• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.418-431
• /
• 2022

In this study, we analyzed the form, presentation, and interactivity of external representations presented in the matter units of elementary school science digital textbooks developed under the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. The analytic framework of the previous study was modified and supplemented. The matter units in the 3rd-6th grade science digital textbooks were analyzed by dividing them into "body texts" and "inquiries" area. The results revealed that visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were presented the most. Conversely, audial-nonverbal representations were presented at a high frequency only in the body texts, and audial-verbal representations were presented at a low frequency in both the body texts and the inquiries. Regarding the presentation, when verbal and visual-nonverbal representations appeared together, visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were primarily presented together. In some cases where visual-verbal, audial-verbal, and visual-nonverbal representations were presented together, information on visual-verbal and audial-verbal representations was presented redundantly. Audial-nonverbal representations unrelated to contents were presented along with other external representations, and the frequency was particularly high in the body texts. Regarding the contiguity, no visual-verbal and visual-nonverbal representations were presented on different pages, and no audial-verbal representations were presented asynchronously with visual-nonverbal representations. Regarding the interactivity, explanatory feedback and low-level manipulations were mainly presented. Based on the results, implications to improve digital textbooks are discussed from the perspective of multiple representation-based learning.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.324-347
• /
• 2022

Geological information on the Korean Peninsula plays a significant role in science education because it provides a basic knowledge foundation for public use and creates an opportunity to learn about the nature of geology as a historical science. In particular, the Mesozoic Era, when the Korean Peninsula experienced a high degree of tectonic activity, is a pivotal period for understanding the geological history of the Korean Peninsula. This study aimed to analyze whether content regarding the geology of the Mesozoic Era are reliably and consistently presented in the 'Geology of the Korean Peninsula' section of Earth Science II textbooks based on the 2015 revised curriculum. Four textbooks for Earth Science II were analyzed, focusing on the sedimentary strata, tectonic movement, and granites of the Mesozoic Era. The analysis items were terms, periods, and rock distribution areas. The consistency within and among textbooks and of textbooks and scientific knowledge was analyzed for each analysis item. Various inconsistencies were found regarding the geological terms, periods, and rock distribution areas of the Mesozoic Era, and suggestions for its improvement were discussed based on these inconsistencies. It is essential to develop educational materials that are consistent with the latest scientific knowledge through collaboration between the scientific and educational communities.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.41 no.3
• /
• pp.248-260
• /
• 2020

Oceanic current maps introduced in science and earth science textbooks can offer a valuable opportunity for students to learn about rapid climate change and the role of currents associated with the global energy balance problem. Previously developed oceanic current maps in middle and high school textbooks under the 2007 and 2009-revised national curriculum contained various errors in terms of scientific accuracy. To resolve these problems, marine experts have constructed a unified oceanographic map of the oceans surrounding the Korean Peninsula. Since 2010, this process has involved a continuous, long-term consultation procedure. By extensively gathering opinions and through verification process, a representative and scientific oceanic current map was eventually constructed. Based on this, the educational oceanic current maps, targeting the comprehension of middle and high school students, were developed. These maps were incorporated into middle and high school textbooks in accordance with the revised 2015 curriculum. In this study, we analyzed the oceanic current maps of five middle school science textbooks and six earth science textbooks that were published in high school in 2019. Although all the oceanic current maps in the textbooks were unified based on the proposed scientific oceanic current maps, there were problems such as the omission of certain oceanic currents or the use of a combination of dotted and solid lines. Moreover, several textbooks were found to be using incorrect names for oceanic currents. This study suggests that oceanic current maps, produced by integrating scientific knowledge, should be visually accurate and utilized appropriately to avoid students' misconception.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.203-219
• /
• 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 Science Education
• /
• v.43 no.1
• /
• pp.64-78
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Integrated Science, a new subject introduced under the 2015 revised curriculum, was implemented in 2018 when it was first enacted at the school level. Through a survey of 258 high school science teachers, we explored how Integrated Science was organized and implemented at the school level, how teaching & learning and assessment were conducted in Integrated Science courses, how teachers' learning communities were operated, what kinds of support are required for the settlement of Integrated Science, etc. Major results are as follows: A similar ratio is found between schools with eight units and schools with six units of integrated science, and in about 2/3 of surveyed schools, multiple teachers are in charge of Integrated Science lessons per classroom. In addition, lecture-type teaching methods are still dominant in the majority of the classes, and science teachers have difficulties with lack of understanding of non-major areas or burden of designing integrated teaching depending on their teaching experiences, and so on. Discussed and suggested in the conclusion are ways to raise awareness of curriculum integration, ways to support for activation of teacher learning communities, ways to support the settlement of Integrated Science, and reexamining the system of science teacher certification.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.197-205
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to derive ways to support Integrated Science curriculum implementation by evaluating the results of Integrated Science teacher training programs conducted by the Ministry of Education to support the settlement of 2015 revised Integrated Science curriculum. Teachers' output from the teacher training programs and interviews with training instructors in the 2017 Integrated Science Leading Teacher Training program were analyzed to derive the features of the Integrated Science curriculum and support plans for the implementation of Integrated Science in schools. Teachers who participated in the 2017 Integrated Science Leading Teacher Training program developed teaching, & learning and evaluation plans through participatory training sessions, where the achievement standards most selected by teachers were [10IS08-03] and [10IS09-04]. Through the text mining analysis of these achievement standards, we explored the implementation realities such as reconstruction of achievement standards, teaching and learning methods, learning materials, evaluation methods, and subject competencies. In addition, we analyzed exemplary reconstruction models of achievement standards in light of best integrated instruction, student-participatory instruction, and developing science competencies. Based on the results, we propose teacher training support plans and further studies for the implementation and settlement of the Integrated Science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.352-362
• /
• 2018

With the advent of the 4th industrial revolution, the educational innovation focusing on the key competencies is occurring in the whole world. In September 2015, the Ministry of Education suggested six key competencies such as self-management competency, knowledge/information processing competency, creative thinking competency, aesthetic sensibility competency, communication competency, and community competency for the 2015 revised national curriculum. Also, this era requires for diverse lessons like subject integrated/converged lesson and intramural/extramural education. Thus, the objective of this study is to research/analyze exhibitions of Busan National Science Museum as extramural educational institute and to relate between the 2015 revised curriculum and exhibitions of science museum. First, the exhibitions of permanent exhibition hall in Busan National Science Museum were researched/analyzed. It analyzed the current status, display type, and explained contents of exhibitions. Second, it analyzed the relations between contents of the exhibition and key competencies in the 2015 revised curriculum. Third, the 2015 revised curriculum for the 3rd and 6th grade related to the selected exhibition contents was analyzed. The analysis on the exhibition contents performed by this study would be helpful for follow-up researches connected to exhibitions of Busan National Science Museum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.145-154
• /
• 2021

This study aims to investigate teachers' perceptions of the composition of high school science elective courses ahead of the 2022 curriculum revision, and to derive implications for the organization of the 2022 revised science curriculum in preparation for the full implementation of the high school credit system. To this end, a survey was conducted by randomly sampling high schools across the country. A total of 192 science teachers responded to the questionnaire. In addition, 12 high school science teachers were selected as a focus group, and in-depth interviews were conducted to investigate opinions on the restructuring of elective courses in science. Main research results include 129 (67.2%) science teachers in the survey answered that the current 2015 curriculum's science and elective courses system should be maintained. In the next curriculum, when reconstructing science elective subjects, it is necessary to provide an opportunity to experience the entire contents of each science field through Science I·II system as before, and to ensure student choice in preparation for the credit system. In addition, the opinion that general elective subjects should be organized to include all the contents of science I and II subjects was the highest. Through in-depth interviews, science teachers emphasized that the current science I subject system allows access to the content areas of science as much as possible as the number of subjects is small, and that subjects, such as physics, where the hierarchy of concepts is important, should deal with important content within one subject rather than divided by area. On the other hand, in the current I subject system, there is no subject for liberal arts students to choose from, so teachers suggested that science electives should be organized by subdividing each content area. Based on the research results, the necessity of organizing high school science elective courses in consideration of the purpose of the high school credit system, ways to organize science-convergence elective courses as subjects for all students regardless of career aptitude, ways to organize science-career elective courses, and ways to organize science elective courses in connection with the college admission system were proposed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.4
• /
• pp.599-609
• /
• 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 The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.253-269
• /
• 2020

This study aims to develop items to diagnose pre-service physics teachers' understanding of the conceptual knowledge of modern physics, based on the achievement criteria presented in the 2015 revised national science curriculum, and to identify the validity and reliability of the newly developed items. Data were collected from 467 pre-service physics teachers in the Physical Education Department or Science Education Department (Physics Education Major) of 15 universities across the nation. In this study the content validity, substantive validity, the internal structure validity, generalization validity, and the external validity proposed by Messick (1995) were examined by various statistical tests. The results of the MNSQ analysis showed that there was no nonconformity in the 23 items. The internal structure validity was confirmed by the standardized residual variance analysis, which shows that the 22 items was unidimensional. The generalization validity was confirmed by differential item functioning (DIF) analysis about groups lectured or not modern physics/quantum mechanics. In addition, item analysis and test analysis based on classical test theory were performed. The mean item difficulty is 0.66, mean item discrimination is 0.47 and mean point biserial coefficient obtained was 0.41. These results for item parameters satisfied the criteria respectively. The reliability of the internal consistency of the KR-20 is 0.77 and the Ferguson's delta obtained was δ = 0.972. By Rasch model analysis, the item difficulty (item measures) was discussed.