INT. J. SCI. EDUC., 2002, VOL. 24, NO.

10, 1021– 1035

RESEARCH REPORT

The development of an alternative in-service

programme for Korean science teachers with an
emphasis on science-technology-society

Jungil Cho, Department of Biology Education, Chonnam National University,

Gwangju, Korea 500-757; e-mail: [email protected]

This study looks at the effects of a science-technology-society (STS) in-service programme, designed to
change teachers’ awareness and practice of STS/constructivist approaches, while also focusing on
students’ understandings and changes of perceptions of the constructivist learning environments.
The STS in-service programme was developed to achieve the following features: teacher-oriented,
teaching in a social context, emphasis on a ‘constructivist’ approach, developing STS units and their
use in classrooms. A total of 20 middle and high school science teachers participated in the in-service
programme in 1998; and three of the middle school teachers were selected to gain information from
their implementation of a Reactions of Acids and Bases unit in their respective classrooms. The Science
Education Reform Inventory was administered to all the teachers at both the opening and the end of the
programme. One hundred twenty-five students of the three teachers experienced about 16 class hours of
lessons comprising the new STS unit. At the beginning and the end of the unit, they completed the
Constructivist Learning Environment Survey. In order to assess student understanding, teachers ad-
ministered the creativity test before and after the unit; and the concept acquisition test and the applica-
tion test after the unit.
Students obtained at average 48% of the 35 key concepts and 6.6 additional non-key concepts after the
unit was finished. Students made more relevant and creative responses on unfamiliar situations on the
post-test than on the pre-test. Through several tasks including a short essay, students showed their
abilities to apply various concepts related to acids and bases to daily life situation.
It was found that the STS programme improved the teachers’ awareness and practices of the science
education reforms characterized by STS and constructivism. The middle school science teachers could
develop STS units which they implemented in their own classrooms. They could work together in
developing units and reflecting on their teachings through video recordings of science classes. They
were willing to assess various aspects of learning such as creativity, application and concept acquisition.
Students perceived that the classroom environments improved in terms of personal relevance of con-
tents, scientific uncertainty and student participation. The results showed that the STS in-service
programme was effective and could be implemented successfully with Korean science teachers.

Introduction
The twenty-first century has brought changes and challenges for several aspects of
education, for example, the Internet enables many people to have easy access for
any kind of information, and the school is losing its role as the main place for
learning to occur. People routinely turn to the Internet rather than to school
teachers or other professionals for information. Knowledge may become obsolete
very quickly in the twenty-first century as people continue to learn in order to cope
with circumstances around them. The transmission of knowledge or culture as the
major goal of education is replaced by coping with rapid change in all aspects of
International Journal of Science Education ISSN 0950–0693 print/ISSN 1464–5289 online # 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/09500690110095320
1022 J. CHO

society, or preparing for lives in an information- and knowledge-centred society.

These situations provide the basis for new goals of education in Korea.
Special changes in science education have occurred in the 1990s around the
globe. For example, the inclusion of technology and societal issues in teaching
science, and the centrality of constructivism as a theory of learning science are
new trends. Some publications illustrating these changes are: Science for All
Americans (American Association for Advancement in Science 1990), Project
2000+: Scientific and Technological Literacy for All (International Council of
Association for Science Education 1992), and Globalization of Science Education
(the title of an international conference on science education organized by the
Korean Educational Development Institute, Seoul, 1997).
Current science education reforms, as represented by big projects or docu-
ments such as the National Science Education Standards (NSES: National
Research Council 1996), Project 2061 (American Association for the
Advancement of Science 1993) and the Third International Mathematics and
Science Study (Martin and Kelly 1996) have established the common goals of
high science achievement in terms of science content and scientific investigation
(Lee and Paik 2000). The Korean Seventh National Curriculum aims at prepara-
tion of citizens who can use knowledge of science and technology to make decisions
about personal and social matters related to science. Individual schools and
teachers are supposed to treat textbooks as one of several materials, in contrast
to traditionally viewing textbooks as the only material to be covered for one seme-
ster or one year. Teachers are asked to take positive roles in organizing and imple-
menting their own curricula.
Teachers are now being asked to become ‘science and technology teachers’
(Gregorie 1997), ‘science-technology-society teachers’ (Yager 1996) and ‘construc-
tivist teachers’ (Brooks and Brooks 1993). Teachers should play various roles such
as curriculum developer and community collaborator, and be equipped with a list
of competencies such as communication skills and ability to encourage and facil-
itate student active learning.
The roles and competencies stated previously need to be pursued throughout
the career years; and this indicates that in-service education becomes important.
On the other hand, the present teacher education system is often blamed for the
lack of teacher professionalism in Korea. The roles of Korean science teachers in
professional development consisted of teachers as passive recipients of knowledge
and specific skills. The content of in-service education programmes did not draw
teachers’ interest nor raise their motivation because they could find little relevance
to their practical needs (Cho et al. 1989, Park et al. 1993, Lee et al. 1996). The
current Sixth National Curriculum placed emphasis on the social aspects of
science and technology in teaching science as well as the integration of science
subjects. A science subject called KongTongKwaHak (meaning integrated science)
was to be the only required science course for all high school students which was to
focus on inquiry, integration of sciences and science-technology-society.
In-service education is considered a vital component in determining the suc-
cess of educational reform (Lappan 2000, Yager 2000). In the context of science
education reform, the format for professional development for science teachers
should be a continuous lifelong process in which teachers play active and positive
roles. They must be given opportunities for intellectual professional growth rather
than technical training for specific skills. These must connect to teachers’ work in
ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1023

the context of the school (National Research Council 1996). Lappan (2000: 324)
indicated that some important characteristics of successful professional develop-
ment programmes were as follows:

(1) Student learning is the primary goal.

(2) They are strongly related to the curriculum and standards for which
teachers are held accountable.
(3) They build on teachers’ existing beliefs and knowledge, but push
teachers to examine their knowledge of content and their beliefs and
practices.
(4) They offer support for teachers that take into account the realities of
their school situations.
(5) They help build collaboration among teachers.
(6) They offer instruction and support that goes beyond a 1-day or 1-week
workshop. In fact, many researchers are reaching the conclusion that 1–3
years of support in rethinking their practice is essential to help teachers
realise real, lasting change.

One of the exemplary in-service programmes meeting the demands mentioned

above is the Iowa Chautauqua Program (ICP). The Iowa Chautauqua Program
was established as a model for the development of the alternative science in-service
education programmes for science teachers in Iowa and a multitude of other states
in the US, as well as other nations including Spain, Japan and Taiwan (Ogawa
1991, Yager and Tamir 1993, Yager et al. 1993, López Cerezo 1994, Pedretti and
Hodson 1995). This model provides assistance throughout the year for partici-
pating teachers. It begins with a two-week workshop for leaders in June, which
is followed with a three-week workshop for all teachers at each regional site in July.
The summer workshop series is designed to provide enrolled teachers with
experience of science/technology/society. In addition, the workshop provides a
review of goals, curriculum frameworks, analyses of teaching (videotapes and
journals), and assessment tools that exemplify the STS approach. Following a
five-day trial experience in their respective schools in the fall, teachers make
adjustments to their existing course plan to use in a 4–9 week teaching unit that
they develop in their respective schools. This is set as an experiment with several
pre-treatment assessments, videotaping, and post-treatment assessments.
Several studies showed that teachers completing all aspects of the Iowa
Chautauqua Program gained significantly in terms of their confidence to teach
science, their understanding of the nature of science and technology, their under-
standing of basic concepts and processes of science, and their abilities to use
strategies that could be termed constructivist (Yager 1991, Lochhead and Yager
1996). As a consequence of such changes from the participating teachers, their
students achieved more and better learning in terms of concept mastery, skill with
science processes, applications of science concepts, positive attitudes concerning
school science and careers, creativity and understanding the nature of science (Liu
1996). This study was proposed to study the effects of an STS in-service pro-
gramme, designed to change teachers’ awareness and practice of STS/constructi-
vist approaches, whilst also focusing on students’ understandings and changes of
perceptions of the constructivist learning environments.
1024 J. CHO

An STS in-service programme

In the 1990s, the University of Iowa’s Science Education Center took a major part
in conducting four-week, five-week and three-month workshops, involving
Korean science teachers. The institutes for Korean teachers were organized utiliz-
ing the features of the Iowa Chautauqua Program. They provided many Korean
teachers and researchers with various types of experiences with the programme. A
study showed that these workshops improved the teachers’ perceptions of con-
structivist learning environments (Cho et al. 1997).
An STS in-service programme for Korean science teachers was developed to
employ features that were adopted by the ICP at the same time as Lappan men-
tioned them. Such an attempt was suggested by the similar trend of science educa-
tion both in Korea, and at the global dimension in terms of the goal of high science
achievement and emphasis on in-service education for the success of educational
reform (Cho et al. 1997, Lee and Paik 2000). The special Korean workshop con-
sisted of two one-week workshops during vacations and a series of semester meet-
ings (figure 1). During one-week winter workshops, the teachers were helped to
understand and experience STS and constructivism for science teaching. Further,
they participated in the development of a unit for teaching in their classrooms.
During the spring semester, they taught the unit in their classrooms, and shared
their experiences and problems with other teachers in four three-hour meetings
during consecutive weekends. In addition, they learned more about constructivist
teaching strategies, including assessment practices and concept mapping. During
the one-week summer workshop, teachers evaluated the unit and the teaching
experiences. They, then, extended and improved their units based on the semester

Steps Contents

One-Week Winter ¨STS/constructivist approach

Workshop ¨Development of STS units

Four 3-hour Spring ¨Application of STS units into teacher classrooms

Semester Meetings ¨Internet, questioning skills, concept mapping and assessment

One-Week Summer ¨Evaluation

Workshop ¨Extension and improvement of STS units

Figure 1. Contents and procedures for the STS in-service programme.

ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1025

experiences and discussions. In addition, the university science educators provided

additional enrichment of content, including new trends in science education dur-
ing the workshop.

Development of STS units

Development of 10–20 class hour units was a central activity for the STS in-
service programme in Korea. The units were developed based on the Sixth
National Curriculum for Science in Korea. Various efforts were made by teachers
to develop the unit following the tenets of STS and constructivism. These
included:
(1) Connecting concepts to student lives or experiences.
(2) Changing textbook content in order to introduce student ideas.
(3) Presenting concrete concepts under the umbrella of big ideas.
(4) Stimulating students to get involved in learning through various
methods, such as asking questions, one-minute readings, opening stories,
etc.
(5) Teaching through student-centred activities.
(6) Commencing the title of each class hour by a question.
The unit development was performed by groups of teachers. The content of the
unit with the one group of three teachers on reactions of acids and bases is shown
in figure 2. The teachers were asked to teach the units that they developed during
the workshop in their respective classroom in the spring semester.

Implementation of the reactions of acids and bases unit

All of the three teachers who developed the ‘reactions of acids and bases unit’
taught it in their own classrooms. This study focused on a group of three teachers,
each of whom came from three different middle schools. They videotaped two
consecutive classes of the unit during the semester. The teachers brought video-
tapes to meetings and received responses from other teachers after watching them.
Teacher narratives about the teaching experiences were recorded during these
sessions.

Instruments
Three tests were used to assess the effect of the STS approach on students in terms
of concept acquisition, creativity and ability to apply the concepts to new situa-
tions. The teachers selected 35 concepts considered important from the unit. They
asked students to write the concepts after the unit was finished. The creativity test
aimed at assessing the quantity and the quality of the questions made in order to
make sense of an unfamiliar situation given, explanations that students made on
the unfamiliar situation and predictions of what might have happened in the future
as a result of the situation. The situation statements provided were, ‘we’ve had
deadly acid rain’ for two schools and ‘there were no food inspection standards’ for
one school. Prior to and after the unit, students were asked to write all of the
questions they could think of that would help them understand the situation
1026 J. CHO

The Titles by Class of the Reactions of Acids and Bases Unit

1st class: About sour and slippery matter
2nd class: We can make pH indicators on our own!
Concept Umbrella 1: Why are unripe grapes sour?
3rd class: What are the common characteristics of sour materials?
4th class: What makes fruit sour?
5th class: How can we tell the strength and weakness of sourness?
6th class: Do sour materials have the same chemical properties?
Concept Umbrella 2: The mystery of caustic soda
7th class: What are the common characteristics of slippery materials?
8th class: How can we tell strength and weakness of slippery materials?
9th class: Do slippery materials have the same chemical properties?
10th class: Can we make soap on our own?
Concept Umbrella 3: What can you do when bees sting on your arm?
11th class: Why don’t you rinse with vinegar when you have hair washed?
12th class: Heat occurs when sour and slippery materials meet.
13th class: What can you make with sour and slippery materials?
Concept Umbrella 4: Does rain cause a bald head?
14th class: Where does acid rain come from?
15th class: How can we solve acidic soil problem?
16th class: How can we stop acid rain?

Figure 2. The content of the Reactions of Acids and Bases unit.

described, to explain the situation and to list as many possibilities as they could of
what might have happened in the future as a result of the situation.
For the application test, the following tasks were provided after the study of
the unit:

. Write examples of acidic food and basic food from the food we often eat.
. Write two examples of the neutralization reaction found in daily life.
. List three examples of use of acids in our life.
. List three examples of use of bases in our life.
. Describe how to make and to apply cabbage indicator.
. Write a 200 word essay using the concepts learned in the unit.

The results of this study were not obtained from an experimental setup, but from
actual classrooms of the teachers who participated in the workshop. The achieve-
ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1027

ment scores or ratios of concept acquisition, performance on the creativity and

application tests were used to provide evidence for the effectiveness of the STS
approach. Information from the surveys were also used to evaluate the effective-
ness of the workshop experiences.
The Science Education Reform Inventory (SERI) was developed by the
author to assess teachers’ awareness and practices of science education reforms
characterized by STS and constructivism. The inventory consisted of a total of
21 statements, each of which is Likert-type scale with five responses, ‘Almost
Always’, ‘Often’, ‘Sometimes’, ‘Seldom’ and ‘Almost Never’. The statements
were concerned with various aspects of reform in science education: general aware-
ness of and openness to science education reforms; using student ideas and social
issues in teaching; trying to improve their own teaching skills; awareness of educa-
tional goals and new assessment methods; confidence for non-major science as well
as majors in college; taking into consideration misconceptions and levels of
abstraction; and teacher cooperation in unit development (see Appendix A).
The principal component factor analysis followed by varimax rotation method
was attempted using the data from 76 teachers who participated in the 1996 Iowa
Institute for Korean teachers and 66 teacher members of the Korean Association
for Research in Science Education that year, in addition to the sample size of this
study (n ˆ 20) which was too small for this analysis. The results revealed that the
inventory had two main factors, which could be termed as ‘awareness of the need
of science education reforms’ and ‘practices of science education reforms’, each
consisting of four and 17 items, respectively. The awareness scale was concerned
with the general need for national reforms in science education, the necessity to
teach science through the integrated approach and teachers’ necessity of profes-
sional development in science teaching. The practice scale was concerned with all
the aspects of science education reforms mentioned in the above paragraph. The
factor loadings, eigenvalues and proportion of variance explained by each factor
are shown in table 1 with only the factor loadings greater than the conventionally
accepted value of 0.30 included. The internal consistency reliabilities of the inven-
tory (Cronbach alpha coefficients) with the sample of 162 teachers were 0.90 for
the practices scale and 0.72 for the awareness scale.
The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) (Taylor and
Fraser 1991, Taylor et al. 1997) was used to assess the extent to which students
perceived features characterizing STS and constructivist approach in their science
classes. Since constructivist strategies have congruency with the STS approach
(Lutz 1996) and the translated version of the survey instrument was used in some
studies with Korean science teachers (Cho et al. 1997, Kim and Fisher 1999), the
CLES was chosen for the study. The CLES consists of five scales namely,
Personal Relevance, Scientific Uncertainty, Critical Voice, Shared Control and
Student Negotiation. It was used to assess the extent to which students perceived
features characterizing STS and constructivism in their science classes. Each scale
of the CLES consists of seven Likert-type items, with a scale of five responses
ranging from ‘almost always’ to ‘almost never’. Therefore, when using the numer-
ical rating for each response, the highest score and the lowest score for each scale
are 35 and 7, respectively. The instrument was translated into Korean in 1995 and
used repeatedly for Korean teachers and students. Several revisions were made to
clarify the meanings based on the suggestions from teachers and students. The
translation was confirmed by Korean science educators.
1028 J. CHO

Table 1. Factor loadings for the SERI items.

Factor loadings

Item No Factor 1 Factor 12

21 0.75
10 0.68
20 0.66
16 0.62
11 0.61
3 0.60
17 0.58
6 0.56
8 0.54
9 0.52
5 0.52
18 0.47
12 0.44
19 0.38
15 0.36
14 0.32
13 0.31
2 0.85
1 0.78
7 0.48
4 0.41

Eigenvalues 6.35 1.39

Proportions of variance explained 0.66 0.14

The CLES was administered to 125 ninth grade students in this study. The
internal consistency reliabilities for each scale (Cronbach alpha coefficients) ran-
ged 0.74 to 0.84, with an exception of the Scientific Uncertainty scale, where the
reliability was found to be 0.53.
A study on the CLES showed that qualitative data obtained by interviews
provided precautionary information regarding students’ understanding of some
items of the instrument and the use of a Western survey to measure constructivist
learning environments in Taiwan (Aldridge et al. 2000). The Taiwanese students’
responses in interviews on the Shared Control and Student Negotiation scales did
not reflect the scores of the CLES. Taiwanese students did not expect or want to
be involved in lesson planning, as illustrated by the Share of Control scale. The
students considered lesson planning as the teachers’ own work and that it was not
to be shared with students. The precaution that Aldridge et al. (2000) suggested
seems to be the case with Korean samples because both Korean and Taiwan
apparently shared similar values toward teachers. Behaviours stated in some
items of the Shared Control scale and the Student Negotiation scale are not
often observed in Korean science classrooms.
The SERI was administered to 20 teachers enrolled at the opening of the
winter workshop and at the end of the summer workshop. The CLES was admin-
istered before and after teaching the unit to 125 ninth grade students whom three
enrolled teachers from three different schools taught using the Reactions of Acids
and Bases unit in the Spring semester of 1998.
ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1029

Results
The results of this study were obtained both from teacher narratives and portfolios
of concept acquisition, creativity and application tests as well as from the SERI for
teachers and CLES for students. All of the participating teachers reported that
awareness of science education reforms increased through the programme, and
that several STS/constructivist teaching behaviours were observed in the video
recordings of the teaching in their own classrooms. The reports were also con-
firmed by the results of the SERI.
While the workshop progressed, teachers developed the unit successfully using
the tenets of STS/constructivist approach for teaching science. Teachers originally
felt that they could not do without textbooks, but they were assured that they could
develop teaching materials based on what they thought would work with their
students. The teachers had opportunities to reflect on their teachings or to review
other teachers’ teaching. This enabled them to get peer reviews and evaluate their
own teaching. They recognized that STS/constructivist strategies worked in their
classrooms. During the programme, the enrolled teachers formed a self-study
group directed by themselves for which they received research funding from the
Korean Ministry of Education for studying STS/constructivist teaching.
Concerning concept acquisition, students from the three classes could write on
average 48% of the 35 key concepts and 6.6 additional non-key concepts after the
unit was finished (table 2). Despite that the STS approach focused on student-
centred activities, students could write about a half of the key concepts from the
unit. The teachers judged that students’ concept acquisition was at the acceptable
level compared with the achievement of the other usual classes.
Concerning the creativity test, student responses were classified into three
types: creative, relevant and non-relevant. Creative meant the responses that
were relevant to the situation, but were suggested only by a few students. The
mean relevant responses for the strong acid rain situation increased from 4.69 to
6.13, 3.25 to 4.25 and 5.88 to 6.23 between pre-test and post-test in the three tasks
of making questions, explaining and predicting, respectively (table 3). Mean crea-
tive responses also increased from 1.08 to 1.71, 0.58 to 1.02 and 1.30 to 2.35 in the
three tasks, respectively. For the no food inspection standards situation, the mean
relevant responses increased from 5.07 to 5.47, 0.89 to 1.18 and 1.33 to 1.40. The
mean creative responses for the situation did make small improvements between
pre-test and post-test.
Concerning the application test, students of two schools scored over 1.65 and
1.34 out of 2 on average, in examples of acidic and basic food and, neutralization
reaction respectively (table 4). Students of one school scored 3.25 out of 5 on
average in examples of acidic and basic food task. For use of acids and bases in
our life tasks, students scored 2.56 and 2.51 out of 3 on average, respectively. For

Table 2. Mean concept acquisition test scores and ratios.

School 1 School 2 School 3 Total

Types of concepts (n ˆ 43) (n ˆ 40) (n ˆ 49) (n ˆ 132)

35 Key concepts 16.2 (46.3) 16.3 (46.4) 17.7 (50.6) 16.8 (48.0)
Non-key concepts 5.2 6.2 8.5 6.6
1030 J. CHO

Table 3. Mean responses on pre-test and post-test of creativity test.

No food inspection
Deadly acid rain (n ˆ 83) standards (n ˆ 49)
Type of
Tasks response Pre-test Post-test Pre-test Post-test

Making questions to Relevant 4.69 6.13 5.07 5.47

make sense of the situation Creative 1.08 1.71 1.22 1.40
Explaining the Relevant 3.25 4.25 0.89 1.18
situation Creative 0.58 1.02 0.20 0.22
Predicting the results due Relevant 5.88 6.23 1.33 1.40
to the situation Creative 1.30 2.35 0.47 0.47

Table 4. Means and standard deviations of the application test.

School 1 School 2 School 3

Application tasks (n ˆ 43) (n ˆ 40) (n ˆ 49)

M SD M SD M SD
Examples of acidic food 1.73/2 0.40 1.65/2 0.51 3.25/5 2.06
and basic food
Examples of neutralization 1.34/2 0.59 1.68/2 0.52 N/A
reaction
Examples of use of bases 2.56/3 0.82 N/A N/A
Examples of use of acids 2.51/3 0.77 N/A N/A
How to make and apply 0.73/1 0.42 N/A 1.21/2 0.80
cabbage indicator
Essay using the concepts N/A 2.50/3 0.59 N/A
of the unit
Notes: M stands for the mean score/the maximum possible score. SD stands for standard deviation.
Application tasks varied a little among the schools.

the essay using the concepts of the unit task, students scored 2.5 out of 3 on
average. Through the essay, students showed their ability to apply various con-
cepts related to acids and bases to daily life situation.
The t values and effect sizes were calculated to investigate the differences
between pre-test and post-test of SERI. The effect sizes were 0.76 for the practice
scale, and 0.26 for the awareness scale (table 5). The effect sizes suggested mean-
ingful differences within the practices of science education reforms before and
after the workshop. The t test results showed that there was a statistically signifi-

Table 5. Mean, standard error, effect size and t value for differences
between pre-test and post-test for 20 teachers in awareness of need
and practices of science education reform.

No. of Pre-test Post-test Mean of Standard Effect

Scale items mean mean difference error size t

Awareness of necessity 4 16.7 17.2 0.50 0.28 0.26 1.81*

Practice 17 49.3 55.9 6.65 1.31 0.76 5.07**
Notes: *p < 0:10 **p < 0:0001.
ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1031

cant difference (p < 0:0001) between pre-test and post-test for the practices of
science education reforms.
The analysis of individual statements showed that teachers were well aware of
those teaching skills that needed to be improved even before this workshop; sub-
sequently, action research was performed through the workshop for the purpose of
developing those teaching skills (see Appendix A for individual statements). The
teachers responded that they used alternative assessment instruments more often
after the workshop. Despite there being no emphasis on science content through-
out the workshop, teachers’ confidence to teach non-major sciences increased.
Teachers often used more teaching skills that could be called constructivist, for
example, asking questions that cause reflection, and adopting ‘from concrete to
abstract’ principles in their teaching. Overall, the teacher’s responses on SERI
appeared to indicate that the workshop motivated and enabled the participating
teachers to adopt a STS/constructivist approach in their classrooms. Such changes
were followed by increases in student achievements and attitude, as indicated by
the three tests and a survey.
While the data showed statistical significances on the items of the inventory,
some teachers reported that they did not implement the units developed during the
workshop in their classrooms because they were difficult to teach. Especially cer-
tain high school teachers taught only one class hour of KongTongKwaHak for a
week, because they were assigned to teach only their major areas out of the subject.
KongTongKwaHak would be divided into four science content areas, that is,
physics, chemistry, biology and earth science, so that teachers could teach their
own major area. However, it was intended and hoped in the sixth national cur-
riculum that one teacher could teach KongTongKwaHak as a whole, no matter
what science the teacher majored in at college. This situation seemed to restrict the
effectiveness of the workshop at the high school level.
Some middle school science teachers have been encouraged and, eventually,
required to use units in their classrooms. Groups of teachers met with the author
regularly during the semester, and discussed their experiences with teaching the
unit. Without regular meetings and discussion following the workshop, it would
have been hard for them alone to apply the STS/constructivist approach in their
classrooms.
Effect sizes and t values were calculated to investigate the difference in
students’ perceptions of constructivist learning environments between pre-test
and post-test. The effect sizes ranged between 0.18 and 0.35 (table 6). The values
were not large, but overall mean scores were relatively high compared with those of
Korean high school students in another study (Kim and Fisher 1999). The values
were about the same as scores of students from Australia and Taiwan in the scales
of Personal Relevance and Critical Voice, and lower in the scale of Uncertainty
(Aldridge et al. 2000). T tests used to ascertain whether differences in scale scores
between pre-test and post-test were statistically significant showed that there were
differences in Personal Relevance scale (p < 0:01), Scientific Uncertainty scale
(p < 0:05) and Critical Voice scale (p < 0:01). Scores in the Share of Control
scale were lower than those in the other scales. The result seemed to be consistent
with what Aldridge et al. (2000) indicated namely that the survey did not show the
reality of the classrooms fully, and multiple methods were recommended to gain
meaningful insights into students’ responses to a certain construct.
1032 J. CHO

Table 6. Reliability, mean, standard deviation, effect size and t test

between pre-test and post-test of CLES scales.

Pre-test (N ˆ 125) Post-test (N ˆ 125)

Effect
Scales Reliability M SD M SD size t

Personal relevance 0.74 21.11 4.30 22.55 4.63 0.33 3.03**

Scientific uncertainty 0.53 21.47 2.94 22.19 3.47 0.24 2.06*
Critical voice 0.66 19.09 4.43 20.65 5.26 0.35 3.00**
Share of control 0.84 15.47 5.26 16.36 5.23 0.17 1.67
Student negotiation 0.84 19.98 5.59 20.98 5.69 0.18 1.85

Notes: *p < 0:05 **p < 0:01.

The scores in three scales indicated that the STS/constructivist approach

resulted in the differences in teacher behaviours. The Personal Relevance scale
represents the key element in science education reform. In order that students may
find motivation for learning and have deep understanding, teachers should be able
to make science topics relevant to the world outside classrooms. This scale contains
the tenet of the STS approach and the constructivist strategies. In fact, the
teachers who enrolled in the workshop made their efforts to relate science concepts
to student life in development of the unit and its application.

Conclusion
The Science-Technology-Society approach is a new trend in the current national
curriculum in Korea. On the other hand, teachers have had little opportunity to
learn how to teach science in the social context, and most in-service programmes
focus on science content, and do not deal with teaching methods and new trends in
science education. Especially, only a low number of supplementary materials are
available for teachers to develop and teach STS units.
The alternative in-service programme was a new attempt in terms of content
and format. The programme was implemented with the purpose of equipping
teachers with understandings and teaching techniques related to the STS and
constructivism. The programme was implemented during two vacations and the
spring semester period so that classroom teaching using the units and feedbacks
from peer teachers and university researchers might be possible. Throughout the
programme, teachers had unique opportunities to develop the STS units, to work
together, to teach units in their classrooms, and to reflect upon their teaching using
videotapes and comments from peer teachers. The units that they developed were
shared with each other, and as a result the participating teachers were provided
with materials covering several units in the curriculum.
High school teachers found it difficult to teach the units in their classrooms
because most of them taught only one hour of science subject to each class a week.
However, middle school teachers did not have any problem applying units in their
classrooms. Despite that, only small number of groups reported on the implemen-
tation of the units, and the data of this study came from one of the groups. The
teachers showed their potentials to develop units relevant to the world outside
classrooms, and to teach the units in the classroom. As the result of teaching the
ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1033

STS unit, students obtained acceptable levels of science understanding, as shown

by the concept acquisition, creativity and application test scores. These were note-
worthy results since the STS approach had been considered to weaken science
understanding in favour of student interest and motivation.
The SERI and CLES survey results showed that teachers performed more
frequent practices in various aspects of science education reforms. Especially,
through the SERI results, improvements were found in aspects such as using
student ideas and social issues in teaching, awareness of educational goals and
new assessment methods, applying recent research findings on learning to their
teaching and cooperating in unit development. The survey results suggested that
teachers could make differences in constructing constructivist learning environ-
ments through the alternative in-service programme with an emphasis on STS and
about one year of support through university staff and peer teachers.
The teachers were willing to participate in the programme containing such
features as teacher-oriented, teaching in a social context, emphasis on a construc-
tivist approach, developing STS units and their use in classrooms. Teachers were
pleased to work together, to learn new strategies, and to develop units under their
own control. From this study, it can be concluded that the STS in-service pro-
gramme can be applied in Korea as an alternative for educating science teachers for
the twenty-first century. In order to apply the science-technology-society
approach more fruitfully, various kinds of materials and continuing in-service
programme from which teachers can get information and feedback should be
available, and a change of educational system is also required especially for high
schools.

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Appendix A: Items in Science Education Reform Inventory (SERI)

Awareness of Need of Science Education Reform Scale
(1) I am aware of the need of science education reform in Korea.
(2) I am willing to be involved in science education reform efforts.
(4) I recognize the necessity to teach such topics as ‘weather’ through the integrated
approach.
(7) I am aware of the areas where I need to improve my teaching skills.
Practices of Science Education Reform Scale
(3) I am trying to improve the science education in my science classrooms.
ALTERNATIVE IN-SERVICE PROGRAMME FOR KOREAN SCIENCE TEACHERS 1035

(5) I use out-of-school issues or topics to motivate students or to organize my science

lesson.
(6) I use student ideas in teaching my classes.
(8) I attempt to assess the effects of my teaching or a specific approach on students’
learning.
(9) I share my experiences and ideas about science teaching with other teachers.
(10) I emphasize several domains of science, i.e., processes and the applications of
science as well as the basic concepts.
(11) I try to assess all major areas of students learning, that is, concepts, processes,
attitudes, applications, creativity, and nature of science.
(12) I use assessment instruments other than multiple-choice.
(13) I have the content background required for the disciplines of science that I am
teaching.
(14) I am confident to teach other science areas that were not my major in college.
(15) I have learned science knowledge necessary for the discipline of science that I am
teaching through in-service programmes.
(16) I learn new facts about how students learn science through my teaching experi-
ences and by reading publications like journals.
(17) I apply the principle of ‘from concrete to abstract’ in my classes and in develop-
ing modules.
(18) I ask questions that cause students reflect and share on their own thoughts and
conceptions.
(19) I am aware of the necessity to develop modules for my science teaching.
(20) I work cooperatively with other teachers in developing and teaching modules.
(21) I use students’ ideas and information from other materials than textbooks on
developing modules.