• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.86-106
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to develop an astronomy education program reflecting astronomical thinking to be used at science museum and to investigate the effect of the program on the improvement of astronomical thinking ability of high school students. After selecting the components of astronomical thinking through literature studies, we developed an astronomy education program consisting of four stages: demonstration and observation, and question and thinking, support and group discussion, demonstration and assessment. In order to verify the effectiveness of the program, we conducted a covariance analysis on the pre- and post-tests of the experimental group and control group to examine the level of students' thinking before and after using the program in teaching and learning. As a result, it was confirmed that the astronomy education program reflecting astronomical thinking was effective in promoting students' astronomical thinking ability. In particular, this program was effective in enhancing the ability of modeling by reconstructing the observed astronomical phenomenon from the viewpoint of the universe with respect to spatial thinking in the astronomy domain. It was also effective to improve the ability of organizing the system by grasping the relationship between the elements constituting the astronomical system in relation to the system thinking in the astronomy domain. This study is significant in suggesting a specific teaching and learning program to develop students' astronomical thinking.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.125-144
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the astronomical thinking level of elementary, middle, and high school students using ordered multiple choice items. For this purpose, we constructed a questionnaire comprising three items about spatial thinking and system thinking. This survey was conducted and applied to 1,066 students in the 5th grade, 8th grade, and 11th grade in 12 schools located in Gangwon Province. The collected student response data were analyzed by applying inferential statistics of classical test theory and Rasch model. The results of the analysis were as follows; First, in the level of spatial thinking, students were able to grasp the spatial location and orientation of the celestial body, but were not able to convert the celestial motion of two-dimensional plane into three-dimensional plane, and it was revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the spatial thinking of students among grade levels. Second, in the level of system thinking, students were able to identify the components and relationship between components of the celestial motion system, but could not identify the patterns of the system, and it was revealed that there was statistically significant difference among the system thinking of students in different grade levels, unlike in spatial thinking. Third, the astronomical thinking expressed in certain context (content) was very similar regardless of grade level, Through this, we could confirm the context-dependency or content-dependency of the astronomical thinking of students. It is expected that the results of this study can be used as basic data for exploring ways to enhance astronomical thinking level in school science classes.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.721-723
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• 2015

Astronomical outreach activities for the general public who are unfamiliar to astronomy is a challenging task. It requires creative thinking to solve the problem. The amateur astronomical clubs in a number of cities in Indonesia routinely schedule observations at public parks. The interaction between these clubs and formal education institutions is established by face to face interaction and assisted by social media. The physics teachers who took astronomy courses in university are potential resources to enlarge the outreach scope by creating astronomical clubs as an extracurricular activity. Recent progressive trends in astronomy dissemination for the disabled are also a great opportunity to assist the disabled in experiencing hands-on activities based on formal and informal education.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.103-116
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to explore $6^{th}$ graders learning progression for lunar phase change focusing astronomical systems thinking. By analyzing the results of previous studies, we developed the constructed-response items, set up the hypothetical learning progressions, and developed the item analysis framework based on the hypothetical learning progressions. Before and after the instruction on the lunar phase change, we collected test data using the constructed-response items. The results of the assessment were used to validate the hypothetical learning progression. Through this, we were able to explore the learning progression of the earth-moon system in a bottom-up. As a result of the study, elementary students seemed to have difficulty in the transformation between the earth-based perspective and the space-based perspective. In addition, based on the elementary school students' learning progression on lunar phase change, we concluded that the concept of the lunar phase change was a bit difficult for elementary students to learn in elementary science curriculum.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.708-718
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• 2004

On the basis of Sternberg's theory of mental self-government, this examined the difference in thinking style between gifted science students and non-gifted students, and their earth science concepts by the different types of thinking styles. The subjects were consisted of 120 students from the Busan Science Academy and 122 students from two general high schools in Busan, Korea. All participants responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory which is a self-report test consisting of 65 items, and essay questions for examining the students' earth science concepts. The results are as follows. First, the gifted science students prefer legislative, judical, anarchic, global, and liberal styles, where non-gifted students prefer executive, oligarchic, and conservative styles. Second, Type I thinking style group prove to have more complex concepts in relation to the geological and astronomical areas than those of the Type II thinking style group in both of the gifted and non-gifted students. This indicates that Type I thinking style students use a deep learning approach where Type II thinking style students use a surface learning approach.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.591-608
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze system thinking revealed in science teachers' teaching practices of middle school astronomy classes. Astronomy lessons were video-taped from four eighth grade science teachers. The video recordings were all transcribed and analyzed by employing a framework for systems thinking analysis after modifying an existing frame of hierarchial structure used in relevant previous studies. In addition, four participants were interviewed in order to uncover their orientation toward teaching using video stimulated recall method. Findings are as follows: All participating teachers were not able to employ the four levels of system thinking appropriately and only utilized the low level of systems thinking. They also demonstrated teacher-centered practices for employing system thinking despite their student-centered orientation toward teaching. The main reason for these results may be that teachers focused more on spatial thinking, than on system thinking as well as the lack of teacher's knowledge about the content and formative assessment of non-earth science teachers. Implications on how to effectively employ the system thinking in astronomy class are discussed in this paper.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.501-520
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• 2022

Considering the importance of spatial thinking in the process of learning astronomy, it is necessary to educate pre-service teachers on teaching methods that consider spatial thinking from the teacher training program stage. Accordingly, after providing education on spatial thinking to pre-service science teachers, problems and improvement plans perceived by them were explored for the images and inquiry activities of astronomy textbook units. In this study, spatial thinking in the astronomical domain was defined as the amalgam of the concepts of space, representation tools, and reasoning processes. The juniors attending the University of Education in the metropolitan area were educated on spatial thinking for two weeks in October 2021. They were then asked to voluntarily select one of the astronomy units to analyze problems in the textbooks and present modification plans to address those problems. Finally, 33 cases presented by 22 pre-service science teachers were analyzed, and the results of the study were as follows. Pre-service teachers recognized the problems in textbooks in terms of the concepts of space and reasoning processes, and proposed improvement plans to supplement them. However, in some cases, even if pre-service teachers properly recognized a problem, the improvement plan was not appropriate, or they were not able to analyze the images or inquiry activities in terms of spatial thinking. This study is significant in that it shows that pre-service teachers have the potential to properly reorganize and revise textbooks by participating in teacher training programs on spatial thinking. Furthermore, based on the results of this study, the direction of the teacher training program concerning spatial thinking was discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.719-730
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• 2004

The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) was established and its foundation were published by the Euro-Asian Astronomical Society (EAAS), in order to spread astronomical knowledge, promote international cooperation in astronomical education area, and recognize the importance of astronomy in far-reaching field of science and human culture. In 1996, the first IAO was held at the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) of the Russian Academy of sciences (RAS) located in the north Caucasus of Russia. Since then, it has been held every year. Here, we will describe the present status of the International Astronomy Olympiad, its major results by year, related institutions, organizations, and the main regulations regarding its operation. In order to measure the levels of scientific knowledge and thinking abilities, we develop a rubric to analyze the characteristics of problems in the IAO with regards to cognitive aspects of scientific inquiry. These problems require high levels of content knowledge and scientific method knowledge. Also high order thinking abilities and high levels of convergent thinking skills, instead of divergent, are needed to solve these problems. Thus, the problems presented are set a high difficulty. Through this analysis, we can understand main purpose of the International Astronomy Olympiad and explore the future direction of the Korea Astronomy Olympiad.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.109-121
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• 2008

The International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) was established by the Euro-Asian Astronomical Society in order to disseminate astronomical knowledge, promote international cooperation in astronomical education area and recognize the importance of astronomy in far-reaching field of science and human culture. The first IAO competition was held at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences located in the north Caucasus of Russia in 1996. Since then, it has been held every year. This paper describes the present status of the IAO main regulations regarding its operation and major results by year, related institutions, and organizations. We created a scientific inquiry framework to analyze past IAO problems in the recognitive aspect in order to measure levels of the scientific knowledges and the scientific thinking abilities. Through this analysis, we can understand the current status of the IAO, and examine the future direction of Korea Astronomy Olympiad. Also, we can make preparation for the IAO competition and the education of delegates.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.393-406
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• 2014

Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is intrinsically domain/topic-specific knowledge for teachers' expertise. On the basis of this idea about PCK, we investigated in-service science teachers' topic-specific PCK on the unit of stars and universe in terms of teachers' knowledge and practices. We observed four middle school science teachers' classes for eighth graders, and took the videos of the classes. The topics of the classes covered constellation, annual parallax and the distance of stars, and the expansion of the universe. We also examined the teachers' pedagogical thinking through video stimulated recall interviews. In addition, we developed a protocol to analyze the levels of participant teachers' PCK and the characteristics revealed in their classes on each topic. Results of the study showed that the participant teachers' level of PCK varied across the topics of classes and the sub-components of PCK. We also identified teaching orientations played key roles in shaping overall characteristics of their PCK. Moreover, astronomical thinking such as spatial thinking and system thinking, was not appropriately embedded as the specific practices into the astronomical concepts in their instructions. We discussed the implications on the progressions of teachers' PCK in terms of their professional development.