• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.839-851
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the science reasoning differences of elementary school students' science writing. For this purpose, science writing activities and analysis frameworks were developed. Science writing data were collected and analyzed. Third to sixth grade elementary students were selected from a middle high level elementary school in terms of a national achievement test in Seoul. A total of 320 writing materials were analyzed. The results of the analysis were as follows. Science writings show science reasoning at 52 % for $3^{rd}$ grade, 68% for $4^{th}$ grade, 85% for $5^{th}$ grade, and 89% for $6^{th}$ grade. Three types of scientific reasoning such as inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, and abductive reasoning appeared in science writing of the third to sixth graders. The abductive reasoning appeared very low in comparing with inductive and deductive reasoning. Level three appeared the most frequently in the science writing of the elementary students. The levels of inductive and deductive reasoning in science writing increased according to increasing grade and showed statistical differences between grades. But the levels of abductive reasoning did not show an increasing aspect according to increasing grade and also did not show statistical differences between grades. The levels of inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning of the 3rd grade was very low in comparing with the other grades.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.181-192
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• 2013

This study aims to explore scientific reasoning that students and their teachers constructed in elementary science classroom discourses in terms of basic reasoning types; deduction, induction, and abduction. For this research, data were collected from 13 classes of 4th grade science activities during a period of three months and analyzed three types of scientific reasoning in elementary school science discourses. We found that deduction (one discourse segment), induction (one discourse segment), and deduction-abduction (two discourse segments) were presented in the discourses. They showed that: first, scientific reasoning proceeded explicitly or implicitly in elementary science discourses; second, the students and their teachers have potentials to increase the quality of reasoning depending on their inter-subjectivity; and last, the students' background knowledge were very important in the development of their reasoning. Implication and remarks on science education and research were presented based on this results as well.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.109-126
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• 2023

In this study, I took the evidence-explanation (E-E) continuum perspective to examine the epistemological implications of scientific reasoning cases designed by preservice elementary teachers during their simulation teaching. The participants were four preservice teachers who conducted simulation instruction on the seasons and high/low air pressure and wind. The selected discourse episodes, which included cases of inductive, deductive, or abductive reasoning, were analyzed for their epistemological implications-specifically, the role played by the reasoning cases in the E-E continuum. The two preservice teachers conducting seasons classes used hypothetical-deductive reasoning when they identified evidence by comparing student-group data and tested a hypothesis by comparing the evidence with the hypothetical statement. However, they did not adopt explicit reasoning for creating the hypothesis or constructing a model from the evidence. The two preservice teachers conducting air pressure and wind classes applied inductive reasoning to find evidence by summarizing the student-group data and adopted linear logic-structured deductive reasoning to construct the final explanation. In teaching similar topics, the preservice teachers showed similar epistemic processes in their scientific reasoning cases. However, the epistemological implications of the instruction were not similar in terms of the E-E continuum. In addition, except in one case, the teachers were neither good at abductive reasoning for creating a hypothesis or an explanatory model, nor good at using reasoning to construct a model from the evidence. The E-E continuum helps in examining the epistemological implications of scientific reasoning and can be an alternative way of transmitting scientific reasoning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.117-127
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• 1999

The present study investigated Korean and the US college students' scientific reasoning skills involving hypothesis-testing skills and tested the hypothesis that hypothesis-testing skills are more advanced ones than other scientific reasoning skills investigated in this study. Seven hundred and seventy-four(774) Korean and five hundred and sixty-eight(568) the US students were sampled in university level. The Test of Scientific Reasoning was used as a scientific reasoning test. The test is consisted of two conservational reasoning, two proportional reasoning, one pendulum, two probability reasoning, two controlling variable, one correlational reasoning, and two hypothesis-testing reasoning tasks. Korean students showed a significant higher score in proportional and probability reasoning tasks than the US students. However, the Korean showed a significant lower score in conservation and correlation reasoning tasks than their American counterparts. Further, Korean and the US college students showed a notably poor performance in hypothesis-testing skills comparing with other scientific reasoning skills, which supported the hypothesis that hypothesis-testing skills are more advanced ones than other scientific reasoning skills. In addition, the Korean showed a severe deficiency in candle-burning task which required the skill that students have to design a scientific test-procedure to test theoretical hypotheses. This study also discussed on the educational implications of the results of the present study.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.67 no.5
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• pp.362-377
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• 2023

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of semantic mapping as a science text reading strategy on high school students' inferential understanding. For this purpose, eight science text reading classes were conducted a reading strategy using semantic mapping for 46 students in two science-focused classes in the third grade of a high school. To investigate the effects of semantic mapping reading strategy on students' inferential comprehension, students' pre- and post-reading ability tests results were analyzed. In order to find out the change in inferential comprehension, the level of the inferential comprehension was analyzed using the analysis framework for developed in this study. For the classification of inferential comprehension, the levels of the inferential comprehension were converted into scores. The results of the analysis of changes in students' inferential comprehension showed that semantic mapping reading strategy classes influenced the changes in high school students' inference, especially bridge inference and elaborative inference among sub-elements of inferential comprehension.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.635-647
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• 2018

Motivated reasoning refers to biased reasoning that is affected by motivation to achieve a particular result or goal. In this study, we attempted a theoretical study on motivated reasoning that hinders the development of scientific thinking and empirical study on actual context of motivated reasoning in the research experiences of next-generation Korean researchers in the field of science and technology. To be specific, literature reviews were conducted to explore the psychological meaning of motivated reasoning and its negative impact on scientific thinking and science research. To understand the substantial meaning and context of motivated reasoning in the field of real science and technology research, we conducted in-depth interviews with eight graduate students and one young science and technology researcher. As a result of the literature reviews, we found out that motivated reasoning can interfere with the proper theory and data coordination, which is the core process of scientific thinking at the individual level. At the socio-cultural level, it can lead to cessation of constructing scientific knowledge and it can act as a mechanism in the process of using science for specific socio-cultural beliefs or purposes, thereby hindering the development of science and technology based on rationale and objective scientific thinking. Quantitative analysis with in-depth interview data showed that graduate students and the young researcher's experienced motivated reasoning results in trying to protect prior beliefs, make hasty conclusions, protecting socio-cultural belief or rationalizing decisions made by their community. Their motivated reasoning could become an obstacle in constructing valid science and technology knowledge through appropriate theory and evidence coordination. Based on these findings we discussed science education for improving scientific thinking.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.375-383
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to find out how middle school students evaluate scientific information in terms of hypothetico-deductive reasoning. A total of 66 middle school students completed a paper-and-pencil test on scientific information evaluation and 14 of them were individually interviewed for triangulation. The test includes six topics related to scientific or pseudoscientific information, and questions about each topic were sequenced based on a hypothetico-deductive reasoning. The hypothetico-deductive process consists of three steps: identifying predictions made by explanations in the information, identifying data actually obtained, and determining the fit between predictions and data to judge the validity of the explanations. Data analyses have focused on students' response types at each step, whether students used hypoethetico-deductive reasoning, and students' preference to evidence types in making decisions. The middle school students in this study answered the questions in various ways based on how they used the information given or personal knowledge and beliefs. A small portion of students evaluated information based on hypothetico-deductive reasoning. These students tended to give priority to scientific data in determining the validity of the information. On the other hand, students who did not use hypoethetico-deductive reasoning tended to prefer first-hand experience in the decision. The results provide implications for science lessons and the curriculum for scientific literacy. Further research should include student evaluation of the validity of data and other types of reasoning.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.323-337
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze the scientific reasoning ability during open-inquiry activities of science-gifted 2nd middle school students. Open-inquiry activity is similar to process of scientists' science knowledge generation. Identifying and analyzing the scientific reasoning process and the scientific reasoning ability during open-inquiry activities of science-gifted students, will be able to provide implications for future research. CSRI Matrix(Dolan & Grady, 2010) was used to analyze the complexity of the scientific reasoning ability. The higher degree of complexity of the scientific reasoning is similar to process of scientists' science knowledge generation. The results showed that each process of the open-inquiry activities were distributed by various steps of complexity of the scientific reasoning. Particularly, 'The generating questions' and 'Connecting data to the research question' were 'most complex' step in all teams. On the other side, 'Posing preliminary hypotheses', 'Selecting dependent and independent variables', 'Considering the limitations or flaws of their experiments' were low steps in most teams. And 'Communicating and defending findings' was distributed by most various steps of complexity of the scientific reasoning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.586-601
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to identify the scientists' abductive reasoning in three stages of hypothetical-deductive inquiry process; generating hypothesis, designing, and interpreting data and to suggest new analytic coding frames on abductive reasoning in each of the stages. For this purpose, the interview protocols collected through in-depth interviews with eight scientists were analyzed by the early frame with sub-elements derived from the literature reviews. The need of a new frame of analysis beyond the previously established elements arose from the result of this analysis because the processes of abductive reasoning were found in all three stages. Based on scientists' interview data, this study then designed a new frame of analytic coding frames on the abductive reasoning in each of the stages. The content validity index from four experts was 0.90, and these frames showed a good fit to analyze the scientists' real process of abduction in three stages of hypothetical-deductive inquiry process.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.421-433
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• 2023

This study examined the reasoning of gifted elementary science students in a socioscientific issues (SSI) classroom discussion on COVID-19-related trash disposal challenges. This study aimed to understand the characteristics of evidence use and decision-making difficulties in each type of SSI-related reasoning. To this end, the transcripts of 17 gifted students of elementary science discussing SSIs in a classroom were analyzed within the framework of informal reasoning. The analysis framework was categorized into three types according to the primary influence involved in reasoning: rational, emotional, and intuitive. The analysis showed that students exhibited four categories of evidence use in SSI reasoning. First, in the rational reasoning category, students deemed and recorded scientific knowledge, numbers, and statistics as objective evidence. However, students who experienced difficulty in investigating such scientific data were less likely to have factored them in subsequent decisions. Second, in the emotional reasoning category, students' solutions varied considerably depending on the perspective they empathized with and reasoned from. Differences in their views led to conflicting perspectives on SSIs and consequent disagreement. Third, in the intuitive reasoning category, students disagreed with the opinions of their peers but did not explain their positions precisely. Intuitive reasoning also created challenges as students avoided problem-solving in the discussion and did not critically examine their opinions. Fourth, a mixed category of reasoning emerged: intuition combined with rationality or emotion. When combined with emotion, intuitive reasoning was characterized by deep empathy arising from personal experience, and when combined with rationality, the result was only an impulsive reaction. These findings indicate that research on student understanding and faculty knowledge of SSIs discussed in classrooms should consider the difficulties in informal reasoning and decision-making.