A Study on the Contextuality of the Science Education System

과학교육체제의 맥락성에 관한 연구

Due mainly to the complexity of educational system, it is difficult to comprehend the phenomena and nature of the science education. Educators have developed various kinds of means and methods useful for easy understanding of the phenomena and nature. This study added another method supporting that the phenomena and nature of the science education should be understood in the context of educational system. System approach into thought is holistic and contextual in nature. It focuses on both the whole and its relevant parts, and is concerned with environmental context. By its definition, a system interact not only with another system but also with its environments. The purpose of this study was to answer such questions as "What is the science education?", or "What is the meaning of the science education?", "Why do we teach science?", "Why are we ought to teach science?", and "How do we know that those facts and methods are valid?" The results for the study are as follows: 1. Science education is the human behavior with the purpose to attain something through science and education. It is socio-cultural process, social and organizational activity into which the public deeply involved. The process and activity are usually undergirded upon the value of science education. 2. The science education system is analyzed in the light of the legislative institution. The system model that characterize of the system and the interrelationship among the systems is suggested in terms of the conceptions of boundary, components, variables, parameters and linkage, etc. Then, the science education system is divided into the plan-system, do-system and see-system by the use of the criterion of plan-do-see that is the general process of human activity. The study also identified that the system of science education is consisted of the aspects of science education administration, school science education, and science education evaluation. 3. As the frame of thought on the contextuality in the science education system, the contexts of meaning, organization, legislation and policy were presented, along with the main cognitive interest, the system, the orientation, and the premise of each context which were used to explain the reasons. The results of this study suggested a new approach into the comprehension of the educational phenomena in teaching science and the possibility of understanding science education as a whole.