• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.267-275
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• 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
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.304-316
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to analyze high school students' critical opinions on others' inquiries in small group open inquiry. Forty-one high school students participated in these activities at the inquiry planning stage and the intermediate stage of inquiry. In the two activities, 595 and 233 opinions were presented respectively, and analyzed into categories based on the inquiry process. The main research results are as follows: first, many opinions were presented in the areas of 'problem recognition and hypothesis setting' and 'design of inquiry' in the feedback on the inquiry plan, especially related to 'revision and addition of research problems,' 'research targets and conditions,' and 'control of variables.' Second, in the feedback on the results of the inquiry, there were many opinions related to 'report preparation' and 'design of inquiry' area. Based on the research results, implications related to the application of critical opinion activity were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.52-63
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• 2018

The purpose of this study was to observe and analyze how pre-service secondary chemistry teachers conduct open-ended, free style, exploratory chemistry experiments. The study examined common difficulties and tendencies that teachers showed in the chemistry labs. The study also investigated how these teachers deal with their difficulties and obstacles, such as unexpected results and device errors. Next, the study explored how students' epistemic goals and considerations have been shaped and changed as they interacted with one another and participated in their experiments over time. The study suggests that it could be more effective to gradually decrease guided-features of the experiment by providing appropriate scaffolding, than to start with completely open-ended inquiry labs. The study also suggests that the establishment of epistemic agency among group members influences the way they conduct experiments. Consequently, it is necessary to consider how instructional design for open-ended inquiry labs may provide students with scaffolds to encourage their active participation and to build responsibility in group discussions.

• 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 Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.307-320
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• 2020

This study explores how the positioning of two pre-service science teachers (PSTs) is reflected in their different epistemic understandings of inquiry-based lessons. We collected the PSTs' products during their design and enactment of an inquiry-based lesson and recorded their practices in the enacted lesson. Interviews were recorded and transcribed for analysis. The results indicate that one PST, Dohyung was positioned as a subject of evaluation throughout the course and the other, Jinwoo, was positioned as a preservice teacher and a subject of evaluation. Their positions were reflected in their epistemic understandings of inquiry-based lessons, which were developed when designing these lessons. During lesson design, both PSTs showed a shared understanding; they explained inquiry-based lessons as students setting and evaluating hypotheses under teachers' guidance. However, as they faced unexpected situations during lesson enactment, they developed different epistemic understandings. To receive a good grade, Dohyung showed a strong preference for anticipating situations that could occur in class and planning responses to them. He understood inquiry-based lessons as ones in which students conduct experiments to produce results expected by the teacher. On the other hand, Jinwoo emphasized the reasoning process based on students' prior knowledge and explained inquiry-based lessons as ones in which students construct new knowledge through a scientific reasoning process based on their knowledge. The findings of this study will contribute to developing strategies to support PSTs' development of their epistemic understandings of knowledge construction in inquiry-based lessons.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.64 no.4
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• pp.210-224
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to investigate science teachers' orientation toward scientific inquiry-based teaching. In this study, five middle school science teachers formed and participated in a teacher learning community for scientific inquiry-based instruction during one year. Data collection consisted of pre and post questionnaire and interviews, audio-recordings of teachers' collaborative lesson planning and reflection on teaching practice, and field notes of participant teachers' teaching practice and follow-up interviews. Data analysis indicated that there were four orientations toward scientific inquiry-based teaching. They were knowledge and beliefs about 'goals of scientific inquiry-based teaching', 'scientific inquiry-based teaching and learning', 'argumentation-based teaching and learning', and 'nature of science and science inquiry'. Teachers' collaboration in a teacher learning community would be effective in facilitating teachers' orientation to scientific inquiry-based teaching.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 2013

The previously developed practical inquiry activity supporting tools, deduced from the design principles and implementation principles based on the study of precedent researches and theories, applicable to conceptual learning in engineering education were implemented to an on-line learning community, a web-based Windows application, to find out its effectiveness in actual classroom situation through experimental research. The On-line learning community includes the inquiry activity menu to implement learning procedure of inquiry based conceptual learning, the functions supporting the communication among participants, the information sharing function, the scheduling function of class and inquiry activity, the mentoring function, and the evaluation of on-line activities of learners. Experimental study were also conducted in order to analyze the effects of inquiry activity supporting tools on inquiry based conceptual learning in engineering education.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.227-238
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• 2019

In this study, we investigated the perception of elementary school students on inquiry activities and collaborative problem-solving ability in data-based scientific inquiry. For this purpose, 20 data-based scientific inquiry classes were conducted in 26 elementary school students in Gyeongnam City. After selecting the inquiry problem, students conducted an inquiry process to collect data using digital inquiry instruments. The following results were obtained through questionnaires and interviews after the classes: First, students perceived the step on 'inquiry design and execution' as the most useful in the data-based scientific inquiry. Second, students perceived that their scientific ability and cooperation improved through data-based scientific inquiry, with the selection of inquiry problems being the most difficult. Third, students perceived positively the improvement of cooperative problem-solving ability. From the above results, it was found that data-based scientific inquiry is necessary to improve the elementary school students' scientific inquiry ability and cooperative problem-solving ability. Based on this research, we hope that the development and research of various inquiry activities will provide opportunities for inquiry that can cultivate various abilities needed for students living in the future.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.986-997
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• 2011

In this study, we developed analogical experimental activities to foster scientific creativity in inquiry learning and applied them to 7th grade science-gifted students. The influences of inquiry learning-based analogical experiments were investigated with respect to the experimental design processes. We classified the patterns of experimental design processes by creative thinking processes and analyzed performance levels by the elements of experimental design processes. The students' experimental design processes were categorized into three kinds of patterns such as reinitiated motion, backward-divergent motion and stationary motion. Those belonging to the reinitiated motion performed precise experimental design from new perspectives by identifying the mapping in depth and considering the elements of experimental design processes. In the case of the backward-divergent motion, they shifted their positions to new directions, but the concreteness of experimental design was insufficient due to the lack of mapping or considering the elements. In the type of stationary motion, maintaining their previous positions, they showed less performance of experimental design without considering the elements sufficiently. Educational implication of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.647-667
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• 2009

This study intends to analyze open-ended inquiry activities of elementary science-gifted students in terms of how similar they are to authentic science inquiry and suggest desirable ways to make more effective programs for the gifted. For this study, we selected a small group with five elementary science-gifted students who had participated in the open inquiry program of summer camp held in the Institute for Science Gifted Education and collected data through recording and video-taping their discussion and performance from planning to coordinating inquiry results. The data was analyzed in terms of epistemological features and cognitive process in authentic science inquiry. The results is as follows. In terms of epistemology, students' inquiry methods were theory laden and they constructed knowledge in collaborative groups. For example, the students often discussed about performing the thought experiment and scientific concept related to inquiry task or their opinion. And in terms of cognitive process, their designing inquiry was similar to authentic science inquiry especially selecting variables, planning procedures, controlling variables, planning measures.