• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.207-212
• /
• 2014

The national reform document, Science for All Americans (AAAS, 1990), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2012) emphasize the importance of the nature of science in guiding science educators in accurately portraying science to students. Therefore, it is important that textbook materials convey an accurate conception of the nature of science. This study employs content analysis to examine the content of textbooks in US and Korea elementary science textbooks with regard to the four aspects of the nature of science: (a) nature of scientific knowledge; (b) nature of scientific inquiry; (c) nature of scientific thinking; and (d) nature of interactions among science, technology, and society (Chiappetta, Fillman, & Sethna, 2004). Intercoder reliability was determined by calculating Cohen's kappa (Cohen, 1960). Findings show that while US elementary science textbooks are not balanced in presenting the four aspects of the nature of science regardless of the publishing companies, the presentation of the nature of science in Korean elementary science textbooks have better balanced treatment of the four themes across the grade levels. On the other hand, both US and Korean elementary science textbooks are attempting to convey an idea of what science is by emphasizing scientific knowledge and investigation.

• 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.24 no.4
• /
• pp.351-359
• /
• 2005

The aims of this research are to analyze elementary preservice teacher's conception and causes of their misconceptions on biological reproduction and inheritance. In future, it would be also to provide useful data for the effective teaching-teaming method in the elementary school as well as opportunities to correct their misconceptions, which help elementary preservice teachers have the appropriate scientific conceptions. Thirty kinds of test questions were designed in science curriculum for elementary students and biology textbook for university students in order to develop reproduction and inheritance's concepts. The questionnaire was given to 166 junior students of university of education in a local city. All statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 10.0 program. The major results are as follows: Among 30 test questions, 2 questions in plants, 5 questions in animals and 2 questions in gene were appeared as misconceptions over $50\%$. The major reason to hold the misconceptions was influenced by 'learning up to now' category. The selection reasons of response were significantly different between scientific conceptions and misconceptions in 10 questions by analysis of variance. The gender also showed statistically significant differences between scientific conception and misconception in 3 questions by $\chi^2$ test. The selection reasons according to gender were significantly different between male and female students in 5 questions. For the reasons in forming misconceptions, they may cause by stereotype, conscious priority, differences of experiences, interest or attention, lack of professional Knowledge, and so on. Therefore, it was concluded that this research may help elementary preservice teachers to reconsider their conception for reproduction and inheritance and to be successful in science instructions fur elementary students.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.49-65
• /
• 2006

This attitudes scale for prediction of mathematics achievement by elementary school students was developed from 50 initial items from the literature rated for content validity by 30 experts. The ratings rendered 31 revised items used for exploratory factor analysis and reliability tests. The 31 items were administered to 183 elementary students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades, yielding 4 factors : enjoyment, confidence, value, and motivation with high inter-items consistency. To confirm appropriateness of the constructed model and to test its predictability in mathematics achievements, confirmative factor analysis and discriminant analysis were performed on 693 cases. Results showed that the attitude scale model of 4 factors can be recommended for use in the measurement of elementary school students' attitudes toward mathematics.

• Journal of Korean Home Economics Education Association
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.39-50
• /
• 1999

The aim of this study is to identify needed consumer education changes through the analysis of the consumer education in elementary schools. The findings of this study are：1. The current situation of elementary school consumer education was examined through analysis of the curricula of elementary schools. 2. Teacher attitudes and perceptions toward elementary school consumer education were also examined. Although the elementary school teachers clearly understood the importance of consumer education, the problem is that a training workshop or program has not been provided for them. This deficiency needs to be addressed quickly. 3. The third part of the study consisted of an analysis of the curriculum of the 11 Teacher’s Colleges in Korea. This partof study revealed that consumer education was not systematically addressed at Teacher’s Colleges. This finding suggests that it is important to have an included with other opening lecture on consumer education, cultural subject. The content of the consumer education must be positively emphasized and applied systematically.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.93-104
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between pre-service elementary teacher's prior knowledge and processes of observations and hypotheses generation via analysis of descriptive fault patterns during observation, problem generation and hypotheses generation processes. For the purpose of this study, thirty-four undergraduate students were participated and descriptions of participants' responds were analyzed. As the result, four patterns of descriptive fault on the process of generating hypothesis were classified; 1) descriptive fault from the causalities, 2) descriptive fault from repetition of observational facts, 3) descriptive fault from the priority of prior knowledge, and 4) descriptive fault from negation of the observational facts. From the result, the researcher was able to explore the faults caused by pre-service elementary students' prior knowledge through the observational descriptive analysis with hypothetical descriptive analysis.

• Educational Technology International
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.27-47
• /
• 2017

Smart devices have a variety of affordances to foster meaningful learning in elementary school. For the design of smart learning environments, more research is needed to understand students' smart device usage and their perception of learning with smart devices. In order to capture smart device usage profiles among elementary school students in South Korea, this study carried out Latent Profile Analysis with three constructs: information search, communication, and study. Participants (n=253), who ranged from the fourth to the sixth grade students, were classified into three profiles of smart device usage: low-activity, communication, and high-activity groups. The smart device usage profiles varied depending on smartphone usage experience, and the profiles were significantly related with smart device addiction, not with smart device usage ability. Perceptions of smart education were also significantly associated with the profiles. The high-activity group showed more positive attitudes toward smart education than the others, but no significant difference was found in regard to negative attitudes. Based on the findings, this study discussed implications for the use of smart devices in elementary school.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.42 no.5
• /
• pp.487-499
• /
• 2022

This study aims to understand the trends and characteristics of elementary science textbook research. For this purpose, among the papers published in science-related journals from 2001 to 2021, 156 studies related to elementary science textbooks were analyzed to examine the research trends on textbook analysis. The analysis criteria consisted of two major categories, 'outward feature' and 'topic.' The subcategories of 'outward feature' consist of 'year of publication,' 'target curriculum,' 'target grade,' 'science content area,' 'subject of study,' and 'publishing institution.' The sub-categories of 'topic' consist of 'comparison,' 'content,' 'illustration,' 'inquiry activity,' 'perception of textbooks,' and 'others.' As a result of the analysis on 'outer feature,' textbook-related research was conducted almost every year, and the research on the 2009 revised science curriculum, on the 3-6 grades, and on the whole field of science had the most. The science textbook researches were published not only in science education-related journals but also in other areas' journals. As a result of the analysis of the 'topic,' the number of papers was higher in the order of comparative research, content analysis, illustration, inquiry activities, and perception of textbooks. Implications for accredited textbook system of elementary science were discussed based on the analyses on the elementary science textbook research trends.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.545-555
• /
• 2021

This study aims to analyze research trends by the period of elementary science education journal. A total of 1047 papers were analyzed from Volume 1 No. 1 in 1983 to Volume 39 No. 4 in 2020. The results of the study are as follows: First, the period of elementary science education journals was divided into infancy, settlement, development, and retainment period according to the number of papers. Second, the ratio of research by more than three scholars, pure or funded research was decreasing. Third, the study subjects had a high rate of research on elementary school students and elementary school teachers. Fourth, research methods were mainly research studies and experimental studies, and qualitative analysis and mixed analysis studies were increasing as data analysis methods. Fifth, the occupation of the first author was professor (45.6%), teacher (39.8%), graduate student (10.6%), and researcher (1.7%) in that order. Sixth, the regions of the corresponding author were concentrated in Seoul and Gyeongin, the metropolitan areas. Finally, in order for the "Elementary Science Education" journal to continue to play a pivotal role in leading elementary science education in the future, efforts to improve the overall journal and continuous participation and cooperation of domestic and foreign researchers, academic executives, members, and educational institutions are required.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.305-315
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the role of illustrations in elementary textbooks (3~4 grade) of the 2009 revised curriculum of science education in Korea from point of view of aim of science by applying the criteria of 5E inquiry process model for reflecting core aim of the science education. The subjects of the paper was the 105 illustrations in the earth-science domain of elementary science textbooks (3~4 grade) of the 2009 revised curriculum of science education in Korea. The analysis criterion was of two categories, the function of illustration and the role of illustration. the function of illustration was divided into three subcategories such as Exclusiveness type, correspondence type and supplementary type. The role of illustration was divide into five subcategories such as Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration and Evaluation. According to results of the illustration analysis are as follows: the result of the function of illustration are exclusiveness type 39, correspondence type 36 and supplementary type 30, the important of point to note is that there are a lot of exclusiveness type considerably. compared with other subjects, this fact indicate character of illustration of the only science textbook. The result of the role of illustration are Engagement 14, exploration 64, explanation 25, elaboration 2 and evaluation 0. This data indicate main role of illustrations in earth-science domain is to help the students to be able to observe and explore. Cross-analysis of the function and role was a significant difference. Role of illustration was evenly distributed within Exclusiveness type on the other hand, the role of illustrations was mainly exploration and explanation in correspondence and supplementary type. Especially, illustration of exploration was mainly correspondence type.