An analysis of Korean language textbooks currently used by Korean children and of nationally-administered reading comprehension test items for high school graduates reveals a text-oriented reading comprehension approach in South Korea. Text orientation--seeing individual words, phrases, and sentences as semantically unified into a meaningful…

Many researchers believe that prior knowledge is the single most important variable influencing learning. Learning in the classroom is determined or affected positively or negatively, to some degree, by the knowledge people bring to the classroom. This study was designed to: (1) assess fifth- and eighth-grade Korean students' misconceptions of…