• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.219-231
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• 2018

This study surveyed the elementary school teachers' use of visual representations and their perceptions of the functions of visual representations in the teaching of electricity unit. A total of 110 elementary teachers who have experiences in teaching electricity unit responded to online survey. The result showed firstly that most of the teachers use visual representations in their teaching and it is mostly limited to those presented in textbooks or images that they can get easily from internet search. Secondly, elementary teachers thought that they have high ability in using visual representations and low ability in understanding students' visual presentation ability. Thirdly, visual representations are more often preferred to be used as teacher-centered ways than student-centered ways for motivating students and conceptual understanding. However, in case of scientific inquiry, both teacher-centered and student-centered ways were equally preferred. Lastly, the teachers' perceptions of the functions of visual representations were categorized into 'teaching-instrumental function', 'learning-instrumental function', 'communicative-instrumental function' and 8 subcategories were found. The most frequent function was the 'information delivery function' in the 'teaching-instrumental function' category. Implications for teacher education and further studies were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.418-431
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• 2022

In this study, we analyzed the form, presentation, and interactivity of external representations presented in the matter units of elementary school science digital textbooks developed under the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. The analytic framework of the previous study was modified and supplemented. The matter units in the 3rd-6th grade science digital textbooks were analyzed by dividing them into "body texts" and "inquiries" area. The results revealed that visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were presented the most. Conversely, audial-nonverbal representations were presented at a high frequency only in the body texts, and audial-verbal representations were presented at a low frequency in both the body texts and the inquiries. Regarding the presentation, when verbal and visual-nonverbal representations appeared together, visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were primarily presented together. In some cases where visual-verbal, audial-verbal, and visual-nonverbal representations were presented together, information on visual-verbal and audial-verbal representations was presented redundantly. Audial-nonverbal representations unrelated to contents were presented along with other external representations, and the frequency was particularly high in the body texts. Regarding the contiguity, no visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were presented on different pages, and no audial-verbal representations were presented asynchronously with visual-nonverbal representations. Regarding the interactivity, explanatory feedback and low-level manipulations were mainly presented. Based on the results, implications to improve digital textbooks are discussed from the perspective of multiple representation-based learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.253-262
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• 2017

This study aims at investigating the perceptions of science teachers about the role of visual representations in the teaching of electromagnetism, and finding out how science teachers use visual representations in their teaching of electromagnetism and the difficulties they experience in dealing with those representations. A total of 121 science teachers responded to the online survey. The results showed that most of the teachers agreed to the significance of using visual representations in the classroom but regarded their role as means of simply delivering science knowledge rather than constructing or generating knowledge. For the three visual representations widely used in teaching of electromagnetism in secondary schools (electrostatic induction on electroscope, magnetic field around current carrying wire, structure and principle of electric motor), the teachers preferred teacher-centered use of visual representations rather than student-centered and teacher's construction of representations were the most frequent among four types of use; interpretation, construction, application, and evaluation. The difficulties of teaching with these three visual representations were categorized into several factors; teachers, students, the characteristics of the representations, and lack of resources and classroom environment. Teachers' limited perceptions about the role of visual representations were associated with the ways of using visual representations in their teaching. Implications for the effective use of visual representations for science learning and teaching were discussed.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2014

Working with dynamic visual representations can help students-with-computer discover new mathematical ideas. Students translate among multiple representations as a strategy to investigate non-routine problems to explore possible solutions in mathematics classrooms. In this paper, we use the area models as new representations for our secondary students to investigate three problems related to the average speed of a particle. Students show their ideas in the process of investigating arithmetic mean, harmonic mean, and average speed through their created dynamic figures. These figures really utilize dynamic geometry software.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.64 no.6
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• pp.416-428
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• 2020

This study analyzed the uses of external representations presented in the matter units of the 7th-grade science digital textbooks developed under the 2015 revised national curriculum. The level, form, presentation, and interactivity of external representations presented in 5 types of digital textbooks were analyzed. As for the level, the macroscopic level of representations was mainly presented. The macroscopic level and microscopic level of representations were presented together in the particle description. As for the form, visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were usually presented across the board. Very few audial-verbal and audial-nonverbal representations were presented. Visual-verbal and audial-verbal representations were mostly presented in formal form, and visual-nonverbal representations were mostly presented in illustration without movement. The presentation of representations was analyzed in three aspects. First, visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were mainly presented together and none of audial-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were presented together. When the representations of the audial-verbal, visual-nonverbal, and visual-verbal were presented together, some of the information presented in audial-verbal representations was repeatedly presented in the visual-verbal representations. Second, audial-nonverbal representations not related to learning content were presented along with other representations. Third, there were few cases of arranging visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations on the next pages. Audialverbal and visual-nonverbal representations were always presented synchronized. As for the interactivity, the manipulation level was mainly presented in the main area, and the feedback level was mainly presented in the activity area. The adaptation level and the communication level of interactivity were presented very few. Based on the results, the implications for the direction of constructing digital textbooks were discussed.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.81-97
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• 2009

Visual representations play an important role for students to understand the meaning of a given problem, devise problem-solving approaches, and implement them successfully. The purpose of this study was to investigate how 6th graders would use visual representations in solving mathematical problems and in what ways such use might affect successful problem solving. The results showed that many students preferred numerical expressions to visual representations. However, students who used visual representations, specifically schematic representations, performed better than those who employed numerical representations. Given this, this paper includes instructional implications to nurture students' use of visual representations in a way to increase their problem solving ability.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.26-39
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• 2020

Visual Representation Competence Taxonomy (VRC-T) was developed in previous study(Yoon, 2018) to provide a framework conducive to assess visual representation competence and to devise appropriate educational activities for it. This study is an extension of the previous study. It aimed to explore the usefulness of VRC-T and revise it by analyzing the patterns of visual representation use in science lessons. The researcher collected lesson plans on shadow principle from 11 pre-service and 13 in-service elementary teachers and conducted individual interviews regarding what visual representations they considered and how they tried to use them in science lessons. VRC-T was used as an analytical framework to examine the types and cognitive processes of visual representations. As a result, new categories were added and the revised VRC-T was completed (VRC-TR). It was also found that both pre- and in-service teachers mainly focused on 'interpreting' the 'descriptive representation' while designing their lesson plans. Additionally, in-service teachers showed more limited use of visual representations compared to pre-service teachers. In-service teachers largely relied on the national science textbooks, while pre-service teachers reflected their own learning experiences in their teacher-training program. These results showed that teachers' use of visual representations heavily relied on their prior learning and teaching experiences. The VRC-TR presented in this study and examples of class activities in each category can be helpful for teachers and researchers who want to use visual representations more effectively.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2018

Various forms of visual representations enable scientific discovery and scientific reasoning when scientists conduct research. Similarly, in science education, visual representations are important as a means to promote students' understanding of science concepts and scientific thinking skills. To provide a framework that could facilitate the effective use of visual representations in science classroom and systemic science education research, a visual representation competence taxonomy (VRC-T) was developed in this study. VRC-T includes two dimensions: the type of visual representation, and the cognitive process of visual representation. The initial categories for each dimension were developed based on literature review. Then validation and revision was made by conducting teachers' workshop and survey to experts. The types of visual representations were grouped into 3 categories (descriptive, procedural, and explanative representations) and the cognitive processes were grouped into 3 categories (interpretation, integration, and construction). The sub categories of each dimension and the validation process would be explained in detail.

• Journal of Science and Technology Studies
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.107-141
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• 2010

Visualization techniques are transformed into reliable representations through socio-technological processes which include the agreement on the instrument and the embodiment of practices in relevant scientific communities. Visual representations thus produced are justified by realistic and epistemic virtues in science. This paper analyzes different visual images presented in the scientific papers of two research groups who argue different theories about the mechanism of face perception. These two scientific groups use the same fMRI technology; yet, different experimental paradigms and visual stimuli change their hypotheses into distinct testable theories, which in turn lead to different evidences to support their own theories. Visual evidences are intermediate representations which lie between fMRI brain images and scientific theories, and theoretical models obtain the scientific value based on the consistency in the chain of visual representations. This study shows that representations in science tend to be good representations within the context of scientific communities. It will provide a chance to think of the value and limit of the scientific knowledge

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.5
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• pp.353-361
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• 2023

This study analyzed the uses of visual representations of particles in the matter units of the middle school science textbooks developed under the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. The material units in four textbooks were divided into explanation, inquiry, and evaluation sections, and visual representations of particles presented in the science textbooks were analyzed by the use type, the activity type, and the level of activity. In the explanation section, the visual representations of particles were mainly presented in the auxiliary use type, and in the inquiry and evaluation section, they were mainly presented in a direct use type. In terms of the activity types of the direct use of visual representations of particles, the interpreting activity was mainly presented in the explanation and evaluation sections, while the generating activity and completing activity were presented in relatively higher proportion in the inquiry section than the other two sections. In terms of activity level, identifying was the most common activity level in the explanation section, and inferring was the most common activity level in the inquiry and evaluation sections. Based on these results, the implications for the presentation and uses of visual representations of particles in science textbooks are discussed.