• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.61-72
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to analyze elementary school teachers' implementation for the emphasis on the revision, major contents, teaching and learning method, and evaluation in the 2009 revised national science curriculum. To fulfill the purpose of this study we carried out a survey with 222 elementary school teachers. Main findings of this research were as follows: First, they highly agreed to the increase in class hours and the application of subject classroom, but they had a lower recognition for setting the subject groups. Second, the degree of necessity in discussion and STS was relatively high, but the degree of implementation in science writing, discussion and STEAM was low. Third, in teaching and learning method, they showed a high performance for mutual cooperation, student-led activities and communication, but, a low implementation for open inquiry and instruction considering individual differences. Fourth, in the evaluation of science learning, they showed a high implementation for evaluation based on achievement standards and one based on the understanding and application of basic concepts, but, a low implementation for the development of common evaluation tools. Fifth, it seemed that their recognition for amount, level and interest of science contents and inquiry activities was appropriate and positive.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.287-295
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• 2008

Elementary students' behaviors classifying leaves have been analyzed according to the material types provided for the classification class. 199 sixth grade students were participated in the task classifying the leaves of various plants for the research. The three types of materials provided to them for the class were real leaves, photos of the leaves and explanation cards including the photos of leaves. One of the research findings was that the only material made students handle in the observed behaviors was the real leave of the material types given as classifying. Three were differences between groups in the time required and the number of using criteria for the class. The numbers of criteria had been applied to analyzing their behaviors as classifying the real leaves which were less than those with photo materials. The amount of taken time to classify the real leaves and photo materials were less than those of another material. Finally, the contents of criteria did not differ between groups except appearing properties presented to the task with photo and explanation materials. It is expected that the research can be contributed for elementary school teachers and for curriculum developers to choose appropriate instructional materials as constructing curriculum contents for elementary science to make elementary school students acquire classifying skill in science classes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.113-128
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to confirm achievement of goals in science curriculum. The questionnaires related to 'solution' chapter of 5th grade were developed. The subjects were 69 sixth grade elementary school students and four elementary school teachers. 5 students were selected for deep interviews. Each interview was progressed separately, and all the contents of the interviews were recorded. As results, it is revealed that most of the students could not understand basic concepts of 'solution' chapter. The teachers and the students recognized that explanations in the textbook were insufficient. Many inquiry activities were introduced in textbooks, but the students could not acquire inquiry abilities, especially data interpretation and generalization abilities. Inadequate pictures in the textbook also disturbed the students' learning of inquiry ability. Using materials of real life in textbook could not attract the elementary school students' interests effectively.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.103-112
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary and middle school teachers' perception and the need for the application of 2015 revised science curriculum. Four hundred and sixty-eight elementary school teachers and four hundred and twenty-two middle school teachers were surveyed. The results of the research are as follows. many elementary and middle school teachers responded that major changes in the 2015 revised curriculum were applicable in school science education. However, they expected that the lack of teaching and learning materials, lack of experiment preparation time, and lack of their understanding about how to improve the scientific core competencies and how to use the content system were major difficulties in applying the major changes in the 2015 revised science curriculum. They also thought that teaching and learning materials were needed in order to apply the 2015 revised science curriculum. Based on these results, this study suggested content for teacher training, the role of teachers, and formation of a teacher community.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.113-128
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• 2017

This study aims to investigate the research trend of elementary environmental education. Thus, author keywords were extracted from a total of 197 academic these related to elementary environmental education during two different periods when detailed goals were applied to the 2007 and 2009 revised curriculums respectively, and then this study analyzed the network of author keywords. The results of this study can be summarized as below. Firstly, as a result of analyzing the frequency of author keywords from academic theses related to elementary environmental education, this study discovered 369 author keywords from the period when detailed goals were applied to 2009 revised curriculum. Out of them, it was found that the keyword, 'climate change education', showed the highest frequency, followed by 'environmental literacy' and 'environmental perception', except such central keywords as 'environmental education' and 'elementary school student'. From the period when detailed goals were applied to the 2007 revised curriculum, a total of 394 author keywords were discovered, and the keyword, 'environmental literacy', showed the highest frequency, followed by 'environmental perception' and 'ESD (education for sustainable development)'. Secondly, as a result of analyzing the network of author keywords, this study found out that in the total number of network connections, average connection degree, density and clique, the period when detailed goals were applied to the 2007 revised curriculum was somewhat higher than the period when detailed goals were applied to the 2009 revised curriculum. As a result of analyzing the centrality of author keywords, this study found out that during both the periods, 'environmental perception' and 'environmental literacy' were high in degree centrality and betweenness centrality, except such central keywords as 'environmental education' and 'elementary school student'. As a result of analyzing the components of author keywords as sub-networks, this study discovered 9 components from the period when detailed goals were applied to the 2009 revised curriculum and 6 components from the period when detailed goals were applied to the 2007 revised curriculum. During both the periods, the largest component was composed of keywords high in degree centrality and betweenness centrality.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.181-189
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• 2016

This study examined three elementary school computing curriculum - the CSTA K-12 computer science standards, the computing programme of the national curriculum in England, and the 2015 national curriculum in Korea - focusing on the educational objectives with the perspective of the revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. The CSTA K-12 computer science standards mainly addressed applying procedural knowledge and using digital technology is the main theme. The computing programme in England concentrated on understanding factual and conceptual knowledge of computer science, such as algorithms. The 2015 national curriculum also addressed applying procedural knowledge, but the main focus is making softwares and robots. The findings of this comparative analysis suggest that it is needed to set up concrete educational objectives for lower grade and make them related to the secondary education to make more coherent elementary-level learning objectives. And elementary-level computing learning objectives are needed to be organized with the perspective of knowledge and cognitive process level.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.129-142
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• 2017

In this study, the characteristics of the reading materials in elementary school science textbooks developed under the 2009 revised National Science Curriculum were investigated. The criteria for classifying the reading materials were the types of topic, purpose, students' activity, and presentation. The visual images in the reading materials were also analyzed from the viewpoint of type, role, caption type, and proximity type. The results indicated that the number of the reading materials in the 2009 revised science textbooks decreased compared to that of the 2007 revised science textbooks. It was also found that the frequencies of the reading materials expanding concepts of the text and/or requiring corresponding students' inquiry increased. More visual images were used in the reading materials of the 2009 revised science textbooks. However, several limitations were still found to exist; most visual images were illustration and/or picture; many visual images were presented without a caption; there was a problem in the proximity of visual image to text.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2014

This study analyzed the inquiry activities in the 'matter' units from each science textbook for the fifth and the sixth graders developed by the 2007 revised national curriculum, using Practical Activity Analysis Inventory proposed by Millar(2009) to examine types of learning objectives, hands-on contents(what students have to do with objects and materials), minds-on contents(what students have to 'do' with ideas), and logical structure each activity had. The results of this study are as follows: First, most learning objectives of the inquiry activities seems to be suitable for the standards of 2007 revised national curriculum. Second, the standards of 2007 revised national curriculum are properly reflected in hands-on contents of inquiry activities. Third, minds-on contents of inquiry activities are well developed to meet the standards of 2007 revised national curriculum as a whole. Fourth, the logical structures of inquiry activities are mostly adequate for achieving the goals of the 2007 revised national curriculum. In the textbook for the fifth graders, however, all the activities are focusing too much on using students' current ideas to generate a prediction and collecting data to explore or test it. Based on these findings, this research has concluded that learning objectives, minds-on contents and logical structures of inquiry activities need to be designed carefully for students to be exposed to various activities when developing following textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.463-471
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze application status about the process-centered assessment in elementary school science classes. For this purpose, a survey was conducted with 133 teachers and 2,089 students in elementary schools, and in-depth interviews with eight teachers were conducted. Elementary school teachers had a positive attitude toward the adoption of the process-centered assessment of 2015 revised science curriculum. After applying 2015 revised science curriculum, teachers used more performance assessments and less traditional ones in science classes. Elementary school students recognized that they receive feedbacks from their teachers more often with the implementation of the 2015 revised science curriculum. Through in-depth interviews, it was possible to confirm the difficulty of applying the process-centered assessment of elementary school teachers, such as lack of understanding of process-centered assessment and lack of time for its application. Based on the results of the study, the necessity for improving teacher understanding of process-centered assessment and the need to disseminate process-centered assessment materials are suggested.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.504-513
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• 2011

In this study, we investigated how elementary science teaching has changed with the introduction of the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA). Teachers are held accountable for student performance as measured by the mandatory nation-wide standards tests to satisfy the needs of accountability and quality assurance systems. In relation to the teaching of science in the elementary school, professionalism meets potential threats with the advent of national test. Through analysis of the classroom teaching and open-ended interviews, we explored the teacher's concerns about the national test and how their science classes have changed to prepare for this test. According to the results, the national test made elementary teachers accountable for the content of their science classes, limits teachers' autonomy in reconstruction of curriculum, and forced teachers to conduct conclusion-centered lessons even in elementary science classes. In addition, teachers argue that the national test precludes the possibility of differentiated education and differentiated assessment. Based on the results, we suggested a new professionalism in this accountability era, so called 'informed professionalism', which refers to the ability of teachers to interpret and implement curriculum and policy mandates at the local, school and classroom level to generate equitable and improved student outcomes through teaching and learning. We also suggested further research on the teacher professionalism in teaching science contents.