• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.102-115
• /
• 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
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.243-251
• /
• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between elementary school teachers' points of view about the organization of the science curriculum and their views on the nature of science (NOS). We surveyed 132 elementary school teachers' view points about these two kinds of views, analyzed the data by their variables, and compared the two viewpoints with their personal details. The elementary school teachers thought the science curriculum should be emphasized through the process more than contents. They thought the contents of the science curriculum should be integrated rather than separated. As teachers' career progressed, they focused on the contents more than the process. On the other hands, because elementary school teachers showed the NOS views as relativism, deductivism, decontextualism, content, and instrumentalism, when we plotted sub-viewpoints of NOS in process-content dimension, we thought it would be similar distributions with point of views on the organization of science curriculum. However, there was no meaningful relation. This showed that teachers' views on the organization of the curriculum and the NOS are totally different. These findings suggest further research is needed to find how factors influence elementary school teachers' views on the organization of the science curriculum and what inclinations can occur in science classes with their different views.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.32-42
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to provide meaningful basic materials for organizing a science curriculum in future by analyzing the status and changes of contents about astronomical phenomena in textbooks according to the changes of the science curriculum of elementary school. A main target of analysis is science textbooks of elementary school in curriculums from 1st to 7th. For the analysis, the analytic frame based on contents in astronomy textbooks of teachers colleges and colleges of education was used. The result of the analysis is as in the following. First, astronomy accounted for average about 7% of all pages of textbooks in all of science curriculums. The 1st educational curriculum had the most learning quantity of 10.40%, and the 6th curriculum had the least quantity of 4.39%. These results show that astronomy was not a small part and was considered important in each science curriculum of elementary school considering that earth science accounted for 17-26% of all pages in elementary school science curriculum. Second, the things that have been dealt with in common in all science curriculums from 1st to 7th of elementary school are the shape of the earth, the rotation and the revolution of the earth, the occurrence of the seasons, the apparent motion of the sun, the status and motion of the moon, the movement of a star, the brightness and distance of a star, constellations, the sun, planets and others. These contents are expected to be dealt with continuously as basic contents to organize astronomy regardless of the changes of curriculum. Third, in science curriculum of elementary school, astronomical phenomena based on life experiences regarding the earth, the moon and the sun are mainly dealt with in the first and the second grade. Contents requiring principles-understanding and research are dealt with in the fifth and sixth grade. These results show that elementary school science curriculum dealing with astronomy reflects the developmental stages of students and considers principle of learning possibility.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.3
• /
• pp.295-310
• /
• 2021

For the continuous growth and development of students, continuity of learning content according to the school level is essential. However, research on the continuity of kindergarten education and elementary school science curriculum is relatively insufficient. In this respect, it is necessary to precede the analysis of the continuity between the science-related learning content presented in kindergarten education and the science curriculum in elementary school. In this study, the 2015 science curriculum was organized into 14 small sections, and the core contents of science education in kindergartens and elementary schools were presented as correspondence. As a result, it was possible to classify learning contents presented only in kindergarten, learning contents presented only in elementary schools, and learning contents showing a clear continuity between kindergarten and elementary school. This study is meaningful in that it presents implications for the continuity between the science curriculum of the kindergarten curriculum and the elementary school curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.219-227
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study was to analyze field application of science subject competences of the 2015 revised curriculum for the second year of application. For this purpose, a survey with 133 elementary school teachers, and in-depth interviews with 10 teachers were conducted. According to the results, elementary school teachers had a positive awareness toward the science subject competence, which is a characteristic of the 2015 revised science curriculum, and teachers were applying the science subject competence to their own classes. This tendency was stronger in teachers in science-leading schools than in teachers in regular schools. Teachers wanted support for applying science subject competencies to their classes. To support this, it is necessary to provide the curriculum materials focused on science subject competencies, reinforce teacher training on competence-related curriculum, and activate the professional teacher community.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.15-26
• /
• 2006

This study investigated the characteristics of contents of the Atmosphere and Weather in the elementary science curriculum. For this study, elementary science textbooks reflecting the elementary science curriculum from 1st to 7th were analyzed with a number of tools. The results were as follows: Several parts of the contents about Atmosphere and Weather were dealt continuously through the all of science curriculum. Atmospheric Pressure, Humidity and Atmospheric Pressure and Weather were applied at the fifth grade above continuously. And Cloud$\cdot$Fog$\cdot$Dew was applied at the third and fifth grade. Quantity of learning about Atmosphere was more than it's of Weather always. Especially, Movement of Atmosphere and Temperature Change were maintained continuously above $10\%$ of the contents about Atmosphere and Weather. Some of the detailed learning themes related Atmosphere and Weather were dealt commonly through the all of the elementary science curriculum. Finally, the results showed that the contents of Physical Nature of Atmosphere, Atmospheric Pressure, Movement of Atmosphere, Temperature and it's Change and Cloud$\cdot$Fog$\cdot$Dew had been learned always with the experiments and practical training.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.147-160
• /
• 2018

The purpose of this study is to compare the elementary science curriculum and textbooks of Korea, the United States, Japan, and Singapore to know how the contents on particulate concept of matter is introduced and expressed. In Korea, particulate concept of matter was adopted as a term for 'molecules' in the 3rd through 6th curriculum, and the term for 'particles' was adopted in the 2009 revised curriculum. In the United States, NGSS adopted the term 'particle' in fifth grade. Japan presented the concept of 'particle' as a core concept of matter in the commentary, and the expressions 'particles' were being introduced in the textbooks. But it did not cover particulate nature of matter at the elementary school level in Singapore. An analysis of elementary textbooks in Korea, the United States and Japan except Singapore showed particulate expressions in 'dissolution', 'state change of water', 'gas pressure and volume', 'combustion and extinguishment' units. Korean textbook was only being introduced in 'dissolution' and 'gas pressure and volume', but in the textbooks of Japan and the United States, water was expressed as particles in 'state change of water' unit. Discussion and implication on the introduction of particulate concept to elementary science curriculum and textbooks were suggested based on the results.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.217-235
• /
• 2022

This study aimed to analyze the changes in the physics curriculum of elementary schools over the past years and to discuss the issues faced by the science curriculum for elementary education prior to the next curriculum revision. We analyzed changes in the elements of the contents from the 7th curriculum to the 2015 revised curriculum and reviewed studies conducted after the revision in 2015. Additionally, three professors majoring in physics education discussed the results of the curriculum analysis. The result indicates that content of the physics curriculum for elementary education was generally reduced after the 7th curriculum. Specifically, difficult concepts were omitted or designated to a higher school level. Concerns related to the science curriculum pertain to the content adequacy and difficulty of the current curriculum, its relationship with mathematics, connection between the Nuri curriculum and the integrated curriculum for the 1st and 2nd grades, and the achievement standard predicate problem.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.17-30
• /
• 2001

The 7th Science Curriculum of Korea is applied in elementary schools from 2000, and the New Science Curriculum of Japan is applied in schools from 2002. In this study, we made a comparison between the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea and the New Science Curriculum of Japan in relation to Elementary school in aspects of construction, aim, and contents. The major findings of this study are as follows. 1. The New Science Curriculum of Japan presents a specific aim, treatment of content, and process skills according to grade, but the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea does not classify them according to grade. Hence the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea emphasize on the sequence between grades. 2. In aim of Science Curriculum, the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea show more emphasis on the practical application than the New Science Curriculum of Japan. 3. In construction of content, a area of science content is handled with gradual advance in several grades and several areas of content are treated in a grade in the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea. On the contrary, a area of content is treated intensively in a grade in the New Science Curriculum of Japan. Therefore, the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea shows more reflection of connection and hierarchy between grades. 4. The statements of the 7th Science Curriculum of Korea are centering around specific matters and include specific activities, but the New Science Curriculum of Japan focuses on concepts to team and does not state specific activities.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.373-381
• /
• 2009

This study investigated pre-service elementary school teacher's perception of science curriculum use in Korea and Japan. Ninety four pre-service elementary teachers in Korea and fifty three pre-service elementary teachers in Japan are participated in this study. As the result, four patterns were revealed. First, science isn't perceived as an important or interesting subject by the pre-service elementary teachers in both countries. Second, the perception of Korean pre-service teachers about the objectives of science subject is relatively negative. Third, in the case of Korea, the perception about the effectiveness of science subject content and level, and the amount of learning is shown to be more negative than those of Japan. Finally, in both countries, the science majors and the non-science majors have negative perceptions about the inclusion of the perspectives and methods of assessment and the preparation of teaching and learning plan in curriculum.