• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.204-217
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• 2008

This study analyzed the inquiry activities appearing in the astronomy sections of elementary, middle and highschool level science textbooks according to the five essential features of inquiry in the classroom as proposed by the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 2000), and SAPA (Science-A Process Approach). On the basis of this analysis, it is clear that the science textbook inquiry activities released the limitation to meet the goal of science education, namely scientific literacy, as it has been laid out by the 7th Science Educational Curriculum. This study revealed that the features of scientific inquiry which are most frequently used in the astronomy sections of science textbooks are 'data collection' and 'form explanation', whereas the features of 'oriented-question', 'evaluate explanations' and 'communicate and justify' rarely appeared. The analysis of inquiry activities by SAPA showed that the basic inquiry skills of 'observing', 'communicating' and 'manipulating materials' were used with increasing frequency according to grade level, and the integrated skills of 'investigating', 'creating models', 'interpreting data' and 'experimenting' were more emphasized in the textbooks. Therefore, it is suggested that students be provided with more opportunities to experience all the features of scientific inquiry and scientific processes as envisioned by the 7th Science Educational Curriculum in order to achieve the stated goal of scientific literacy. Science educators should be required to develop new lesson modules which will allow students to experience authentic scientific inquiry. It is crucial for science teachers to reflect upon and develop their understanding and teaching strategies regarding scientific inquiry through professional development programs in teacher education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.319-329
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• 2018

Research Projects allow students to experience of scientific research by conducting experiments on specific scientific subjects and writing reports. The process of research begins as students find and propose research questions and its importance has been consistently emphasized. In this study, we developed various strategies to support students to draw research questions and applied to each phase. We analyzed how students' research questions were developed at different phases. The program consists of five phases, such as (1) Exploration, (2) Literature Review and Data Collection, (3) Modification and Extension, (4) Sharing and Evaluation, (5) Final Selection and Research Plan. The program was applied to high school Research Project for 12 hours. A total of 13 students were divided into four groups of 3-4 students and conducted researches. The results of each student's research process and final research plans were then collected and analyzed. The overall quality of research questions produced by the students showed improvement in each phase. Each strategy improved in various aspects of the research questions at each level. Students were able to find their own area of interest in the 'Exploration' phase and then they began to suggest verifiable plans in the 'Literature and Data Collection' phase. They were able to find a variety of variables under the 'Modification and Extension' phase, whereas the precision of research questions improved in the 'Sharing and Evaluation' and the 'Final Selection and Research Plan' phase.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.143-152
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate the contents of open inquiry activities of the newly revised 2007 National curriculum for each grade level and to teach open inquiry activities and selection of rational inquiry activities. For this study, 470 elementary students in Seoul, ranging from 3rd to 6th grades were surveyed. The experiment plans written by students were analyzed based on the analysis criteria. These criteria consisted of the reason for the selection, type, and suitability of open inquiry activities. The reason for selecting open inquiry activities were analyzed according to the reason why they want to conduct the activity, degree of getting help and the object of getting help. The types of the open inquiry activities were analyzed according to the field of inquiry, the inquiry method and the period of inquiry. Suitability of the open inquiry activities were analyzed according to the reason of suitability or unsuitability.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.573-584
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• 2015

Inquiry has been consistently emphasized in science education as a crucial element for learning. Although many researchers came to agree on the importance of scientific inquiry, authentic inquiry activities are hard to be actualized in an educational context. Therefore it is required to critically examine what teachers have difficulty in teaching inquiry. In this article, we looked into inquiry-based science activities in a small group setting where pre-service science teachers faced dilemmas between cognition and practice of inquiry. A case study was conducted on eight undergraduate students who are majoring in science education. The participants attended a weekly science program for middle school students in low SES as teaching assistants and mentors, and took full care of his/her mentees during open-inquiry activities. The results were drawn by analyzing participants' personal and group interviews, participant observations, self-reports, and others. The pre-service teachers viewed the knowledge and procedure of science as an essential factor in inquiry activities along with student's spontaneous attitude. However, in the process of performing inquiry, they faced several dilemmas between ideal cognition and real activities. The aspects of dilemmas could be summarized in three pairs of opposing concepts: 'diverging inquiry or converging science', 'interest-centered inquiry or learning-centered inquiry', and 'student as the subject or student with the insufficient expertise.' We discussed ways of resolving dilemmas and alternative perspectives on scientific inquiry.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.645-658
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• 2003

This study was carried out to analyze inquiry area of the chemistry (II) textbooks which were published by the 7th curriculum. The study attempts to analyze the degree to which chemistry (II) textbooks reflected the guidelines of the 7th science curriculum and propose educational suggestions for the inquiry learning. The analysis of the inquiry area was carried out based on the suggested inquiry elements of the 7th science curriculum. Overall, for the analysis of inquiry elements, basic inquiry elements except classifying suggested by the 7th science curriculum were well reflected on the textbooks. However, for the integrated inquiry elements, interpreting data takes almost half of the total integrated inquiry elements. Other integrated inquiry elements except drawing conclusion and transforming data were reflected less than ten percent. Investigation was also reflected less than ten percent of all inquiry activity. And inquiry activities were limited in terms of variety with few projects and no field trip. The main essence of the 7th science curriculum is the emphasis on total inquiry learning through various integrated inquiry elements and inquiry activities for higher grade students. Thus it is suggested that teachers provide inquiry learning which can supplement the textbook.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.633-644
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to analyze the inquiry elements and inquiry activity of the inquiry area in chemistry I textbooks authorized by 7th curriculum. It was to confirm suitable reflection of the 7th science curriculum and to find educational suggestions of inquiry learning. It was found that the basic inquiry elements except measuring and classifying were well reflected on the textbooks. However, only several integrated inquiry elements and the inquiry activities were well reflected on the same textbooks. For the integrated inquiry elements, interpreting data was shown as the tower above the rest inquiry elements. In the analysis of inquiry activity, the numbers of experiment is placed almost half of all inquiry activities. The sum of two numbers of investigation and discussion is similar ratio to experiment but field trip and project are rarely or low ratio. As the integrated inquiry elements and inquiry activities were not balanced for various inquiry learning. It is suggested that learners be educated with complementary of these aspects in inquiry learning.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.371-377
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• 2012

In this study, open inquiry reports of 165 eighth graders in Daegu were analyzed in terms of content area, the types of inquiry hypothesis, and the types of inquiry variables. Before summer vacation, students learned about inquiry process and explored their own inquiry topic for two class hours. During summer vacation, students performed open inquiry including problem selection, designing and performing experiment, data collection, data analysis, and writing report. After the vacation, students submitted their reports, and answered to additional survey regarding the source of inquiry idea, the definition of hypothesis, and the most difficult step of inquiry process. As a result, chemistry was the most dominant content area of the reports and biology and life science were the next. 130 out of 165 reports included inquiry hypotheses, and most of them were predictive hypotheses. In many reports, dependent and independent variables could not be identified because of their ambiguity. However, inquiry variables described in experimental design, which were mostly categorical variables, were clearer than those described in inquiry subject and inquiry hypothesis. The most difficult step of inquiry process for students was to generate an idea for open inquiry.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.4
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• pp.280-288
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to draw implication for scientific inquiry study by investigating level of understanding and actual state regarding the elementary school teachers' scientific inquiry. The survey was conducted toward 42 elementary school teachers who work at the D city by using questionnaire of Views About Scientific Inquiry. Actual state of understanding of scientific inquiry was investigated by categorized the responses to the level of understanding of the eight aspects of scientific inquiry in three levels (informed, mixed, naive) based on analysis criteria. And analyze whether the characteristic of the subjects affect to level of understanding about aspect of scientific inquiry. As a result of the analysis, the two aspects among the eights aspects of scientific inquiry; 'Inquiry procedures are guided by the question asked' and 'Research conclusions must be consistent with the data collected' were appeared to have high rates of informed level of understanding. In the remaining six perspectives, most of elementary school teachers had naive and mixed level of understanding, so informed level of understanding took a relatively low proportion. It implies that elementary school teachers who teach inquiry in the field have limit to understand about scientific inquiry. These results indicated that experiences that have taught students and science related training courses that open sofar have a little influence to increase comprehension about scientific inquiry. Therefore, it is required to reinforce the teachers' understanding about scientific inquiry and to formulate different form of plan unlike existing way of teaching for teaching scientific inquiry.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.221-232
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• 2019

Despite the continuing emphasis on the importance of scientific inquiry, research studies have commented that authentic scientific inquiry is not implemented in school science classroom due to a lack of understanding of scientific inquiry by the teacher. The purpose of this study is to investigate understanding of scientific inquiry developed by beginning teachers through open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interview. They voluntarily set up the goal of inquiry-based classes, planned inquiry-based classes, shared and reflected their teaching experience in professional learning community for more than a year. It appeared that participant teachers understood scientific inquiry as 'what scientists do', 'process how students do science' and 'science teaching methods.' All teacher participants described scientific inquiry as 'what scientists do', and understood 'the process of doing scientific investigation to solve problems related to natural phenomenon' and 'the process of constructing scientific knowledge using scientific practice.' Two participant teachers seemed to understand scientific inquiry as a 'teaching method' based on the understanding of the process how scientists or students do science. Participant teachers had a limited understanding of scientific inquiry that it is the same as laboratory works or hands-on activities prior to engaging the professional learning community, but they developed an understanding of scientific inquiry that there are various ways to conduct scientific inquiry after engaging in professional learning community.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.391-400
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• 2003

This study was performed the analysis of seven kinds of the hight school chemistry II textbooks based on the 6th curriculum. Particularly, inquiry activity part was analyzed by the three dimension framework which consists of inquiry content dimension, inquiry process dimension and inquiry context dimension. In the analysis of the inquiry content dimension of inquiry activities, the total number of themes in seven kinds of textbook was 212. And the number of inquiry activities in seven kinds of textbook was diverse: A textbook had 28, B textbook 25, C textbook 31, D textbook 35, E textbook 31, F textbook 29 and G textbook 33. As for the avaerage number of inquiry activities of each chapter, chapter I "Material Science" is 3.00(9.91${\%}$), chapter II "Atomic Structure and Periodic Table" 4.57(15.1${\%}$), chapter III "Chemical Bonding and Compound" 6.86(22.6${\%}$), chapter IV "State of Matter and Solution" 7.00(23.1${\%}$), chapter V "Chemical Reaction" 8.86(29.2${\%}$). For the analysis of inquiry process dimension, it follows in the order of 'observation and measuring (66.7${\%}$)', 'Interpreting data and formulating generalizations (26.5${\%}$)', 'seeing a problem and seeking ways to solve it (4.1%)', and 'building, testing and revising the theoretical model (2.7${\%}$)'. As for the analysis of the inquiry context dimension, the scientific context occupied 90.5${\%}$, the individual context 4.3${\%}$, the social context 0.9${\%}$, and the technical context 4.3${\%}$. It shows that the proportion of STS(Science-Technology-Society) related contents in inquiry activities was only 9.5${\%}$.