The Effects of Science Drama Teaching on Pupils' Perceptions about the Nature of Science

과학 연극 수업이 과학 본성에 대한 초등학생의 인식에 미치는 영향

The importance of teaching the nature of science (NOS) has been always emphasized in science education. However, the NOS is hardly taught in elementary science class. We are lacking in the strategies and materials for teaching NOS. So we designed the science drama teaching, and investigated the effects on pupils' perceptions about NOS. The subjects of this study were 185 third graders from a elementary school. The treatment group was provided with science drama lessons and the control group was provided with traditional lecture-type lessons. Their perceptions about NOS were investigated before/after the science lessons and after 3 months following them, and both of two groups were compared. The pretest results revealed that the pupils of both groups were found to have similar views on NOS. Dey had traditional views of the most items except for social construction of theories, mathematical knowledge and decision-making. After science lessons, they tended to change their views toward modem views, but the pupils of the treatment group showed more modem views than those of the control group on the observation, model, social construction of theories, predictions. After 3 months, the pupils of the control group tended to come back to their traditional views, but those of the treatment group showed tendencies that their changed views were kept up on the observation, scientific model, scientific knowledge, scientific methods, decision-making, social construction of theories, mathematical knowledge. Therefore this study suggests that science drama teaching could be one of the effective ways for teaching NOS.