Development of Elementary Students' Ability to Generate Hypothesis Knowledge through Knowledge Generation Learning in Science

과학 지식 생성 학습을 통한 초등학생들의 가설 지식 생성 능력의 발달

The purpose of this study was to develop elementary students' ability to generate hypothesis knowledge through knowledge generation learning in science. The learning program consisted of a series of 28 activities to generate hypotheses in science. Eighty 6th grade students participated in the study and were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group was administered a program geared towards hypothesis generation learning and the control group was administered a program aimed at hypothesis expository learning in elementary science. After using the respective programs, subjects in both groups were tested in terms of their abilities in abductive knowledge generation and administered a descriptive self-report regarding their generation of hypotheses. Two of the 28 activity program worksheets in the experimental group were analyzed in terms of the quality and process of students' hypothesis generation. The results were as follows: 1) The experimental group showed significantly higher scores in terms of scientific knowledge generation (i.e. abductive knowledge generation) than the control group. 2) The degree of hypothesis explanation in the experimental group was significantly higher than in the control group in terms of the quality of the generated hypotheses. In addition, students in the experimental group generated more varied and valid knowledge than the control group in terms of sub-knowledge of hypothesis generation. Therefore, it can be argued that this program for hypothesis knowledge generation in elementary science students was effective in the generation of hypothesis knowledge.