• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.181-191
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• 2007

The purposes of this study were as follows; to investigate elementary school teachers' understanding of scientific inquiry, experiences in learning/teaching, their educational experience of scientific inquiry, and to study the difficulties they experience in teaching scientific inquiry methods to elementary students and their suggestions for future inquiry materials. For the purposes of this study, 157 elementary school teachers participated in a survey and 10 teachers were interviewed in-depth in relation to their ideas and experiences of scientific inquiry. The results show that most elementary school teachers had a lack of understanding of scientific inquiry skills, and lacked educational experiences of inquiry methods in general. They generally perceived the 7th science text-books as being inappropriate and inadequate for teaching students scientific inquiry processes. The educational implications are discussed to help practitioners implement scientific inquiries successfully through the various types of teaching materials and professional developments.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.179-190
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• 2006

While most previous studies have developed educational programs for science gifted children and have analyzed the differences between science gifted children and ordinary children using quantitative research methods, few have investigated the differences among the science gifted, especially in terms of the scientific thinking process. The present study was conducted to explore the thinking characteristics of the elementary science gifted according to the three scientific thinking process types during the scientific problem solving process. The study resulted in the collected of quantitative and qualitative data through tests and an interview with questions and scientific problems which required the use of one of the three scientific thinking processes. Ten elementary science gifted children served as interviewees. Two types as an opistemological basis for solving the problems are revealed on inductive thinking problems. Three types are on abductive thinking, and Three or Four types are on deductive. The results are expected to have an influence on the teaching and the evaluation of the elementary science gifted.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.102-115
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• 2019

This study investigated how elementary school teachers reconstruct science curriculum and how they perceive about their experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with four elementary school teachers who had experience in restructuring science curriculum. Two distinct types of reconstruction were found; restructuring within the subject and integrating between subjects. The teachers who were restructuring science curriculum from personal needs usually substitute, delete, add some contents or activities and change the order of unit within science subject. In contrast, the teachers who were participating in research school usually integrated science with other subjects, developing a new unit or project. The latter recognized the need of teachers' reconstruction of science curriculum more strongly and the importance of teacher's voluntary learning community in implementing the reconstruction. Though they had some difficulties in identifying students' interests and level of understanding and lack of time, all teachers valued curriculum reconstruction by relating it to teacher professional development, identity as a teacher, and job consciousness.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.287-296
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• 2004

The purposes of this study were to analyze the problems of elementary science instruction, especially in experiment and observation, and suggest the directions to improve current elementary science instruction in terms of teaching methods and strategies. Data from instructions implemented by 7 elementary teachers were used to extract the problem of elementary science instruction. According to the results of instruction observation, such problems as follows are identified: 1) shortage of discussion regarding results of students' activities, 2) insufficiency of interactions among teacher-student/student-student, 3) shortage of guidance for students on observation, 4) absence of explanation on apparatus, 5) teachers' insufficient knowledge on science, 6) inappropriate use of teacher-made worksheets. Desirable directions for the improvement of present elementary science instruction were proposed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate the internal factors whether teachers execute experiments at the science classes in the elementary school. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with 9 elementary school teachers who have served for more than three years. In-depth interviews were performed individually and all the interviews were recorded. Data sources were analyzed by grounded theory. The results were as follows: The internal factors that they did experiments at the science classes were science teaching faiths in experiment, self confidence in experiment, interest in science. and the internal factors that they did not experiment at the science classes were lack of science content knowledge, lack of science education knowledge, memory of failure at experiment, and so on. The investigation results imply inquiry activities should be more strengthened in elementary teacher education program and pre-service teacher curriculum. And it needs to give a materials of receiving information and guidance detailed about the experiments.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.570-579
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• 2007

Instructional objectives clearly show what teachers should teach in the class and how they lead the class, focusing on a certain activity for their students in the class. Clear instructional objectives are a prerequisite for teachers to accomplish effectively their curriculum. The revised Bloom's taxonomy table of educational objectives has been introduced in 50 years since the publication of his original taxonomy table in 1956. Bloom's revised taxonomy table of educational objectives has two-dimensions, the "cognitive process" dimension and the "knowledge" dimension, and it classifies class objectives more elaborately and clearly. This study was designed to classify instructional objectives stated in elementary science guidebooks for teachers into Bloom's revised taxonomy table, and see how the objectives of elementary science classes were categorized by grade level and areas. In addition, this study examined how the objectives of elementary science classes by study area were classified into the new taxonomy table. This study classified 618 elementary science instructional objectives of third- to sixth-grade science guidebooks for teachers into Bloom's revised taxonomy table. The results showed that the objectives of elementary science classes emphasized disproportionately some of the knowledge and cognitive process dimensions. In the area of subjects while the percentages of factual knowledge were very high, those of meta-cognitive knowledge were low.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.447-457
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• 2015

This study has attempted to find the teaching methods for the elementary students with low science achievement by examining the differences of science learning motivation, academic stress and stress coping styles and the characteristics shown in the relationship between them. To achieve this, the differences of science learning motivation, academic stress and stress coping styles of the elementary students with low science achievement and their relationship was set up as a study problem. A science learning motivation using a science learning motivation questionnaire reconfigured with PALS along with underachievers diagnosis were measured targeting 660 elementary students located in Seoul. Using an academic stress questionnaire and stress coping style questionnaire, an academic stress and stress coping styles were measured. The results of analyzing the collected data are as follows. First, a science learning motivation of elementary students with low science achievement was lower than the general students but the academic stress was shown higher. Especially, the self-efficacy of science learning motivation was significantly lower and the school stress was highest. For stress coping styles, a tendency of passive and avoidment coping styles were shown higher than the general students. Second, among the science learning motivation of elementary students with low science achievement, the self-efficacy motivation and school stress have shown a negative correlation but had a positive correlation with the goal-oriented motivation centered on ability. In the correlation between the science learning motivation of elementary students with low science achievement and the stress coping styles, the pursuit of social support coping styles have shown a significant positive correlation with the science learning motivation and its subcategories. As a result of conducting a regression analysis on the influence of academic stress and stress copying styles on the science learning motivation of elementary students with low science achievement, among the academic stresses, the school stress was shown to have the biggest influence. Among the stress coping styles, the pursuit of social support coping styles had the biggest influence on the science learning motivation followed by active coping behaviors, passive and avoidment coping behaviors. Low science learning motivation as underachievement factors of elementary students with low science achievement was identified as having a relationship with high school stress and undesirable stress copying styles. Therefore, guidance and a program are required for the elementary student with low science achievement to have desirable stress coping methods on the stressful situations. In addition, for the improvement of science learning motivation, a learning environment is needed for the elementary students with low science achievement with seeking of relevant educational methods.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.97-107
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to discover and develop any implications which may arise in relation to science teachers' professional growth and development by investigating the difficulties experienced by elementary school teachers in science classes. 196 elementary school teachers were requested to write an anecdotal report regarding their science lessons. 30 science teachers in middle school also answered the same questionnaire. By means of inductive categorical analyzing, the difficulties were grouped into several categories. The results were as follows: (1) The difficulties elementary teachers experience in their science lessons fall into three categories; 'professional science knowledge(9.8%)', 'science laboratory activities(78.3%)', 'teaching methodology(11.2%)'. (2) Science teachers in middle school experienced similar difficulties. However, distribution differed from that of elementary school teachers; 'professional science knowledge(39.0%)', 'science laboratory activities(35.6%)', 'teaching methodology(27.1%)'. (3) The causes of these difficulties were identified as follows; a lack of time to prepare for science classes, insufficient substantial pre-service teacher education, and a lack of adaptive support to elementary school teachers.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.13-21
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• 2010

This study reflects the demand of content elements related to "Human Reproduction" in elementary school science curriculum, and verifies its effects by developing and applying sex education contents available to elementary science class. The developed contents is composed of three sections in reference to the contents guideline for teachers. The contents include anatomical knowledge related to human reproduction and reflect social and cultural context of sex ethics. The first section: "How was I born?", second section: "Amazing changes in my body" and third section: "Healthy body, healthy mind." In the result of analysis of changes in sex knowledge and attitude after applying the contents, it showed statistically significant differences between experimental and comparative class. Thus, the developed contents made positive influence on improvement in elementary students' knowledge and attitude of human reproduction. However, it showed little difference in the effects of sex education contents by the grade and gender. In conclusion, if the sex education contents developed through this study is actively applied, it is expected to provide the elementary students with knowledge of the anatomic difference between male and female, its social and cultural understanding and responsibility for sex ethics. In addition, it is considered to be used as effective education programs and materials in elementary school science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.241-252
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• 2002

Field learning have not well performed in elementary school for various reasons, in spite of the benefits of field study. Absence of suitable geological field courses for elementary science education is one of several reasons The purpose of this study is to develop learning materials for the field geology in Hampyeong region and apply them to the geological related units for elementary science education. The 5 observation sites for the field geology learning in study area include various rocks and geological structure such as granite, gneiss, conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone, plant fossil, fold, fault and weathering phenomenon changing rocks to soil. This study area is suitable place for the field geology learning of elementary science education in Kwangju and Chonnam province because of convenience access, fresh outcrops and distribution of various geological learning materials as rocks and structure.