• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.169-179
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• 2008

In this study, 46 teaching materials for understanding the nature of science (NOS) were developed based on the 42 statements describing the NOS. Each teaching material involves scientific knowledge and scientific inquiry skills as well as NOS statements. Teaching materials consist of students' learning worksheets and teachers' guides. Among the materials, 11 materials for understanding the nature of scientific thinking (NOST) were applied to 3 scientifically gifted students. As results, the degree of difficulty was appropriate and students showed interests in scientific thinking rather than new concepts or inquiry activities involved in the materials. It was expected that understating the NOST would be helpful for conducting scientific inquiry in more authentic way. And similarly to the Park's (2007) theoretical discussions about the relationship between the NOS and scientific creativity, students actually responded that undertrading the NOST could help their creativity. Therefore, it was expected that teaching the NOST would be plausible elements for teaching scientific creativity.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.701-724
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• 2022

In this study, the Nature of Science (NOS) instrument for elementary school students in the form of open questionnaires was developed specifically to reveal elementary school students' perceptions of the NOS, and its validity and effectiveness were investigated. To develop a NOS instrument for elementary school students, problems that may occur when applying the existing NOS instruments to elementary school students were analyzed and based on this, the development direction of the NOS instrument was established. In addition, after selecting seven NOS types suitable for the level of elementary school students, the preliminary instrument was produced by modifying and supplementing the items in the existing instruments for each type or by developing new items. Finally, the NOS instrument consisting of eight questions was developed by adding one question asking for a comprehensive understanding of science to seven questions related to each type of NOS after a content validity test of the science education expert group. To verify the practical effect of the developed instrument, pre- and post-tests were conducted on 50 students in two classes of sixth grade at two elementary schools in Seoul: 'existing instrument → development instrument' in one class, and 'development instrument → existing instrument' in the other class. The collected data were then compared and evaluated through summary content analysis and analyzed by executing the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. As a result of comparing and analyzing students' responses to the existing NOS instrument and the developed NOS instrument, students' perspectives on the NOS were more diverse when using the developed instrument, and the level of error in the response caused by misinterpreting the intention of the question was reduced. In addition, when using the developed instrument, the responses of the majority of students at a statistically significant level changed more specifically. In this study, the implications for the development of NOS instruments suitable for elementary school students were discussed based on these results.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.207-226
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate how fusion science program for undergraduate general education influences the understanding of Nature of Science (NOS) and STEAM Literacy of students majoring in science and engineering in college. The students participated in the pre/post NOS survey(Lee, 2013) and the STEAM literacy survey(Choi et al., 2013) in the program. The results of this study are as follows. First, the fusion program was effective in understanding the NOS because there is a statistically significant difference between the pre/post tests.(p < 0.01). Second, while there were no significant differences between genders, however, there is a significant difference in students' majors in NOS understanding(p < 0.05). Third, it showed that improvement in STEAM Literacy in Convergence and Creativity domains is significant(p < 0.01). By contrast, the Caring domain of STEAM Literacy was decreased statically significant(p < 0.01). In the end, there is no difference in STEAM Literacy between genders as well as among students' major(p < 0.05).

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.45-57
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• 2019

NOS education through the history of science is regarded effective. However, science teaching has been criticized for not considering the interest of the learners enough and providing the context of learning themes that hinder the understanding of NOS. This study intends to convey the NOS element through the rich context of storytelling. The theme of the story is the history of continental drift, in which, the debate of many scientists and Wegener's creativity are prominent. Of the various media that deliver storytelling, the most powerful medium that leads to personal immersion is computer games, and among many kinds of games, the main genre of storytelling is role-playing games (RPGs). We developed the science history role-playing game (SHRPG) focusing on continental drift. The game development procedure followed Kim's 4F process (2017), which consists of the Figure Out, Focus, Fun Design, and Finalize. The story was constructed based on the NOS elements of Lederman et al. (2002), namely creativity and imagination demand, subjectivity, socio-cultural personality and tentativeness, which are all present in the story of the continental drift theory. The mechanics and rules of the RPG included quests, rewards, quizzes, NOS scores, and rankings. In the final phase of development, the game developed was pilot tested four times. The results of the tests showed that students' understanding of NOS through SHRPG has increased, especially in the creativity domain. The students' satisfaction with the fun, sympathy, and immersion during the game was very high.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.399-413
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• 2020

In this study, we analyzed science teachers' NOS-PCK in Science Inquiry Experiment lessons. Four science teachers in charge of Science Inquiry Experiment in high schools located in the Seoul metropolitan area participated in the study. NOS Lessons were observed, all of the teaching-learning materials were collected, and semi-structured interviews were conducted. All the collected data were analyzed according to five factors of NOS-PCK. As a result of the study, their understanding and consideration of the curriculum related to NOS were insufficient in some cases. They thought that given inquiry activities or textbook composition was not effective for NOS teaching so that they actively reconstructed the curriculum. In terms of teaching strategies, their lessons were close to explicit approaches. However reflective approaches were generally lacking. They were neglected in evaluating NOS for reasons that views of NOS are individually subjective or that NOS is not an area of cognitive learning. They guessed the state of students by relying on their own experiences rather than based on evaluation results. They recognized a specific aspect of values of NOS learning. And intention to teach NOS played an important role throughout their classes. Based on the above results, we discuss some ways to improve the professionalism of science teachers for NOS teaching.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.549-555
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• 2015

In this study, we investigated the influences of Integrated Science on the views of 10th graders with regards to the nature of science (NOS), STS, interest in science, and science aspiration, in order to explore the effects of Integrated Science developed under the 2009 Revised National Curriculum. Participants in this study were 214 10th graders in Seoul. The survey was administered at the beginning and at the end of the Integrated Science course. The analyses of the results revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the scores of the pre-test and post-test on the NOS survey. However, the post-test scores of the tentativeness of scientific knowledge and the use of imagination, which are the sub-constructs of the NOS, were found to be significantly lower than the pre-test scores. There were no statistically significant differences in the frequencies of the responses to each item of the STS survey. The pre-test and post-test scores of the interest in science and the science aspiration were also not significantly different. The results indicated that Integrated Science did not have any impact on students' views on NOS, STS, interest in science, and science aspiration. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 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 the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.150-162
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• 2022

In this study, we investigated pre-service science teachers' NOS-PCK by analyzing their NOS lesson planning and demonstration. Four pre-service science teachers participated in the study. They planned and demonstrated NOS lessons in the context of 'Science Inquiry Experiment' developed under the 2015 Revised National Curriculum. Their lessons were observed. All of the teaching-learning materials were collected, and semi-structured interviews were also conducted. The analyses of the result revealed that pre-service teachers mainly referred to the curriculum and textbooks when selecting the NOS learning objectives. However, they felt difficulty because the curriculum and textbooks did not clearly present the NOS to be dealt. Although all of them took explicit approaches, there were not many open and divergent reflective approaches. In addition, they expected that high school students would consider scientific knowledge absolute and would have negative perceptions of NOS lessons. They rarely assessed students' NOS learning, and were reluctant to assess. Finally, most of them had a negative perception that learning NOS is not necessary for all students. On the bases of the results, educational implications for improving the expertise of pre-service science teachers in NOS lessons were discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.66 no.5
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• pp.362-375
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• 2022

In this study, science teachers' NOS lessons were observed and the characteristics of the lessons were analyzed. Three science teachers who taught NOS in the 'Science Inquiry Experiment' developed under the 2015 revised curriculum participated in the study. Their NOS lessons were observed and interviews were conducted before and after lessons. The collected data were analyzed using analytical induction and constant comparative method. The analyses of the result revealed the teachers' naive views on NOS were also revealed during the lessons. There were some cases where they showed naive views during the lessons even if they showed informed views in the interviews. Although the domains of NOS taught by them were diverse, all of them taught 'tentativeness' and considered this an important goal. They tended to teach NOS with content related with their major, and teaching NOS was found to be deeply related to their major. In the activity where students learn NOS by inferring the unknown object, teachers disclosed the unknown object, which is unlike the rule of the activity. They thought that could help students' learning. At last, although they emphasized teaching NOS, they either did not assess NOS or assessed NOS in a limited way. Based on the results, some directions for teacher education and follow-up study are suggested.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.955-963
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• 2008

This study was conducted to assess any change in students' views on the nature of science (NOS) after lessons through the activities of model construction and pattern identification. The instrument used to examine NOS views was the Views of Nature of Science questionnaire (VNOS). Four students' responses on VNOS before and after instruction were analyzed. The two levels of their views, novice and expert, were judged by the authors based on criteria set by several science educators. The instruction consisted of six hours of the so-called black box and cube activities developed for model construction and pattern identification, respectively. Students' views were at the novice level in definition of scientific theory, tentativeness of scientific knowledge, difference of hypotheses, theories and laws, model construction, and creativity and imagination in experiments and investigations. Students' views on NOS knowledge such as model and theory have improved for two students after instruction. The improvement seemed to be due to an explicit approach using the activities of model construction and pattern identification. The factors of changes and no-changes of views on NOS were identified and discussed in terms of improvement of the views.