• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.433-445
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• 2024

This study aims to compare and analyze the educational contents of the material area in the elementary science curriculums of North and South Korea. The research subjects are materials and motion and energy (partial) areas of the revised science curriculum of South Korea in 2022 and materials around us and science in daily life (partial) areas of the nature and education program of North Korea in 2013. This study compared the elements of the educational content of the material domain between North and South Korea according to the grade. Furthermore, the reflection of the material domain goals of North and South Korea at the international level was analyzed using the evaluation framework of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2023 for the material content domains for fourth-grade elementary schools. Four teachers who majored in elementary science education and one expert in science education participated in the analysis. The results are as follows. First, in terms of the properties of matter, the content covered in the curriculum of North and South Korea differed in application period by grade and in the scope and level of content. Second, regarding material change, North Korea did not cover acids and bases but included methods for speeding up dissolution. Third, North Korea reflected the goal of the TIMSS 2023 properties of materials more highly than South Korea. Fourth, similar to the results for the analysis on the properties of materials, North Korea reflected the goal of the TIMSS 2023 for changes of materials more highly than did South Korea. In conclusion, the elements and timing of application of the material contents differed between North and South Korea, and the degree of reflection of goals at the international level was found to be higher for North Korea. In the future, this study hopes that cooperation and research on the development of integrated science and curriculum will occur along with the revitalization of educational exchange between North and South Korea from the perspective of the preparation for unification beyond the ideological conflict between them.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.188-199
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to investigate the tendency of inquiry of earth science content presented in North Korean textbooks of the 2013 National curriculum using Romey's method, and to help use as basic data for better understanding earth science education in North Korea. The content of earth science in the text, figure, question, and activity index of textbooks of Natural Science 1 and 2, Chosun Geography 2 of elementary junior high school, and of Geography 1 of advanced junior high school were all analyzed using Romey's method. The results of this study were as follows: First, the atmospheric science question and the astronomy text showed the tendency of inquiry type. Second, the proportion of oceanography was relatively small. Third, there were many non-inquiry questions or excessive inquiry questions, and both types of questions needed to be balanced. Fourth, there were a tendency that did not emphasize inquiry learning. Finally, the quantitative and qualitative level of inquiry tendency should be improved. In this paper, we propose to use a qualitative method when analyzing earth science content in North Korean textbooks, and suggested that we should further study the comparative analysis of inquiry tendency of earth science content using South and North Korean textbooks.