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The Korean government has been interested in developing creativity in education and has attempted to increase the creativity of schools since the mid-1990s. This study critically reviews the efforts of the Korean Government over the past 20 years. The study analyses government documents and related department website materials published since mid-1990s when creativity emerged as a key agenda in Korean education policy. The results reveal that the government's endeavours for achieving creativity include increasing flexibility in the national curriculum, developing teachers' creativity by improving teacher education, and establishing supporting systems such as online information websites and teaching and learning materials. However, these efforts have not achieved a real transformation in schools. For the government to achieve its aims, this study recommends that it supports an emphasis on creativity in school subjects and supports teacher-driven development of teaching materials.

Background: Drug-induced adverse symptoms affect patients' quality of life (QoL) during treatment. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of drug-induced adverse effects could help prevent them. As current drugs have limited effects in halting the progress of Alzheimer's disease (AD), patients are required to take these drugs over a long period. The main obstacles to long-term compliance are drug-elicited side effects that deteriorate patient QoL. Objective: Donepezil, the most popular acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) drug for AD, induces various side effects, especially at high doses. This study aimed to identify a drug that can attenuate the side effects of donepezil and investigate the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Five-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats received daily oral donepezil and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for four weeks. General symptoms following administration were monitored daily to address drug-related adverse effects. Cytosolic calcium influx and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) after drug treatment were measured in vitro using C2C12 myotubes. Results: High-dose donepezil induced numerous adverse symptoms in male and female rats, which were markedly attenuated by co-treatment with NAC. NAC significantly reduced both acute and chronic muscle-related symptoms caused by donepezil. Additionally, in vitro studies showed that high-dose donepezil increased ROS and intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) levels in muscle cells, contributing to these adverse effects. NAC co-treatment dramatically reduced ROS and [Ca2+]i levels in muscle cells. Conclusions: Combined treatment with NAC effectively diminishes the adverse effects elicited by donepezil by regulating ROS and [Ca2+]i levels in the skeletal muscle, which could contribute to improving donepezil treatment in patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revisiting task-based interviews from 2016, the authors explore the complexities of doing interviews with a particular emphasis on racial and ethnic issues among South Korean adolescents. The study shows that such interviews can go beyond simple information collection, transforming into an educational experience that addresses often-overlooked issues. Reanalyzing these interview experiences through the lens of Karen Barad's theory of agential realism, the study illuminates the entanglement of all agencies involved and their collaborative becoming during interviews. By reading diffractively past interview transcripts with this perspective, this study offers new insights into the interview process, highlighting the dynamic intra-actions between human and non-human agents. This viewpoint contests the conventional belief that only humans play an active role in research and challenges the traditional notion of interviews merely serving as data collection tools for the researcher. Consequently, the study highlights the importance of researchers being sensitive and open while navigating the diffraction in intra-actions that are inherent in qualitative interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine whether recent educational attempts to prepare students for the future can open up the future, using South Korea's 'high school credit system' as an example. To provide differentiated instruction that recognizes differences and maximizes students' potential, the Korean government recently launched a 'high school credit system.' The primary goal of this system is to assist students in identifying their strengths and interests, selecting courses for them to pursue, and following their plans independently. The system appears to respect each student's unique personality and value the self-dominance of the liberating subject. Ironically, however, it expects students to map their lives according to 'given' or molar identitarian categories for self-formation, thereby representing already constructed life forms. It subjugates students' potential by linking subjective formation to society's dominant codes and deploying the forged self within existing social structures. To avoid limiting students' potential, it is essential to refrain from defining 'the self' as a given and fixed construct and restricting education solely to courses that match its current characteristics. Education for a future should promote a flexible educational journey that accommodates changes in interests and passions as they evolve over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of cosmopolitanism is emerging as an explicit aim of the Korean educational system. Over the course of its 5,000-year history, Korea has been characterized by a largely homogeneous population. In recent years, however, it has begun to face the challenges of a multicultural society, and thus the notion of cosmopolitanism plays an important role in providing a vision for the reinterpretation of Korean identity. The purpose of this study is to explore how cosmopolitan perspectives have been reflected in recent changes to the Korean national curriculum. To achieve this aim, the study analyses national curriculum documents put in place after the mid-1990s, when great debates over educational reform emerged in the wake of globalization. In particular, the study focuses on two aspects of the manifestation of cosmopolitan perspectives: the policies associated with the Korean national curriculum, and the contents of the social studies and moral education curricula. The study concludes with a discussion of the conflicts surrounding the idea of cosmopolitanism in the Korean national curriculum.