• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.7
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• pp.1187-1203
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• 2012

This study investigated the changes in teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers through mentoring in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planed, performed and reflected on science instructions for secondary science-gifted students through mentoring during nine class hours over three times respectively. We observed their instructions and analyzed the taped videos, the materials, the transcripts for in-depth interviews with mentees, and discussions between mentor and mentee, researcher's field notes by using the constant comparative method. This study revealed that the mentoring, although there were many limitations, positively changed the mentees' practical knowledge about the curriculum for science-gifted education, the instructional strategies for science-gifted education, the assessment in science-gifted education, the science-gifted students, and the science content. These results suggest that the mentoring will be useful in improving the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers and provide meaningful implications in finding the ways to use it effectively in science-gifted education.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2015

In this study, we identified the elements of teachers'expertise for the science gifted in science high school, and examined teacher perceptions of expertise. Through previous studies and expert consultations, 5 categories such as subject knowledge, inquiry teaching, pedagogical knowledge, student guidance and school work were derived. Based on these 5 categories and sub-element, a questionnaire was constructed. Total 284 mathematics and science teachers from 19 science high schools across the country responded to the survey. The desirable level of expertise and current level of responding teachers' own expertise were examined and compared to each other, and group comparisons were accomplished according to teacher career, type of degree and final degree. Some implications are suggested for the professional development for teachers of the science gifted.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.77-98
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• 2007

It has been said that the level of teacher professionalism determines the quality of education. The same notion allies for gifted education. Therefore, exploration of teacher professionalism in gifted education may provide fundamental bases for raising the quality of gifted education. In this study, first, literature review was conducted to extract elements of teacher professionalism in gifted education and a survey instrument was developed to find out categories of those elements and differences of teacher perception to professionalism at school levels and subject areas of gifted education. Research subjects included 212 teachers who participated in 2005 KEDI teacher training program of gifted education, 60 hour-clock introductory program and 232 teachers who participated in 2005 KEDI teacher training program of gifted education, 120 hour-clock enrichment program. It was found that elements of teacher professionalism in gifted education were categorized into knowledge-based, abilitybased and context-based. It was also found that secondary school teachers' perception to knowledge-based professionalism was significantly higher than those at elementary and science teachers' perception to ability-based and context-based professionalism was significantly higher than mathematics teachers. The research findings may provide insights for better teacher training program in gifted education as well as gifted education policies.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1021-1040
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• 2013

In order to explore the influences of coteaching through mentoring upon the teaching professionalism of beginning science-gifted education teachers, this case study deeply investigated the change processes in the aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Two beginning teachers planned, performed and reflected together their science instructions for science-gifted students in secondary school during four 3-hour classes. Since the second instruction, pre-, during-, and post-mentoring were conducted, we collected various data related to teachers' planning processes, videotaped all coteaching science classes, and wrote field notes. We also recorded in-depth interviews with the teachers and the whole process of mentoring. All the data were analyzed by using the constant comparative method. The results of the analyses indicated that coteaching through mentoring positively changed the teachers' PCK. Above all, we found that coteaching and mentoring strategies generated a significant synergy effect through a mutually complementary relationship. The teachers developed deep practical knowledge about the enrichment curriculum, which placed more emphasis on developing cognitive and/or affective characteristics of science-gifted students. The teachers also improved their knowledge about the characteristics of science-gifted students and the instructional strategies appropriate for developing them. Moreover, practical knowledge about assessment domains and methods used in science-gifted education were improved. Knowledge on science content necessary for effective inquiry instruction was also improved.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.6 no.8
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• pp.144-156
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• 2006

In order to secure the national competitiveness in the 21st century's frontier knowledge-based information and globalized society, Korea also needs programs to pick out advanced human resources early and educate them systematically. Therefore the education for the gifted in the information science area is very important, in response to the highly developed Information society, nationally, science-gifted education institutes attached to colleges and several institutions for gifted education have selected and educated the gifted in information science. Therefore, this study is intended to survey local elementary school teachers' awareness on elementary information education for gifted and talented students carried out in jeju by the Education Center for Science Gifted and Talented Students of jeju National University and other education institutions for gifted and talented students in the region and thereby suggest strategies for improvement of the education.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.94-105
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• 2012

The purposes of this study is to identify the professional knowledge of the three elementary teachers for science-gifted students in teaching method. All teachers have received in-service program in gifted education, and have been recommended by their colleagues. Two teachers have instructed the gifted for more than five years, one teacher have instructed the gifted for one year and the general students for eleven years. For for this study, each teacher's lesson plans were collected, videotapes were recorded during lessons, and in-depth interview for each participant were conducted. All recoded data were transcribed and analyzed. Some unique characteristics of teaching method for the gifted were identified from the class instruction of participants. They had knowledge of teaching model for the gifted, especially Renzulli's three pod enrichment model. And they mainly used the materials developed by KEDI for the gifted. Also they had capability to be able to reconstruct them, but their lesson plans did not be realized well in their class. Some implications from findings of this study were suggested, such as teaching methods to improve the quality in the classes of the gifted in science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.373-389
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• 2013

This study investigated secondary beginning science-gifted education teachers' reflection on their science teaching through coteaching with the case study. We selected two beginning teachers whose teaching careers in secondary science-gifted education were less than five years. The teachers planned, performed, and reflected together their science teaching for science-gifted students during nine class hours over three times. We observed their science classes through coteaching, and analyzed the transcripts for reflective discussions between them and their reflective journals in terms of 'productive reflection,' a concept suggested by Davis (2006). The results revealed that the aspects of 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' and 'science-gifted students' were most frequently included in their reflection processes on science teaching, regardless of the type of data and the class time. 'Curriculum for science-gifted education' were also frequently included although fewer than two previous aspects. However, 'subject matter knowledge' and 'assessment' was hardly included. Two to four aspects among five aspects of the science teaching for science-gifted students were variously integrated in their reflection processes. Especially, the integrations between 'instructional strategies and instruction for science-gifted education' or 'sciencegifted students' and the other aspects were most frequent, and this tendency was stronger in more experienced teacher in science-gifted education. The integrations between 'subject matter knowledge' and the other aspects were often included in the more experienced teacher's reflection processes.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.715-729
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to analyze the perception on science and scientists of the teachers who are engaged in the special education for the scientifically gifted, science-gifted students and their parents. For this study, 34 teachers, 222 students and 107 parents answered the questionnaire of the perception on science and Draw-A-Science-Test (DAST). The result showed that the three groups generally had a sound recognition but the score of recognition about a 'nature of science' was lower than other domains. The science-gifted students had less cognition about 'science and society' than their teachers and parents, but they had more positive perception about 'science learning' than their parents significantly. All of the three groups had the stereotyped image of scientist. About the internal images of scientists, three groups had a similar perception, and they showed higher scores in the cognitive aspect than emotional or ethical aspects. And the science-gifted students showed the significantly higher scores than their teachers and parents in diligence, imaginative power, concern about other people, respect for other's opinion, humor, artistic sense, respect for human, desire for peace. Three groups turned out to be influenced by movie, science journal, and biography as a source of scientist's image, but their contribution was different among groups.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.514-525
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• 2005

The most important factor in providing education to gifted students as well as to students in general are the teachers themselves. However, at present in Korea, most of the teachers in charge of education for the gifted are educated by in-service training programs only for a short period of time. It is doubtful whether the teachers, who have taught ordinary students in general, can teach gifted students effectively only after completing such a short course. This research investigated the relationship between the teachers' beliefs about educating the gifted and the teachers' classroom practices in a Science Academy through case studies. The guiding questions for this study are as follows: First, what beliefs do the participating teachers have about education for the gifted? Second, how are the participants' beliefs reflected in their classroom practices? Of the five participants, two are physics teachers, two are biology teachers, and one is an earth science teacher. I observed and videotaped four classroom practices for each participant and conducted an in-depth interview with each participant. Further data were collected through e-mails with the participants. All data were carefully transcribed and analyzed. The results are as follows: Beliefs about education for the gifted do not exist independently, and form a belief system connecting with beliefs about teaching and learning, and subject matter. And the belief systems of participants can be divided into "student-centered," "teacher-centered," and "conflict chaos." In the classes of the participants who have "student-centered" belief system, students' questions or opinions played an important role and the participation structure in the classroom was determined by the students. On the contrary, participants who have "teacher-centered" belief system focused on teaching contents as much as possible in their classes. These teachers played a heavy role and formed a participation structure where students depended on their teacher's intellectual authority and therefore participated in their class passively. A participant who have "conflict chaos" belief did not form a firm belief system yet, and traditional beliefs about teaching and learning were reflected a lot in her classes. The research results imply teachers' beliefs play an important role in classroom practices and beliefs about teaching and learning and subject matter as well as beliefs about education for the gifted are important factors for teachers who guide gifted students. Additionally, I make some suggestions for the improvement of teacher education for the gifted.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.353-368
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• 2020

This study analyzed the teacher's perception for influence of behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students on general students in elementary school science class. To do this, we selected the eight elementary school teachers who were conducting the regular science classes including scientifically-gifted students belonging to the gifted education institutes in Seoul and conducted individual in-depth interviews. The analysis of the results reveal that the teachers mentioned seven behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students in general elementary school science classes.: 'excellent in designing and performing experiments', 'playing a leading role in experiments', 'expressing their abundant prior knowledge frequently', 'attempting their tasks with curiosity and persistence', 'displaying scientific creativity', 'often asking scientific questions in detail', and 'expressing their opinions logically'. These behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students had positive effects on general students, such as 'providing them with a successful experience in conducting experiments', 'improving understanding of science class contents', 'developing scientific thinking and reflective thinking', and 'improving their students' positive experiences about science'. However, the excessive learning-driven behaviors of scientifically-gifted students had negative effects on general students, such as 'limiting opportunities for general students to participate in classes', 'conducting passive exploration centered on results', and 'causing conflicts with general students'. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.