The Comparative Analysis of Science Process Skills and Teaching Methods in the 6th and the 7th Elementary School Science Curricula

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the science process skills and teaching methods between the 6th and the 7th elementary school science textbooks. For this study, science textbooks and teacher's guidebooks from the 3rd to the 6th grade were analyzed. In this research the science process skills are divided by basic process skills(BPS) and integrated process skills(IPS). The BPS is composed of observing, classifying, measuring, predicting and inferring skill, which are 5 subcategories. The IPS is composed of problem cognition, formulating hypothesis, controlling variables, transforming data, interpreting data, drawing result, and generalization, which are 7 subcategories. The results found in the analysis of science process skills in the 6th and 7th science textbooks are as follows: 1. The percentage of the BPS was increased, but the IPS was decreased in the 7th than the 6th. 2. The percentage of the IPS was higher than the BPS in the 6th science textbooks, but the BPS was higher than IPS in lower grade and the IPS was higher than the BPS in higher grade in the 7th textbooks. 3. Observing and problem cognition skill were most dominant in the 6th and 7th science textbooks. 4. The percentages of observing(24.8%), classifying(5.4%), measuring(5.6%), inferring(6.0%) in the BPS and interpreting data(4.4%) in the IPS were increased, but predicting(3.8%), formulating hypothesis(0.5%), controlling variables( 1.8%), transforming data( 1.2%), drawing result(0.8%) and generalization(0.9%) skills were decreased in the 7th. And teaching methods suggested in the curriculum are as follows: the percentages of learning by observation(19.2%) and role play(0.1 %) were decreased, but learning by experiment(6.2%), learning by discussion(2.0%), learning by investigation(4.6%) and creative learning(6,4%) were increased in the 7th than the 6th. In conclusion, it was found that the basic process skills were emphasized in the 7th science textbooks than the 6th and the science process skills in the science textbooks of the 7th curriculum were distributed by the grade level of the elementary children.

제 6차와 7차 초등학교 과학과 교과서에 제시된 탐구기능과 교수-학습 방법의 비교 분석

제6차와 제7차 교육과정 초등학교 과학과 교과서에 제시된 학습 내용을 과학 탐구 기능과 교수 학습 유형별로 분석한 결과는 다음과 같다. 3학년에서 6학년까지의 과학과 교과서에 제시된 학습 내용을 과학탐구기능에 따라 분석한 결과 첫째, 제7차 교육과정에서 기초탐구 기능은 증가하였으나 통합탐구 기능이 감소하였다. 둘째, 제6차에서는 조사 학년 모두에서 기초탐구 기능보다 통합탐구 기능의 비율이 높았고, 제7차에서는 저학년에서는 기초탐구 기능이, 고학년에서는 통합탐구 기능이 높게 나타났다. 셋째, 제7차 교육과정에서 과학탐구 기능을 기초탐구 기능과 통합 탐구 기능 영역으로 나누어 살펴보면, 기초탐구 영역에서는 관찰기능이 각각 63.8%, 54.4%, 통합탐구 영역에서는 문제인식에 관한 탐구 활동이 각각 75.3%, 82.5%로 대부분을 차지하고 있었다. 넷째, 과학탐구 기능 전체를 비교해 볼 때 제7차 교육과정에서 관찰(24.8%), 분류(5.4%), 측정(5.6%), 추리(6.0%), 자료해석(4.4%) 기능이 증가하였고, 예상(3.8%), 가설 설정(0.5%), 변인통제(1.8%), 자료변환(1.2%), 결론도출(0.8%), 일반화(0.9%) 기능이 감소하였다. 다섯째, 교수 학습 방법에 대한 분석 결과, 제7차 교육과정에서는 관찰학습이 감소한 반면에, 실험학습, 토론학습, 조사 및 과제학습과 창의학습이 증가하였다. 따라서 본 연구의 결과로부터 제7차 교육과정 과학과 교과서는 제6차에 비해 기초탐구학습과 통합탐구기능이 학년 아동의 인지발달 수준을 고려하여 구성 되었음을 알 수 있었다.