for those in the lower class (59.1%), the middle class said once or twice a week (47.1%), and the upper class (35.7%). It was obvious that people in the middle and upper class tend to eat out more frequently than those in the lower class. The most common period of time which snacks were taken was after school (38.5%), on the way back from educational institute (35.0%) and the choices of snacks which they purchased were frozen sweets (56.4%)chips & cookies (25.2%) beverages (9.9%) Fast foods (4.6%) and fried foods (3.9%) in order. Urban children seem to eat more frozen sweets and rural children ate more chips & cookies. Also, amount of snacks between meals showed a higher percentage to those who had more pocket money, The type of snacks were fruits (37.1%) chips and cookies et cetera (19.2%) instant foods (12.8%) dairy products (11.1%) confectionary (10.3%) fried foods (5.1%) in order. The result shows that urban children eat out more frequently than those in rural areas, Eating around 7:00 p.m. was most common and the middle and upper class tend to eat out more frequently than those in the lower class, Also, snacks were most often bought before and after school. After 10:00 p.m frozen goods and chips were the most preferred choice. Specially, the reason for eating fast foods was because of the pleasing taste. From this study, it is clear that eating out and having snacks became pervasive into our lives in both urban and rural areas. Hereafter, an appropriate eating habit should be correctly educated to elementary students by spoken words and textbooks in a curriculum. In reality, snacks are classified as being the leading factor of obesity. Therefore more products containing balanced nutrition should newly develop rather than snacks with high fat content.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.239-252
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to develop an evolutionary STEAM education program based on the brain and to analyze its effects on scientific interest and scientific creativity of elementary school students. Four different topics based on four scientific fields (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Science) were derived from the science textbook under the 2015 revised curriculum to build a brain-based evolutionary STEAM education program. The research subjects were 90 fourth graders of S-elementary school located in Gyeonggi Province, Korea and they were divided into an experimental group of 45 students and a comparative group of 45 students. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, according to the independent samples t-test of scientific interest, no statistically significant difference were found between the two groups, but the brain-based evolutionary STEAM education had meaningful effect on improving 'interest in scientific learning' and 'anxiety about scientific learning'. Second, according to the paired samples t-test of scientific interest, the experimental group had significantly improved 'interest in science' but on the other hand, there was no effect on the comparative group. Third, scientific creativity and originality of the experimental group were significantly higher after the class than that of the comparative group. Fourth, although there were some significant differences between the two groups in scientific creativity after the class, both groups had improved scientific creativity between the results of pre and post test. Based on these results, we discuss implications for science education and STEAM education research.