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Middle School Students' Ideas about the purposes of Laboratory Work  

Kim, Hee-Kyong (Seoul National University)
Song, Jin-Woong (Seoul National University)
Publication Information
Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education / v.23, no.3, 2003 , pp. 254-264 More about this Journal
Abstract
Researches on laboratory work show that students often achieve little meaningful learning through laboratory work. One reason for this failure is that students often do not know the different types of laboratory work and the 'purposes' of them. Therefore, this study investigated middle school student' ideas about the purposes of laboratory work. To seventh grade students(n=147) of middle school in Seoul, Korea, we asked (Question 1) "Why do scientists do laboratory work?" and (Question 2) "Why do you do laboratory work in science classes?" It was required a short essay including the reasons and examples of them. From the results, it was found that 56.8% of the students had ideas that scientists do laboratory work for discovering new facts or inventing something, and 82.9% of the students responded that they do laboratory work for understanding and memorizing the contents of science textbook. In addition, the differences according to gender and to school achievement level, and the relationship between the ideas about scientists' laboratory work and about school science laboratory work were examined. The results showed that boys responded 'social usefulness' more frequently than girl, while girls mentioned 'personal pleasure' more frequently than boys in relation to the purposes of scientists' laboratory work(p<.05). According to the achievement level, it was founded that 'middle' level students replied 'to remember' more frequently than high and low levels in relation to school science laboratory work. Finally, students who had ideas that scientists do laboratory work for verifying a theory had the similar ideas about school science laboratory work. In conclusion, students are lack of diverse and proper views about laboratory work. It is recommended that teacher need to make clear the purpose of laboratory work and help students to understand of it.
Keywords
purpose of laboratory works; nature of science; students' ideas; scientists' laboratory work; school science laboratory work;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
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