Jong-Seok Park

Improvement of Students' Problem Finding and Hypothesis Generating Abilities: Gifted Science Education Program Utilizing Mendel's Law

In the process of establishing the principle of genetics, Mendel discovered problems based on various observations. Mendel`s scientific thinking ability can be effective if this ability is embedded in gifted science education programs. The study aims to develop a science gifted education program utilizing Mendel`s scientific thinking ability shown in the principles of genetics and examine students` changes in scientific thinking ability before and after the program implementation. For the program development, first, the characteristics of Mendel`s scientific thinking ability in the process of establishing the principle of genetics were investigated and extracted the major elements of inquiry. Second, the science gifted education programs was developed by applying the inquiry elements from the Mendel`s Law. The program was implemented with 19 students of , graders who attend the science gifted education center affiliated with university during July 2011. The Mendel`s scientific thinking ability was classified into induction, deduction, and integration. The elements of inquiry extracted from the Mendel`s scientific thinking include making observation, puzzling observation, proposing causal questions, generating hypothesis, drawing inference, designing experiment, gathering and analyzing data, drawing conclusions, and making generalization. With applying these elements, the program was developed with four phases: - problem finding; - hypothesis generating; - hypothesis testing and - problem solving. After implementation, students` changes in scientific thinking ability were measured. The findings from the study are as follows: First, students` abilities of problem finding is significantly (p

Satisfactions with Teaching and Learning Practices at Science Core Schools and Directions for Improvement

Education Research Insitute, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea(Received 12 November 2012 : revised 18 December 2012 : accepted 4 April 2013)The aims of this study were to investigate to what extents teaching and learning practices atscience core schools were satisfactory and to propose effective directions for school-based improve-ment. To these ends, questionnaires to investigate to what extents the schools’ curriculum, teachingand learning practices, and effectiveness were satisfactory and to form opinions on school improve-ment were developed and administered to 4,504 students, 4,445 parents, and 851 mathematics andscience teachers at 50 science core schools at the beginning of fall semester 2011. First, students,parents and mathematics and science teachers were found to show high levels of satisfaction withthe teaching and learning practices at science core schools. Also, students of science core programswere found to show higher satisfaction with teaching and learning practices than students of naturalscience/technology programs and students of humanity programs. There was a tendency to shiftfrom teacher-centered to student-centered practices. Demands for varied teaching strategies forquality learning were expressed by students and parents.

Thomas Young's Problem Solving through Analogical Reasoning in the Process of Light Inference Theory Formation and Its Implications for Scientific Creativity Education

The study aims to analyze Thomas Young`s problem solving processes of analogical reasoning during the formation of the interference theory of light, and to draw its implications for secondary science education, particularly for enhancing creativity in science. The research method employed in the study was literature review of the papers which Young himself had written about sound wave and property of light. His thinking processes and specific features in his thought that were obtained through analysis of his papers about light are as follows: Young reconsidered Newton`s experiments and observations, and reinterpreted Newton`s results in the new viewpoints. Through this analysis, Young discovered that Newton`s interpretation about his own experiments and observations was faulty in a certain point of view and new interpretation is necessary. Based on the data, it is hypothesized that colors observed on thin plates and colors appeared repeatedly on Newton`s ring are appeared because of the effect of light interference. Young used analogical reasoning during the process of inference of similarity between sound and light. And he formulated an hypothesis on the interference of light through using abductive reasoning from interference of water wave, and proved the hypothesis by constructing an creative experimental device, which is called a critical experiment. It is implicated that the analogical reasoning and experimental devices for explaining the light interference which Young created and used can be utilized for school science education enhancing creativity in science.

Analyzing the Creative Process of the Pauling's Research for Science Gifted Education

Creativity is always important in science gifted education. There are many research results about enhancing the creativity. One of the ways of enhancing students scientific` creativity is to let them think and research like scientists so that they can follow how scientists find problems and solve them. So in this study, scientific creative elements were extracted from the Pauling`s detailed examples of research process by using many documents. Abductive reasoning, paradox, changing the perspective, modeling, simplifying, converging thinking, diverging thinking, and metaphorical thinking are thinking methods that were extracted from the Pauling`s research process. Repeated experiment, co-experiment, using both theories and experiments, and social obligation as a scientist are research methods. Scientific creative elements that were extracted suggest some direction that have more scientific creativity, more ability to find problems, and more ability to form theories in science education or in science gifted education.