• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.65 no.5
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• pp.370-381
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• 2021

This study compared and analyzed the chemistry curriculum of South Korea and Singapore. The analysis revealed that Korea's achievement standards in the chemistry subject comprised knowledge and skills, whereas Singapore's achievement standards comprised knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes. The scope of knowledge and skills of the Singaporean achievement standards-wherein each element was explicitly presented-were more extensive than that of Korea. The elementary school curriculum in both countries was structured to help students qualitatively understand materials in real life, whereas the middle school content was structured such that students could understand the topic of particles. Additionally, several differences were found in specific content elements; for example, the periodic tables were included only in the Singaporean content, whereas changes in the volume of gas according to temperature and pressure were included only in the Korean content. The Singaporean academic achievement standards, integrating knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes in science curriculum, can be used as a reference for adjusting and restructuring the Korean curriculum.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.443-465
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• 2016

The study aims to compare our newest mathematics curriculum with Singapore's and analyse the differences of them. Because the levels of our mathematics education have been evaluated to be difficult to our students, we try to find that the evaluation is appropriate and there are other characteristics we have to notice carefully, and provide some implications for our mathematics curriculum. We mainly compared both mathematics curriculums focussed on the national documents of mathematics curriculum, and textbooks in the level of middle school. The results are following. Firstly, Singapore has three tracks based on students' abilities and there are three kinds of textbooks on the tracks. This is a different from our teaching on students level. Secondly, the introductions of our mathematics curriculum contents are not faster than Singapore's, but they have more concrete ranges of contents than us. Thirdly, the focus of Singapore's mathematics education lies on problem solving, and we can find some good examples of contents of textbook focussed on problem solving. Some mathematical concepts are introduced simply without any process of students discoveries or investigations, and the focus lies on the problem solving using the concepts. Fourthly, Singapore's mathematics textbooks are more emphasis on the internal connections than ours.

• School Mathematics
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.473-491
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• 2010

In the TIMSS assessment goal and open TIMSS 2007, Singapore recorded a lower overall achievement level compared with Korea; however, the excellent results shown by Singapore furnished an opportunity for various countries to research into the education in Singapore. This paper conducted a comparative analysis of the "Proportion, Proportional Expression, and Percentile" area out of the three topics involving "Fractions and Decimals", "Proportion, Proportional expression, and Percentile", and "Measurement", in all of which Singapore exhibited a higher percentage of correct answers than Korea. The paper was able to discover the following differences through a comparative analysis of how Korean and Singaporean textbooks deal with the open questions of TIMSS 2007 after looking into them according to four assessment goals. First, the Singaporean textbook introduced the concept of proportion one year ahead of the Korean textbook. Second, the Singaporean textbook repeatedly coped with the topic of "Proportion, Proportional Expression, and Percentile" in depth and by academic year, and its volume was larger than that of the Korean textbook. Third, there was a difference in the introduction and definition of the concept of proportion. Fourth, the way of introducing a proportional expression was also different, and the Singaporean textbook proposed many more questions that utilize this expression in ordinary life. Based on these differences, the paper suggested implications that could be applied to the Korean curriculum and textbook.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.38-54
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the concepts and inquiry activities of textbooks in Korea and Singapore textbooks focused on the field of geology, and to provide implications for the future development of Korean curriculum and textbooks. For the study, it was selected as the 2015 revised science textbook in Korea and 'My pals are here' that is the most used textbook in Singapore. The results of this study are as follows: First, Korea had a lower level of concept than Singapore. Second, we could confirm that Korea is composed of 'inquiry' centered compared to Singapore. Third, Korea deal with only one concept in one grade, however Singapore is structured so that concepts are divided hierarchically into several grades. Fourth, Singapore has been instructing students to learn how the learned concept interact with the Earth, which is different from Korea. These results may give implications for the curriculum composition and textbook development in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.501-520
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• 2019

This study compared and analyzed Korean, American, Singaporean, and Japanese middle school mathematics curriculum standards and the learning contents in statistics. Through a comparative analysis of the curriculums of these four countries, I found several overall features and differences between the curriculums. First, all four countries emphasized statistical education in a real-life context. Second, all four countries emphasized the use of technological tools. Third, there is a middle school grade in which only Korea does not deal with statistical domains. Fourth, the statistical areas of the United States, Singapore, and Japan focused on identifying trends or variability in data distribution. Fifth, I have found some contents that only Korea does not deal with. Based on this, the following recommendations were developed for the development of the next curriculum and new textbooks in Korea. First, the statistics curriculum should be changed from one that focuses on understanding statistical concepts to one that focuses on statistical activity that utilizes these concepts. Second, in terms of middle school statistical curriculum contents, the addition of interquartile range (IQR) and box plots as learning contents should be considered. IQR and box plots are simple and practical techniques for the comparison of multiple sets of data that can be easily learned and drawn by middle school level students and applied to real-life-related statistical data to expand statistical literacy. Through this study, it is suggested that IQR and box plots need to be included in the statistical curriculum of middle schools in Korea.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.371-402
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• 2016

The aim of this study is to compare mathematics curriculum among the United States, Singapore, England, Japan, Australia and Korea and offer suggestions to improve mathematics curriculum of Korea in the future. In order to attain these purposes, the analysis was conducted in many aspects including mathematics education system, mathematics courses, mathematics contents, assessment syllabus for university entrance examination and the construction principles of mathematics curriculum. In the light of the results of this study, our suggestions for improving mathematics curriculum of Korea are as follows: revising the contents of analysis, geometry, probability and statistics strands; organizing curriculum based on spiral construction principle; providing various opportunities to select mathematics courses according to students'career; reflecting the contents of their courses in university entrance examination.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.227-245
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• 2018

Debates of calculators in mathematics lessons sometimes have happened in both countries that students rarely use calculators in math lessons including Republic of Korea and countries that students usually use calculators in math lessons. Korea has tried to activate usage of calculators in math lessons as the revision of national math curriculums and the development the strategies to support schools and math teachers. On the other hand, Singapore has the different educational strategies to use calculators in math lessons, but students have higher math achievements in TIMSS and interests in math lessons than Korea. This study intended to study the difference between Korea and Singapore on the usage of calculators in math lessons. To accomplish this, the study compared math curriculums of two countries on the usage of calculators and analysed TIMSS 2015 related with the survey items about calculators in math lessons. This study results in some suggestions that we should do in oder to use calculators in math lessons effectively.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1082-1093
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• 2004

The purpose of the study was to compare science curriculum documents of the several countries including Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Singapore. The comparison focused on goals and contents in science education of each country. The goals for science education in each country were very similar. They included understanding knowledge, acquiring inquiry skills, developing positive attitudes towards science, and appreciating S-T-S in most countries. But each country's goal setting level was different; some countries set the same goals for several grades and other countries set different goals for each grade. Goals provided for each grade were more specific and elaborated. Science contents were categorized differently in each country. In Korea, science contents were categorized in energy, matter, living things, and earth. On the other hand, science contents were composed of 8 categories including unifying concepts and processes in science, science as inquiry, physical science, life science, earth and space science, science and technology, science in personal and social perspectives, and history and nature of science in the United States. In the United Kingdom, science enquiry, life processes and living things, materials and their properties, and physical process were categories for science contents. In Singapore, science contents were organized by themes relevant to students' everyday experience. Implications for goals and contents in science education to prepare students to live and work in a future society were suggested based on the results of the study.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.139-152
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to provide some suggestions for future improvement of scientific inquiry activities in Korean elementary science textbook. The modified framework of Lee(2005) and Millar et al.(1998) was used to compare inquiry activities in the Korean and Singaporean science textbooks. The results of this study are as follows: Korean text books have more activities than Singapore's, but both countries have similar time allotment for science classes. In the area of 'inquiry process skill', Singapore is more balanced in 'Basic inquiry process skills' and 'Integrated inquiry process skills' than Korea. Singapore's integrated inquiry rate is also higher than Korea's. Next the results of comparing leaning objectives to scientific inquiry activities shows that Korean text books tend to focus on 'contents objectives', while Singapore's text books focus on balancing 'contents objectives' and 'process objectives'. Korean science textbooks encourage students to communicate the results of experiments but in most case these communication activities are actually not performed. Lastly Korea and Singapore have low degree of openness in inquiry activities. Remarkably 'Suggest questions' are totally conducted by teachers. This study implies that Korean science textbooks should have lower amounts of inquiry activities to accomodate enough time for communication about results. Next we need to make balance not only 'Basic inquiry process skills' and 'Integrated inquiry process skills' but also 'Content objectives' and 'Process objectives'. Lastly we need to make student to be the leader in science classes through encouraging them to plan procedures for experiments and to discover results by themselves.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.574-588
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• 2011

교사의 과학 탐구 지도에 대한 인식은 실제 수업에서 탐구 지도를 수행하는데 중요한 역할을 할 수 있다. 따라서 교사들이 과학 탐구를 어떻게 인식하는지 이해할 필요가 있다. 이 연구에서는 한국, 싱가포르, 미국 세 국가의 초등교사를 대상으로 과학 탐구 지도에 대한 인식을 조사하였다. 세 국가는 과학교육과정에서 탐구를 강조해 온 역사와 설명 방식이 다르며 전반적인 교육적 상황 또한 상이하다. 총 100명의 초등교사(한국 34, 싱가포르 35, 미국31)를 대상으로 설문을 실시하였으며 설문은 구체적인 교수 상황을 서술하는 교수 시나리오, 이상적인 탐구 수업에 대한 내러티브 쓰기로 구성되었다. 데이터는 외적 기준과 내적 관점 모두에서 분석되었다. 연구 결과 교사들의 과학 탐구 지도에 대한 인식은 전반적으로 전통적 견해에 머무르고 있는 특징을 보였다. 그러나 각 국가의 교육과정에서 탐구가 서술되고 강조된 방식에 따라 차이가 나타나기도 하였다. 이러한 결과가 교사교육에 주는 시사점을 논의하였다.