This study is a report of the collaborative action research which has been conducted between a Korean earth science teacher and science education researcher. A two-year long action research effort was made in order to improve the teacher’s earth science classrooms in pursuit of constructivist principles of learning. The process of the action research was described with the aim of increasing the awareness of science teachers and science education researchers regarding action research. Quantitative evidence was presented to indicate the effectiveness of the collaborative action research in creating constructivist learning environments in the classrooms. The process and quantitative evidence from the action research permitted a consideration of implications for future efforts to improve science classrooms.
The purpose of this study is to suggest the modification of activities to introduce the nature of science in earth science classrooms. A small modification can turn ordinary textbook activities into the nature of science activities. Since earth science could provide a good basis for the tentative, creative, and socially and culturally embedded nature of science, as well as appropriate understanding about scientific methods, careful modification of earth science activities could be effective for students to understand the nature of science. Considering which aspects of the nature of science are appropriate, along with the possible change in the activity, teachers will be able to modify textbook activities effectively. An example modification of H-R diagram activity was also suggested.
This study identifies and compares science content standards that are approved by departments of education in six states: California, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia. Specifically, the study examines the goals/visions, the organizing/progression principles, the strands of science content, and earth science content found in the states curriculum standards compared to National Science Education Standards. Although many states followed the recommendations of NSES or Project 2061, the format and content of the state science standards reviewed are very diverse. The diversity seems to reflect the diverse perspectives and needs of the states. The results of this study provide Korean educators and teachers with useful models or examples to incorporate Korean national science curriculum guides into the science curriculum frameworks of their regions or schools.
Since 1998, an elementary teacher education institute in Korea has hosted the center for the gifted education. The institute hired undergraduate students to escort and liaison each class of the gifted student participants with assisting classroom activities. These liaison teachers observed the gifted classroom activities and evaluated them by using a given checklist and filling out pre-made evaluation forms. Currently this system is being transferred from part-time jobs for students to earn allowance into well organized pre-service teacher program focusing on the gifted education. In other words, the purpose of system is being shifted from how liaison teachers facilitate the gifted program to how the system helps the liaison teachers to be quality teachers for the gifted who can understand what the gifted are and how to facilitate them. Analyzed were the self reports of the liaison teachers regarding their perceptions and beliefs of the gifted and their education program. It was found participant liaison teachers purposed to have more live experiences with getting along with students as well. Liaison teachers’ perceptions on establishing a gifted teacher professional education sequence were reported in this study. The potential scaffolding of the pre-service teacher education program model of the gifted education was provided as a consequence of this study.
This study was initiated to understand what students know, how they feel, and how they act in the perspectives of environmental literacy. This study takes it a very serious problem that there has been no data about Korean students’status of environmental literacy so far. Based on the correct diagnosis of Korean students’ environmental literacy, environmental education in Korea, including national curriculum, teaching materials and strategy, would take the right way. This study accepts Simmon (1995)’s framework of environmental literacy, consisting of 5 areas, environmental knowledge, skills, affect, and behavior, which is consistent with general goals of environmental education. This study analyzed the relationship between areas in environmental literacy and factors contributing to improving students’ environmental literacy. This study also checked which factors, including age, gender, parents’ schooling, environmental education in schools, and students’ science-related attributes, contributed to improving students’ environmental literacy. The results of this study will help science educators keep in mind how important it is to teach science from the perspectives of environmental literacy.