• Journal of Science Education
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2021

In this study, we analyzed the relationship between the physical science domain of TIMSS 2019 and the Korean science curriculum. Twelve subjects are presented in the physical science domain of the TIMSS 2019 4th grade evaluation framework. Research group consisting of elementary and middle school teachers and science education experts, a total of 12, participated to analyze in which grade these subjects were included in the Korea 2009 revised and 2015 revised science curriculum. As a results of analyzing whether the achievement standards of the TIMSS 2019 evaluation framework and Korean science curriculum are consistent, the subjects pertinent to chemistry like 'chemical changes in everyday life,' 'heat transfer,' and 'electricity and simple electrical circuits' appeared not covered at all until the 4th grade curriculum in Korea. Given that the TIMSS 2019 evaluation framework is an international achievement standard, we are proposing to improve the Korean curriculum as follows: first, for the development of the next science curriculum, there is a need for science curriculum organized from the 1st grade of elementary school to connect the content and scope of chemistry in elementary, middle, and high schools as a whole including the Nuri curriculum. Second, as an alternative to the problem of suitability of learning volume and level of learning, it is possible to think of a method to readjust the grade of dealing with related concepts by lowering the difficulty or simplifying the concept. Third, it is necessary to discuss about introducing essential concepts and standard terms into Korea science curriculum according to international trends.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.186-198
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• 2022

With the science curriculum about to be revised in 2022, this study aimed to guide curriculum revision by addressing suggested approaches to the electromagnetism education in elementary school science curriculum. The core concepts of electromagnetism are "electric field" and "magnetic field" as a medium of force, but the current curriculum does not properly describe the core concepts of electromagnetism. Mechanics and electromagnetism should be linked in elementary schools to form science curriculum based on core concepts to solve this problem. Additionally, the nine aspects of technology extracted in this study offer various educational contexts to match the development of engineering technology based on electromagnetism. However, the current curriculum does not comprise these various contexts and focuses on the limited content of electric circuits using light bulbs. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the scope of the curriculum to better mirror real-life technology. Through the use of more diverse materials and contexts, the scope and level of STS education as well as conceptual learning could be expanded. Finally, in the case of electric circuit learning, various issues such as difficulty in connecting electric circuits and electric field concepts, representativeness of electric circuit, students' learning difficulty, and phenomena-oriented learning should be considered.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.203-219
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• 2016

The purpose of this paper was analyzing the contents of life science area in elementary science textbooks according to Korean science curricula change to get suggestions for the advancement of science curriculum. The framework of content analysis was developed by revising TIMSS 2015 life science evaluation framework. The results of this research were as follows: 'The differences of living things and non-living things appearing in the first grade mostly were not included in the 1st, the 6th and the 2009 revised curricula. Contents emphasizing rural life were appeared from 'Teaching themes period' to the 2nd curriculum period, disappeared from the 3rd curriculum period until the 2009 revised curriculum. Contagious disease was emphasized in all elementary grades in the 1st curriculum period, which reflected a social phenomena emphasizing health and hygiene after the Korean War. Mostly fungus was included until the 7th curriculum period and bacteria and virus were added from the 2007 revised curriculum period. The way of improving health was emphasized continuously.' The differences of living things and non-living things should be included in elementary science curriculum for the correct 'life' concept formation of elementary students. 'Strategies for helping the living of descendants' and 'the heredity of animal and plant' which were appeared in the lower grades, should be included at the higher grades with greater depth. The incoming elementary science textbooks also need to include science contents about evolution in greater depth, along with human health.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.599-609
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• 2017

The goal of this research is to analyze the trend of Korean fourth grade students' achievement in TIMSS 2011 and TIMSS 2015 science content domains and to suggest implications for science curriculum and teaching & learning improvement. With four elementary science teachers and three science educators, we analyzed Korean fourth grade students' percentage of correct responses in TIMSS 2015 science content and cognitive domains, and conducted item-curriculum matching analysis for test items. According to the results, Korean students performed relatively better in test topics covered in the science curriculum for 3-4 grades regardless of the science content domain (i.e., Life science, Physical science, or Earth science). Korean students showed low percentage of correct answers for items related to such topics as heat conduction, the action of electricity, the motion of the earth and the moon, etc., which were covered in the 5th-6th grades in the 2009 revised curriculum. For science cognitive domains, Korean students' achievement dropped significantly in reasoning between TIMSS 2011 and TIMSS 2015. Discussed in the conclusion are implications to reconstruct elementary school science curriculum, and ways to improve science teaching and learning.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.127-144
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• 2021

The purpose of this research was to conduct grounded-theory-based explorations on the types of motivation that make pre-service elementary school teachers learn science and on their type-based science-learning processes. One hundred thirty-two pre-service elementary school teachers' motivation types were analyzed, and amongst them, 12 were selected as the subjects to observe their science-learning processes to which grounded theory applied. As a result of analyzing their science-learning motivation types, it was found that the majority belonged to the type "accurators", followed in descending order by the types "directors", "explorers", and "coordinators". Coding various phenomena that appeared in their science-learning processes made it possible to derive 30 categories from them according to the grounded-theory paradigm model elements. Based on such categories derived, analysis could be made on their science-learning process flows by motivation types, according to the grounded-theory paradigm model. For example, the "accurators" were attending science lectures or reading science books to learn science knowledge and how to teach it, from a sense of obligation they took for granted as elementary school teachers. Although their experiences of science-learning processes could not be from pure intentions, due to the teacher certification examination, curriculum, or other environmental factors, they were found to have new perspectives on science with their individual efforts and participations.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.545-555
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• 2021

This study aims to analyze research trends by the period of elementary science education journal. A total of 1047 papers were analyzed from Volume 1 No. 1 in 1983 to Volume 39 No. 4 in 2020. The results of the study are as follows: First, the period of elementary science education journals was divided into infancy, settlement, development, and retainment period according to the number of papers. Second, the ratio of research by more than three scholars, pure or funded research was decreasing. Third, the study subjects had a high rate of research on elementary school students and elementary school teachers. Fourth, research methods were mainly research studies and experimental studies, and qualitative analysis and mixed analysis studies were increasing as data analysis methods. Fifth, the occupation of the first author was professor (45.6%), teacher (39.8%), graduate student (10.6%), and researcher (1.7%) in that order. Sixth, the regions of the corresponding author were concentrated in Seoul and Gyeongin, the metropolitan areas. Finally, in order for the "Elementary Science Education" journal to continue to play a pivotal role in leading elementary science education in the future, efforts to improve the overall journal and continuous participation and cooperation of domestic and foreign researchers, academic executives, members, and educational institutions are required.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.178-193
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• 2023

The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the achievement standards from the 2015 to the 2022 revised national science curriculum and to present the implications for science teaching under the revised curriculum. Achievement standards relevant to primary science education were therefore extracted from the national curriculum documents; conceptual domains in the two curricula were analyzed for differences; various kinds of centrality were computed; and the Louvain algorithm was used to identify clusters. These methods revealed that, in the revised compared with the preceding curriculum, the total number of nodes and links had increased, while the number of achievement standards had decreased by 10 percent. In the revised curriculum, keywords relevant to procedural skills and behavior received more emphasis and were connected to collaborative learning and digital literacy. Observation, survey, and explanation remained important, but varied in application across the fields of science. Clustering revealed that the number of categories in each field of science remained mostly unchanged in the revised compared with the previous curriculum, but that each category highlighted different skills or behaviors. Based on those findings, some implications for science instruction in the classroom are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.325-337
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• 2022

This study aims to determine the implications of the efficient and effective implementation of science core competency (ScC) education by examining the state of science core competencies derived from the 2015 revised elementary school science curriculum and analyzing teachers' and students' perceptions. To this end, this paper investigated the reality of reflecting the science core competencies of science textbooks in a group of third and fourth graders from seven elementary schools who passed the test. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with four elementary school teachers who participated in qualification textbook selection, and 156 elementary school students were surveyed to determine their perceptions of science core competencies. Findings showed that, first, 1,586 science core competencies were reflected throughout the textbooks, with an average of 227 per textbook and biology being the most salient area. Second, teachers did not understand the difference between previous inquiry activities in textbooks and ScC education. Third, no statistically significant differences were observed in the perceptions of male and female students on science core competencies, the highest average of perceptions being those of scientific thinking ability. From these results, this study concluded that for ScC education to be realized as a curriculum, textbooks must be organized according to the purpose of core competency education, implementing practical changes, and efforts must be directed toward changing the perceptions of individuals who deliver education.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.79-106
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• 2010

Leadership education is part of the goals of special education for the gifted of computer science. However, there has been little research effort on leadership curriculums and programs specially designed for the gifted of computer science by reflecting their characteristics. Thus this paper was conducted to design educational contents of leadership for the gifted of computer science as follows:First, common elements were extracted from the goals and characteristics of special education for the gifted of computer science and from the previous studies through analysis. Then basic data were selected helpful to choose educational contents of leadership for the gifted of computer science. Second, the definitions and characteristics of leadership were analyzed along with the previous studies to find common elements. By defining relations between the gifted of computer science and leadership, the investigator also examined the leadership characteristics to be considered when choosing educational contents. Third, educational contents of leadership for the gifted of computer science were selected and designed based on the leadership elements developed by the Korean Educational Development Institute(2005). Fourth, leadership activity logs and reading materials were developed of the education for the gifted of computer science based on the educational contents for their leadership. And fifth, Delphi analysis was carried out to test the validity of the leadership activity logs and reading materials developed in the study in two sessions; the first one tested the overall design of the educational contents, and the second one did the detailed contents of the activity logs and reading materials.

• 한국정보교육학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.08a
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• pp.3-10
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• 2009

7차 개정 교육과정은 컴퓨터교육에 있어서 기존의 컴퓨터 활용 중심의 교육을 넘어서 컴퓨터과학과 더불어 정보통신윤리교육을 강화하고 초등교육과정의 틀 내에서 컴퓨터교육에 대한 기반을 마련하는 또 다른 계기를 제공하였다는 점에서 그 의미를 찾아 볼 수 있다. 그러나 초등학교에서의 컴퓨터교육에 대한 정체성에 대해서는 아직 풀어야 할 문제들이 산재해 있다. 컴퓨터교육에 관한 정체성의 혼란은 초등학교 컴퓨터교육에 대한 다양한 논쟁을 일으키고 있다. 기존의 연구들도 컴퓨터교육의 목적과 내용 그리고 교육과정 편제와 운영 등에 대한 문제점들을 지적하고 있다. 이에 본 원고에서는 초등학교 컴퓨터교육의 정체성 확립을 위하여 선행연구를 분석하고 내적.외적인 측면에서의 문제점을 고찰함으로써 보다 종합적인 관점에서 컴퓨터교육이 지향하여야 할 점에 대하여 탐색하고 나아가 컴퓨터교육이 초등학교에서 어떻게 정착되어가야 하는지에 대한 방향을 정립하고자 한다.