• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.581-602
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• 2012

For developing mathematics teachers' professionalism, it is necessary to construct PDS to provide training programs which are appropriate for Korean context and needed by mathematics teachers. This study is a preliminary study for constructing PDS and aims to design PDS model for Korean mathematics teachers. Firstly, components of model were elicited by theoretical review. Secondary, focus group discussion with 8 teachers and individual interview with 1 educational profession and 3 foreign mathematics education researchers were conducted. Finally, by reflecting FGD and interview results, the final version of PDS model was designed. The final model is constructed by 3 components, which are life cycle, program types, and participants. In addition, professional development topics for each life cycle according to PDS model are presented.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.600-608
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• 2011

The ultimate goal of instruction is for learners to understand contents they have to learn in class. Therefore, shedding light is needed on the characteristics of understanding required by teachers and perceived by students when class is conducted for the purpose of understanding. To do this, 87 middle school teachers were requested to write down questions they asked to improve the understanding of learners in 'reproduction and genesis' unit. They were categorized according to Wiggins & McTighe's six aspects of understanding and a questionnaire was developed based on the data. A survey was conducted on 90 teachers and 370 ninth-grade students. The findings of this study were as follows: First, the teachers demanded explaining, interpreting and perspective a lot, but applying, empathy and self-knowledge were scarcely required. Second, the teachers demanded explaining the most, and the students as well. The next aspect of understanding in both groups was interpreting, followed by perspective, applying, empathy and self-knowledge. There were significant differences among the opinions of the students according to gender (p<0.05). Third, the students persevered explaining, applying and self-knowledge the same way as the teachers demanded, but not for interpreting, perspective and empathy. This study is expected to provide some information to achieve the instruction objectives of understanding successfully.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.372-387
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• 2012

This study aims to identify unique small group norms and their influence on the process of constructing a scientific model. We developed instructional materials for the construction of a model of blood flow in the heart and conducted research on eighth-grade students from one middle school. We randomly selected 10 small groups, and videotaped and recorded their dialogues and behaviors. The data was categorized according to the types of interaction and then analyzed to investigate the characteristics of group norms and models in one or two representative groups for each type. The results show that the types of interaction, the quality of the group models, and the group norms were different in each group. Even though one teacher guided students through the same task in the inquiry context, each group revealed different patterns of discourse and behavior, which were based on norms of cognitive responsibility, the need for justification, participation, and membership. With the exception of one group, there was little cognitive responsibility and justification for students' opinions. Ultimately, these norms influenced the model construction of small groups. A group that forms norms to encourage the active participation and justify members' opinions with cognitive responsibility was encouraged to do inferential thinking and construct a group model close to the target model. This study has instructional implications for the establishment of a classroom environment that facilitates learning through small group activities.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.757-777
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• 2012

Peer relationships in young students' communities are one of the important factors influencing the cognitive and affective domains of learning. Moreover, students who join the special program for gifted students possess differential peer relationships from the students in general classes. This study aims to explore the differences of 5th grade five science-gifted students' peer relationships between students in special classes for gifted students and general classes. Five students in the special program for gifted students, managed by the Office of Education in a southern city, participated in this study. Social network analyses were utilized to explore participants' peer relationships; the students' homeroom teacher was interviewed to explore the contextual and in-depth characteristics of gifted students' peer relationships. The results illustrated four cases of peer relationships: (1) smart loner (2) my study mate (3) I'm the best in my class, and (4) a good friend anywhere. This study identified that the gifted students possessed diverse peer relationships in both the special program and general classroom. In addition, this study suggests that the program for gifted students needs to be specially designed based on the gifted students' peer relationship.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.289-301
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• 2015

This study noted that elementary school students were unable to accurately comprehend the principles of moon phase changes and that teachers themselves lacked a full understanding of it as well. Therefore, this study classifies conception types through 161 5th grade respondents and suggests how to change students' conception types through the use of reconstructed teaching and learning materials (that have been developed in existing studies). It verified the changes in the learning achievement of 129 5th grade respondents and analyzed how to think about reconstructed teaching and learning materials through four teacher respondents and four 5th grade respondents from the same study. The results of this study are as follows: First, the conception types on moon phase changes were classified into C and W types. W types consisted of W1, W2, W3, W4, and W5 types. Students had difficulty in understanding the principles of a waxing crescent moon and first quarter phase changes. Second, the group taking classes, which implemented reconstructed teaching and learning materials, showed greater improvement in learning achievement posttest and long-term tests compared to those who have not. Finally, teachers and students reacted positively to the reconstructed teaching and learning materials as shown in exit survey results. In conclusion, it is suggested that teachers are better off utilizing reconstructed teaching and learning materials so that elementary school students may fully understand the principles of moon phase changes rather than just memorizing the results.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.1385-1402
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• 2013

This study analyzes pre-service teachers' PCK dealing with visualization of the contents related to boiling point elevation and teaching methods in mock-lessons. As a result of analyzing pre-service teachers' knowledge based on PCK factors, most of the pre-service teachers accentuated on understanding boiling point elevation conceptually, whereas some of the others inclined to make students understand boiling point elevation in a scientific way, let the kids use numerical formulas to describe the concept, and motivate them to learn through the examples in real life. The pre-service teachers represented majority of the important facts of boiling point elevation as the knowledge required to understand things conceptually. However, they did not focus on improving the scientific thinking and inquiring levels of the students. Also, the pre-service teachers tended to teach at the level and order of the textbook. In some other cases, they considered the vocabularies and materials in the textbook (which could have been highlighted in the editing sequence) as the main topic to learn, or regarded the goal as giving students the ability to solve exercises in the textbook. It turned out that the pre-service teachers had a low level of knowledge of their students. It is recommended that they should make use of the materials given (such as data related to the misconception of students) during the training session. The knowledge of teaching and evaluating students was described superficially by the pre-service teachers; they merely mentioned the applications of models, such as the cyclic model and discovery learning, rather than thinking of a method related to the goals, or listed general assessment methods.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.291-300
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• 2010

Group-based learning is known to be an effective means to improve scholastic achievement in online learning. Therefore, there are some previous researches for the group-based learning. A lot of previous researches define factors for grouping from the characteristics of classes, teacher's decision and students' preferences and then generate a group based on the defined factors. However, many algorithms proposed by previous researches depend on a specific class and is not a general approach since there exist several differences in terms of the need of courses, learners, and teachers. Moreover it is hard to find a automatic system for group generation. This paper proposes a grouping system which automatically generate a learner group according to characteristics of various classes. the proposed system automatically generates a learner group by using basic information for a class or additional factors inputted from a user. The proposed system defines a set of rules for learner grouping which enables automatic selection of a learner grouping algorithm tailored to the characteristics of a given class. This rule based approach allows the proposed system to accommodate various learner grouping algorithms for a later use. Also we show the usability of our system by serviceability evaluation.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.109-119
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated how the scientific problem-finding ability of pre-service teachers is improved through open-situation scientific problem-making activity. We organized two experimental groups and a control group by degree of participation. The 1st experimental group is an actively participating class, while the 2nd experimental group is a passively participating class. We developed and applied a worksheet for training in problem-making. The pre-service teachers filled in the worksheet for problem-making once a week for seven weeks, then the lecturer gave feedback for every worksheet. We developed and applied a problem finding test in an open-situation to measure their problem finding ability at pre- and post-training. As a result of the training, problem level and diversity improved for pre-service teachers through continuous problem-making activities and feedback. The 1st experiment group significantly improved on the quality and quantity of problems. Especially in the originality, elaboration, verifiability, and variables' category, the 1st experimental group significantly improved compared to the control group and the 2nd experimental group. On the other hand, the quality and quantity of problems of the 2nd experimental group decreased. These results provide a basis for correlation between training attitude and improvement of problem-finding ability. Based on the result of this study, continuous problem-making training and feedbacks are helpful in improving the problem-finding ability of pre-service teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.80-93
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• 2010

The scope of this study is: (1) to review or summarize the theoretical explanations of diffusion; (2) to investigate the preservice teachers' understanding of diffusion utilizing the inquiry experiment of diffusion that was developed in this study. The data was collected through questionnaires given to 41 preservice teachers in 3 universities and interviews with 20 subjects from this population, who conducted the inquiry experiment. During the experiment, the data was collected from the students' reports and 3 small groups' audio/video recordings. To understand preservice teachers' conceptions, reports, audio/video recordings, questionnaires and interviews were analyzed and discussed with co-workers. The results follow: (1) The differences between effusion and diffusion as well as equal-pressure experiment and equal-flux one on diffusion were discussed; (2) Most preservice teachers understood effusion and diffusion connected to Graham's law of diffusion by rote and have misconceptions about the diffusion process; (3) They observed two kinds of diffusion experiments (equal-pressure and equal-flux) by inquiry experiment, but the majority of them failed to find conceptual differences between these experiments. After the inquiry experiment, about 40% of the samples modified their conceptions about diffusion.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.383-396
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• 2022

In this study, pre-service chemistry teachers' questions in their teaching practices were analyzed considering the context of discourse. Five pre-service teachers participated in the study. Their questions were analyzed by considering various data including class videos, interviews, and teaching-learning materials. Their questions were classified into relevant question, affective question, dead-end question, rhetorical question, and structuring question. Each question was also classified into appropriate question and convenient question by the aspect of proper responses of students. The analyses of the results indicate the differences in the frequencies of several types of questions depending on the content of the lessons. After using convenient questions, pre-service teachers proceeded to prepared classes as they rather than prompted students' responses. The affective questions were rarely used. The dead-end questions were found to be used for promoting interaction with students. The rhetorical questions were used for various purposes such as arousing students' attention or promoting their thinking. Practical implications were discussed based on the results.