• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.351-362
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to make a Result analysis on the free inquiry Method of elementary school student. also, this study investigates how free inquiry activities effect the science Process skills and environment-friendly attitudes of elementary school student For this study 150, sixth year, elementary school students from Busan city were selected. The inquiry examined the effectiveness of each of the following free inquiry methods: the PBL inquiry, the Project inquiry, the IIM inquiry, the small group inquiry and the science notebooks inquiry. The students were divided into groups in which they incorporated the respective methods into their practice. Test showed the following results: The environmental class which applies a free inquiry method(PBL inquiry, Project inquiry, IIM inquiry, small group inquiry and science notebooks) was effective in science process skills improvement. Second, The environmental class which applies a free inquiry method((PBL inquiry, Project inquiry, IIM inquiry, small group inquiry and science notebooks) was effective in environment-friendly attitude improvement.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.440-449
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to make a preference and result analysis on the free inquiry method of pre-service elementary school teachers. Also, this study investigates how free inquiry activities effect the science-related attitudes and the self-directed learning characteristics of pre-service elementary school teachers. For this study 76, second year, science education pre-service elementary school teachers from Busan National University of education were selected. The inquiry examined the effectiveness of each of the following teaching methods: the IIM method, the PBL method, the PROJECT method, and the small group inquiry method. The students were divided into groups in which they incorporated the respective methods into their practice. In conclusion, the IIM free inquiry activities proved to be much more effective than the PBL method, the PROJECT method, and the small group inquire method in terms of developing self-directed learning characteristics and science related attitudes at the significant difference of p=0.05.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.116-125
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to make a Result analysis on the Free Inquiry Method of Elementary school student. Also, this study investigates how free inquiry activities effect the science creative problem solving ability and science process skills of Elementary school student. For this study 150, third year, elementary School students from Busan City were selected. The Inquiry examined the effectiveness of each of the following free inquiry methods: the Program Based Learning method, the Project method, the Independent Investigation Method, the Small Group Inquiry Method, and the Science Notebooks Method. The students were divided into groups in which they incorporated the respective methods into their practice. Test showed the following results: First, the Science Notebooks Method activities proved to be much more effective than the Program Based Learning method, the Project method, the Independent Investigation Method, the Small Group Inquiry Method, and the Science Notebooks Method in terms of developing on science creative problem solving ability. Second, the Project method activities proved to be much more effective than the Program Based Learning method, the Independent Investigation Method, the Small Group Inquiry Method, the Science Notebooks Method in terms of developing on science process skills.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.239-247
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of an free inquiry method based on PBL(Problem-Based Learning: PBL) to improve students science process skills and self-directed learning characteristics. To verify this research, twenty-two third-grade students were selected from Chung-ryeol Elementary School located in Busan. They have received pre-test and post-test about their abilities in their science process skills and abilities for self-directed learning characteristics. Also, their self-reflection data was analyzed. The teaching and learning PBL process is to provide the information named 'I am the expert on Earth and Moon' which is recreated by analyzing the science curriculum and characteristics of students from Lesson 3 'Earth and Moon', and to make plans for solving the information with K/NK method. Then, to solve the information is gathered and investigated using the PBL workbook. Lastly, students present their finding using the free inquiry method in a group. The post-test showed following results : first, the free inquiry method based on PBL stimulates inquisitiveness in students about science learning and the research group shows improved science process skill. It shows us that using the free inquiry method based on PBL can be used effects to elevate science process skill. Second, the free inquiry method based on PBL has a positive effect on self-directed learning. The research tells us that using the free inquiry method based on PBL can improve a student self-directed learning characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.163-174
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to device the teaching-learning method and the evaluating method on 'free inquiry' which is newly introduced in 2007 revised curriculum. The teaching-learning models which apply 'free inquiry' are 'group investigation', 'PBL', 'project investigation' and 'IIM'. And the unit which apply 'free inquiry' on the fourth grade and the second semester in the elementary science. The results of this study are as follows: First, The person leading the lesson is not a teacher but learners. The focus of teaching-learning is not a unit but topic, problem or project on the science textbook. A teacher's role is not the deliverer of knowledge but the guide of learning. Second, the outcome of applying group investigation, PBL project investigation and IIM to 'free inquiry' is improvements of the problem-solving ability and the self-directed learning ability as well as building scientific attitude and social skills as educational effect in commonly. Third, to apply 'free inquiry' efficiently, teachers should understand each subject very well, teach a class with a thorough and concrete plan, and try to evaluate objectively.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.243-254
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• 2020

This study analyzed the characteristics of "free inquiry" products for scientifically-gifted elementary school students. To do this, 5~6 graders (n=99) at a gifted science education institutes in Seoul were selected. The products (n=82) of "free inquiry" submitted by the students in 2018 and 2019 were analyzed according to their contents and method types. The analysis of the results showed that the free inquiry outputs of scientifically-gifted students tended to not include the scientific knowledge of the upper grades than the corresponding students. In the outputs, the scientific knowledge in different grades were often not linked. There were relatively many cases of convergence of knowledge in various science and/or non-science subjects and knowledge of 'physics', whereas knowledge of 'earth science' were the least. The outputs were more often aimed at "finding scientific facts" than "development and invention" and tended to target non-living things rather than living things. The scientifically-gifted students tended to conduct free inquiry using 'experimental-centered inquiry' by themselves rather than by group. They were also most likely to conduct experiments only once, and did not clearly write down the period of their inquiry. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.579-587
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• 2014

In National Curriculum of Science revised in 2007, 'Free Inquiry' was newly introduced to increase student's interest in science and to foster creativity by having students make their own questions and find answers by themselves. The purpose of the study was to analyze characteristics deployed in the processes of elementary school students' free inquiry activities applying a brain-based evolutionary science teaching and learning principles. For this study, 106 the fifth grade students participated, and they performed individually free inquiry activities according to a brain-based evolutionary approach. In order to characterize the diversifying, estimating-evaluating-executing, and extending-applying activities in behavioral domain, the free inquiry diary constructed by the students, observations by the researcher, and interviews with the students were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The major results of this study were as follows: First, the students preferred basic inquiry process skills and the majority of the students selected observation as a major approach of their inquiry. The reason was found to be that they were accustomed to only typical basic inquiry skills which is frequently presented at textbooks and regular instruction and didn't have appropriate experience for using relevant integrative inquiry skills. Second, most of the methods diversified and selected by the students were confined to descriptive explanation rather than causal one. Third, both of the science attitude and academic achievement were associated with the number of diversified methods and the selection of appropriate method. Based on these findings, implications for supporting domain novices in inquiry learning environments are advanced.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.210-224
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze students' recognition of the free inquiry activity and to investigate what effect the free inquiry activity of the 2007 Revised Educational curriculum revision has on the science inquiry ability of middle school students. To conduct the research we worked with 262 female students, 8 classes of first graders in a middle school. Among them, 4 classes were taught in free inquiry activity and the remaining 4 classes were taught in the traditional way. The results of Likert-questionnaire indicate that students were learning about cooperative spirit through group investigation activities and discussions and did not take the free inquiry activity as a hard activity. Also they showed positive reaction agreeing that this activity is both a helpful method in learning science and interesting. However, it seemed that the investigation tends to flow between the leading 1~2 members of the group and showed difficulty in carrying out the investigation as a group after school hours. It showed there are few problems and obstacles in operating the free inquiry activity. The free inquiry activity did not give any meaningful influence on the improvement of science inquiry ability of students. Integrative inquiry process skills did not give a relevant influence, however, it showed a meaningful influence on the improvement of basic inquiry process skills. Especially, among the low-ranking element of basic inquiry process skills, it enhanced the capacity for prediction.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.686-702
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• 2012

This study investigated the impact of grouping methods on free inquiry implementation through the use of mixed research methods. Some 113 7th graders and 2 science teachers in two middle schools participated in this study. The 113 students who participated in this study were grouped by homogeneity and heterogeneity according to scientific inquiry skills and personality types respectively, and performed free inquiry activities on the same subject for three weeks. Data were collected by means of a test on science inquiry skills and from focus group interviews with 36 students and in-depth interviews with 2 teachers. The quantitative results of this study showed that homogeneous grouping was more effective than heterogeneous grouping in improvement of scientific inquiry skills. Meanwhile, the qualitative results revealed both the students and teachers perceived that it was effective to compose a small group according to their affective quality than their cognitive quality. Particularly, most of the students preferred the method of small group from the personality types. Some students and both teachers proposed that it is necessary to collect enough information on students and to use them in mixture with the method of small group according to the affective quality.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.253-266
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• 2021

This study analyzed the use of visualization materials in "free inquiry" reports for scientifically-gifted elementary school students focusing on infographics. From 2017 to 2019, 78 students in grades 4~6 at a gifted science education institutes in Seoul were selected. The visualization materials in the reports (n=60) of "free inquiry" submitted by the students were analyzed from the viewpoint of using infographics. The analysis of the results showed that the visualization materials were mostly general illustrations, and infographics were very few. In addition, there were more cases of citing the existing infographics than the case of constructing the infographic. Looking at each stage of inquiry, general illustrations or infographics composed by the students appeared in 'inquiry method' or 'inquiry result' stage, but the existing infographics appeared in 'theoretical background' stage. Among the infographic types by 'expression type', 'structural type' and 'process type' were the most frequent and 'statistical type' or 'comparative/analytic type' was used frequently. Among the infographic types by 'construction level', 'simple reorganization', 'simple layout', and 'reorganization' appeared relatively more. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.