• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.289-310
• /
• 2013

The purpose of the study is to investigate science process skills and suggest several considerations about developing scientific inquiries for secondary science gifted students. To do this, we analyzed scientific inquiries of science gifted programs and evaluated them on the quantity of problem perception, problem finding and inquiry planning that are regarded as high level science process skills, then revised each inquiry to include those high level skills. The result was that the first, there were differences in frequencies and types of science process skills among those inquiries. The second, there were very few problem perception and problem finding and were not many inquiry planning. The third, some of the revised inquiries showed those high level skills. From this, we would like to suggest we should construct scientific inquiries of science gifted program out of many and various themes. And there should be more high level science process skills such as problem perception, problem finding, and inquiry planning. For this, scientific inquiry developers should have intentions to involve such science process skills which is appropriate for science gifted student.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.857-870
• /
• 2015

Concerning elementary school science subject electric circuit units, which are regarded as difficult by teachers and students, this study aims to use the knowledge state analysis method along with interviews to analyze the knowledge state and hierarchy of inquiry abilities. Before and after applying the electric circuit inquiry abilities module, the question items aimed at assessing the basic inquiry abilities and integrative inquiry abilities for electric circuits were presented to students, and their knowledge state was analyzed along with interviews. Through analysis of the knowledge structure and hierarchy of inquiry abilities about electric circuits, the way of thinking of teachers who taught inquiry abilities, and the way of thinking of students were found to be visually different from each other, and this is an important factor that should not be neglected in the process of teaching and learning about inquiry abilities and should be considered. In addition, the presentation of the knowledge state of and hierarchical relations between inquiry abilities factors can offer implications for guidance on students' learning about inquiry abilities.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.307-323
• /
• 2011

The study aims to investigate self-regulated learning ability (SRLA) of students and analyze its relationship to their science inquiry skill and affective domain of science in middle schools in Korea. For this end, the research questions include the followings: First, what level is SRLA of middle school students? Second, how does the relationship between SRLA and science inquiry skill look like? Third, how does the relationship between SRLA and affective domain of science look like? A research method employed in the study is the survey utilizing three questionnaires: a) a questionnaire of SRLA (Jung et al., 2004); b) a questionnaire of problem finding ability of the science inquiry skill (Jung et al., 2004); and c) a questionnaire of science affective domain (Seo et al., 2008, adopted from 2006 PISA Student Questionnaire). Responses to three questionnaires by 704 students from seven middle schools in Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam in Korea were analyzed. The research findings were as follows: First, mean average scores of SRLA is 3.02 (${\pm}0.63$) in 5 Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree). Second, students with higher scores in science inquiry skill showed significantly (p<.05) higher scores in SRLA than others. Third, boys scored higher on self-efficacy scale than girls. As students advance their grade level, their affective domain levels of science significantly (p=.048) decreases, in particular, their self-efficacy level most significantly (p=.002) decreases. Fourth, SRLA was significantly (p=.000) correlated with science inquiry skill and affective domain of science. In conclusions, it appeared that the higher SRLA level of students in middle schools is, the higher level of science inquiry skill and affective domain of science is.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.7
• /
• pp.647-655
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study is to acquire teaching insights for improving scientific literacy by analyzing the effects of scientific communication skills, science process skills, and logical thinking skills of elementary school students on academic achievement level. The participants are 64, sixth grade elementary school students. Survey materials include the results of Scientific Communication Skill Test (SCST), Test of Science Process Skills (TSPS), Group Assessment of Logical Thinking (GALT), multiple choice test & short answer test, descriptive answer test on science, and academic achievement level test on all subjects. Based on these data, the study analyzed the relationships of science process skills, logical thinking skills, and scientific communication skills, and each category's effect on academic achievement level. Furthermore, under the assumption that scientific communication skills are affected by science process skills and logical thinking skills and directly influence the academic level, the research discovered three types of correlations as a structural model. The results show that there are considerable correlations in scientific communication skills, science process skills, and logical thinking skills. Also, these three abilities have meaningful correlations with learner's writing and descriptive question level on science curriculum and overall academic achievement level; the level of correlation differ a bit by subcategory factors. In conclusion, setting the model, science process skills and logical thinking skills influence scientific communication skill, and the skill directly influences the learner's academic level. Further analysis of the results show that scientific communication skill influences the academic achievement level of all subjects the most.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.210-224
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze students' recognition of the free inquiry activity and to investigate what effect the free inquiry activity of the 2007 Revised Educational curriculum revision has on the science inquiry ability of middle school students. To conduct the research we worked with 262 female students, 8 classes of first graders in a middle school. Among them, 4 classes were taught in free inquiry activity and the remaining 4 classes were taught in the traditional way. The results of Likert-questionnaire indicate that students were learning about cooperative spirit through group investigation activities and discussions and did not take the free inquiry activity as a hard activity. Also they showed positive reaction agreeing that this activity is both a helpful method in learning science and interesting. However, it seemed that the investigation tends to flow between the leading 1~2 members of the group and showed difficulty in carrying out the investigation as a group after school hours. It showed there are few problems and obstacles in operating the free inquiry activity. The free inquiry activity did not give any meaningful influence on the improvement of science inquiry ability of students. Integrative inquiry process skills did not give a relevant influence, however, it showed a meaningful influence on the improvement of basic inquiry process skills. Especially, among the low-ranking element of basic inquiry process skills, it enhanced the capacity for prediction.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.33 no.3
• /
• pp.294-305
• /
• 2012

Scientific literacy has long been as one of the key goals of science education, and using scientific inquiry in school science has became an important objective to be achieved. The processes of scientific inquiry consist of proposing/developing inquiry question, designing and conducting investigation, collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating the results. However, most students experience mainly collecting and transforming data in inquiry processes in science class and they are barely exposed to the opportunities of proposing/developing inquiry questions. Middle school earth science preservice teachers participated in this study (N=36) and their abilities of developing inquiry questions were surveyed. Participants' abilities of developing inquiry questions were investigated whether they were enhanced with activities using the Inquiry Questions Development Guide (IQDG). Also, this study was interested in whether there was any relationship between abilities of developing inquiry questions and designing inquiry investigation. The results of this study were as follows; first, the level and preciseness of inquiry questions and its preciseness developed by participating teachers were enhanced after experiencing IQDG. In addition, teachers' dominating inquiry question-types were two: one is a 'relationship-inquiry question' in which students could discover the relationship between results found in the given experimental situations and the other one is a 'why-how inquiry problem' in which students could explore a cause or a process that results in the outcomes. Finally, the higher level of and preciseness the of inquiry questions were identified as an important factor the determined teachers' abilities of designing more logical investigation. A process of proposing/developing inquiry question was identified as one of the most important processes contributing to a success of scientific inquiry investigation.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.305-316
• /
• 2002

벡터는 수학 문제해결을 위한 중요한 도구로써, 벡터를 이용한 문제해결 과정에서 학생들은 수학적 탐구 활동에 관련된 풍부한 경험을 가질 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 벡터를 이용하여 삼각형의 무게중심에 관한 정리를 증명하기 위한 수학적 탐구 능력이나 아이디어를 학생들이 준비할 수 있도록 정리 증명과 관련된 몇몇 문제들을 체계화하여 제시하였다. 이 문제들을 해결하는 과정에 관련된 탐구 능력을 추출하였으며, 체계화된 문제에 바탕을 둔 무게중심에 관한 정리 증명을 제시하였고, 증명 과정과 관련된 수학적 탐구 능력을 제시하였다.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.267-275
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to estimate the ability of inquiry performance for students gifted in science in elementary school. 56 sixth graders were included in this study. Initially, a question 'How does the dust effect on human health?' was posed to students. Then, an assessment framework for analysis of the inquiry report was developed. It is composed of 5 domains: data collection, prediction, the inquiry process, results, conclusion and presentation. The findings reveal that the students achieved high scores in the domain of 'data collection' and followed by prediction, inquiry process, results, conclusion and presentation. The results of our study are as follows : first, in spite of high scores obtained in basic inquiries such as data collection, students needed to improve their skills in prediction, the inquiry process, results, conclusion and presentation. Second, the reason why students were outstanding in data collection is that they have improved their ability to handle data in a know-ledge-based information society. Third, even though students were good at citing and applying some information, they didn't fully understand the meaning of data and exhibited weaknesses in arguing their own opinions.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.203-218
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reflective thinking-based laboratory report on learners' metacognition and inquiry skills. In a general physics experiment class consisting of 11 experiments, 20 college students used reflective thinking-based laboratory report, and then the changes of their metacognition and inquiry skills were compared with those of who used general laboratory report. The opinions of students used reflective thinking-based laboratory report were surveyed. The results showed that their metacognitions were increased more than those of comparison group that used common experiment report. Their inquiry skills also were increased as much as comparison group's. According to the survey results, they recognized that reflective thinking-based laboratory report helps to improve their performance, metacognitions, and inquiry skills.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.6
• /
• pp.931-938
• /
• 2015

In the study, epistemological beliefs, metacognition, and scientific inquiry skills all directly affected the science academic achievement levels of high school students. Also, epistemological beliefs indirectly affected science academic achievement mediated by scientific inquiry skills and metacognition, while metacognition had an indirect effect on science academic achievement level mediated by scientific inquiry skills. We found that scientific inquiry skills had the biggest direct effect, while epistemological beliefs showed the most robust indirect effect on academic achievement level. Thus, we argue that students' scientific inquiry skills should be nurtured for the advancement of their academic achievement. In addition, more careful scholarly attention must be given to both epistemological beliefs and metacognition, which directly and indirectly affected academic achievement level. We believe that epistemological beliefs, metacognition, and scientific inquiry skills should all be considered in an integrative manner when developing educational programs and strategies.