• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.648-657
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• 2001

Using the concepts on the need of existence of living things, we investigate students' concepts on interdependence concepts between living things. The purposes of this study are to identify components of conceptual ecologies influencing on students' concepts and to describe the relations between those components and their concepts. The subjects of this study are 4 boys, 2 girls in the 3rd grade of middle school. The sources of data used in this study include a questionnaire, interviews and observation of the discussion class. Then, all data collected through each methods are compared and summarized in the relation to the questions of research. As a conclusion, it reveals that students' concepts are connected with several cognitive or affective components. Especially, the major components influencing on students' concepts are their metaphysical beliefs, conceptions includes other fields. These components function as constraints. Given these results, a teacher who want to teach a new concept to students should consider their characteristics and the components of conceptual ecology.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.354-372
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to explore the philosophical position of various scientific theories based on the scientific worldviews for science education. In addition, it aims to expand science education, which has usually dealt with epistemology and methodology, to ontology, that is, to the problem of metaphysics. It can be said that there exists a physical realism, traditionally defined as a strong determinism of the metaphysical belief. That is fixed and unchanging objective scientific knowledge independent of our minds, which was established by Newton, Einstein and Schridinger. What can be seen in the natural laws of dynamics can be called 'mathematicization'. Einstein also shook the traditional views to some extent through the theory of relativity, but his theory was still close to traditional thinking. On the contrary, to escape from this rigid determinism, we need anthropomorphic concepts such as 'possibility' and 'chance'. It is a characteristic of the modern scientific worldviews that leads the change of scientific theory from a classically strong deterministic thought to a weak deterministic accidental accident, probability theory, and a naturalistic point of view. This can be said to correspond to Darwin's theory of evolution and quantum mechanics. We can have three types of epistemological worlds that justify this ontological worldviews. These are rationalism, empiricism and naturalism. In many cases, science education does not tell us what kind of metaphysical beliefs the scientific theories we deal with in the field of education are based on. Also, science education focuses only on the understanding of scientific knowledge. However, it can be said that true knowledge can bring understanding only when it is connected to the knowledge of learned knowledge and the learner's own metaphysical belief in the world. Therefore, in the future, science education needs to connect various scientific theories based on scientific worldviews and philosophical position and present them to students.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.398-407
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• 2000

We investigated people's patterns of reasoning regarding the Korean traditional interpretation of Planet Occultation by the Moon. A questionnaire survey was administered to the sample which consisted of 632 participants: middle school students(n=164), high school students(n=157), university students(n=172), and the public(n=139). It was revealed that 15.7% of the participants agreed, 38.1% disagreed, and 46.2% were neutral to the traditional interpretation. A comparatively large portion of the university students made a scientifically correct judgement by disagreeing with the traditional interpretation. On the other hand, a relatively small proportion of the middle school students disagreed. Participants' views of nature and views of science were the major reasons for making their judgements. Most participants were fixed with similar views to the Korean traditional view of nature. Most of the participants valued using more extensive evidence and experimental proofs in science. High school and university students considered their metaphysical beliefs, such as view of nature and view of science, more important than other groups did. In contrast to this, middle school students and the public depended more strongly on their personal experiences. Participants' social experiences and their scientific knowledge were also important reasons for making their judgement. However the differences in their scientific knowledge seemed to exert different influences on their reasoning. The results of this study show differences in how an individual thinks as well as differences between communities. Thus, science education and research considering multicultural settings are needed. In addition, science educators and researchers should pay attention to pupils' metaphysical beliefs such as their views of nature and views of science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.592-608
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• 2007

This study explored the types of conceptual change of 'force' within middle school students' conceptual ecologies. This qualitative study was implemented with the use of classroom observations and two interviews with the participants. 11 middle school students (7 females and 4 males) joined in this study. The interviews with the participants were conducted individually before and after the 'force' unit. The collected data were all transcribed and analyzed interpretively. The results of this study consisted of two parts. First, the participants' conceptual ecologies of 'force' were categorized into 4: epistemological commitments (fixed or interactional explanatory consistency), analogy (attribute, working), metaphysical beliefs (people-oriented ontology, animism, causationism, mixed), and past experiences. Second, two representative cases including 'stable' and 'transitional' states were explained based on the interactions within their own conceptual ecologies. We can see students' conceptions with the integrated perspective in the sense that this results tried to get contextual and interactional understandings of the status of the conception and the possibilities of conceptual change. In addition, it implied that conceptual change research should have the perspective of conceptual ecology evolution in the future.