• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.90-104
• /
• 2021

This study conducted an online survey to understand what elementary school teachers think about the learning contents of elementary science education subjects needed to train elementary science teachers suitable for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. The results are as follows: First, there were many elementary school teachers who thought that the current learning content of elementary science education was not suitable for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution and that it needed to modify the learning content. Many of the teachers said that the learning content of the subject did not include the characteristics of the 4th Industrial Revolution, but also did not reflect the changes of the times and remained in the past. Second, the content that elementary school teachers thought was important in training elementary school teachers suitable for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution was mainly related to the interests and curiosity of students, and scientific experiments or inquiry. On the contrary, the items that they thought should be deleted or reduced included science learning theory, science teaching/learning model, nature of science, and guidance for gifted children. Third, the contents that elementary school teachers thought needed to be added as learning content of elementary science education subjects were SSI education, science education-related social change and future prediction, advanced science technology, STEAM guidance, and integrated education within the science field. Fourth, in order to train elementary school teachers suitable for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the contents that they thought should be introduced first as learning content of elementary science education subjects were SSI education, integrated education within the science field, STEAM guidance, and core competencies. Other contents that need to be introduced were software education, safety education, and project learning methods.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.65-80
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this research was to survey and compare the status of science preference of elementary school students with that of middle school students. Preference for science was defined theoretically. According to theoretical model, a questionnaire was developed with piloting and consisted of three parts. First part was for background information, second part, for measurement of science preference and third for measurement of the relevant factors of science preference. The questionnaire was modified for primary school students. In July 2002, the questionnaire was administered to one class per grade of randomly selected 8 elementary and 8 middle schools all over the country and analyzed result of collected 696 elementary school students and 819 middle school students. Middle school students' science preference was low compared with elementary school students, especially in 'emotional response and 'valuational comprehension'. The preference for science became lower especially from 4th to 5th grade and from 8th to 9th grade. The differences of mean science preference were significant by gender. perception of science achievement. and future career choice. The average of science preference relevant factors of middle school students also became lower than elementary students, especially in 'educational factor'. Multiple regression analysis on the science preference showed that important factors were personal ability, the personal traits, rewards in school science and contents of school science, slightly different in elementary and secondary school. The way to promote students' preference for science was suggested on the analysis result.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.304-312
• /
• 2009

We have investigated the effects of participation in science fairs on perception, science related attitudes and science inquiry process skill of thirteen fifth-grade elementary school children in the science subjects. Questionnaires were prepared to find out student's reactions to the participation in science fairs. All participated children responded that the activities at the fairs were interesting and helpful to learning scientific knowledge and inquiring scientific questions. From the analysis of the responses we have found that the participation process including preparatory ones during the fairs may help children to enhance their science related attitudes and science inquiry process skill and can be considered as a useful science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.83-92
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to develop the learning program using sharing nature that can be utilized in Korean elementary science classes and explore the its effects of science academic achievement, inquiry ability, scientific attitude of students after applying it. Sharing Nature used a playful and inspirational teaching strategy and was named after Flow Learning based on universal principles of how people learn. To examine the effects of Sharing Nature Learning Program this learning materials were applied to elementary science curriculum, and an experimental group and a control group were selected from 4th graders at a elementary school located in Icheon City, Gyeong-gi province. The results of this study found significant difference in the student's enhancement of the science academic achievement, inquiry ability, scientific attitude. In conclusion, Sharing Nature Learning Program is useful to develop the elementary school student's science academic achievement, inquiry ability, scientific attitude and had better be widely applied to science education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.163-179
• /
• 2017

This study is to examine whether elementary science textbooks in Korea and Singapore are applicable to flipped learning. By comparative study we sought to identifying appropriate features of science textbooks for learner-centered teaching. We analyzed text pages on the unit of 'Working of electricity' in Korean elementary science textbook for sixth grade and three chapters of 'Electric circuits, Using electricity, Conductors of electricity' in Singaporean elementary textbook, 'Science : My pals are here!'. We designed evaluating frameworks for science textbooks based on the four pillars of flipped learning. and applied it to 10 elementary teachers evaluate two textbooks. They evaluated textbooks with Likert Scale items and wrote detailed statements and exemplars about their choices. We analyzed the teachers' evaluative descriptions inductively and chose commonly mentioned characteristics. Based on the analysis, we got to the conclusion about specific features of two elementary science textbooks in terms of flexible environment, learning culture, intentional contents, and teachers' expertises. Implications for improving science textbooks towards flipped learning and learner-centered teaching through comparative study were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.583-594
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning elementary teachers' characteristics and improvement of their teaching skills in science class. The methodology of this study was a qualitative approach that included interviews, classroom observations, and teaching materials. In urban area, low beginning elementary teacher were selected. Four beginning elementary teachers were observed and recorded with VCR in their classroom at seven-times. The results showed that the beginning elementary teachers did not improve in their teaching skills in science teaching, and their characteristics of teaching skills in science were summarized as following; 1) their teaching methods were not inquiry-based science teaching, but explaining-based science teaching, 2) their main aims of the science teaching were focused on the science knowledges, 3) there were little students' science processes involved in their classes, 4) they focused on using textbook as teaching materials, 5) there were little waiting times after their questioning, and they usually used closed-questions rather than open-ended questions.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.134-143
• /
• 2008

We investigated the understanding of elementary school teachers on the current science issues. As a first step of the research, we choose 10 science issues which are influencing current society. Then we asked 119 elementary school teachers in Seoul, Inchon and Daejeon how important they think and how much they know the issues. As a result, we found that almost elementary school teachers know much on alternative energy, atomic bomb, nuclear power generation and global warming while they less know about high technology as Korean supersonic trainer($T-5^{TM}$) and Synchrotron radiation accelerator. Also we know that teachers take an interest on the articles about current science issues only for a while and forget to study on the issues for themselves. It is more important than whatever for the teachers to have exact understanding on current science issues in order to make civil society by acquiring the science literacy. Therefore elementary teachers and preliminary teachers should have a chance to study on current science issues. We suggest that teacher communities should be supported to improve the competency by cooperation.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.360-379
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of science. Defining teachers' beliefs as a broad construct, we tried to examine the teachers' understandings about the nature of science. The methodology of this study was a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. In an urban area of Korea, five beginning elementary teachers were chosen. The cross-case and grounded theory study design were adopted for the data analysis. The results of data analysis were checked by teachers for internal validity. This study identified the teachers' beliefs about the nature of science suggested by many researchers. The results of this study showed that: 1) beginning elementary teachers did not well understand and were unfamiliar with the meanings of various terms about the nature of science; 2) their beliefs abut the nature of science were broad and various; 3) they understood some parts of the nature of science; 4) there were differences within their understandings about subconcepts of the nature of science.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.234-243
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the SW-STEAM program by utilizing ozobot coding for elementary science class. The developed SW-STEAM program was applied to $5^{th}$ grade students of S elementary school located in B city. The participants were divided into an experimental group which is consisted of 22 students and a comparative group comprised 22 students. And they were engaged in different teaching and learning methods during 11 class hours. The experimental group participated in the SW-STEAM program, the comparative group was taught by using a traditional instruction. The main results of this study are like followings. The SW-STEAM program had a positive effect on elementary school students' basic science process skill, science learning motive, science achievement. Therefore, the SW-STEAM program by utilizing ozobot coding could be meaningful works to encourage students' basic science process skill, science learning motive and science achievement, and more studies on developing SW-STEAM program are needed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.464-470
• /
• 2008

In this study, we investigated the characteristics of elementary school teachers' self-images of science teaching by using Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist (DASTT-C). A survey was administered to 178 elementary school teachers in Seoul, Gyeonggi province, and Gangwon Province. It was found that elementary school teachers' self-images of science teaching for four science subjects (physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science) were more 'teacher-centered' than 'student-centered'. The results may imply that elementary school teachers' beliefs of science teaching tend to be more traditional than constructive. Therefore, there is a need to develop an effective education system for pre- and in-service elementary school teachers based on constructivism.