• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.73-86
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of problem solving strategies that gifted students use in science inquiry problem. The subjects of the study are the notes and presentation materials that the 15 team of elementary and junior high school students have solved the problem. They are a team consisting of 27 elementary gifted and 29 middle gifted children who voluntarily selected topics related to dimple among the various inquiry themes. The analysis data are the observations of the subjects' inquiry process, the notes recorded in the inquiry process, and the results of the presentations. In this process, the knowledge related to dimple is classified into the declarative knowledge level and the process knowledge level, and the strategies used by the gifted students are divided into general strategy and supplementary strategy. The results of this study are as follows. First, as a result of categorizing gifted students into knowledge level, six types of AA, AB, BA, BB, BC, and CB were found among the 9 types of knowledge level. Therefore, gifted students did not have a high declarative knowledge level (AC type) or very low level of procedural knowledge level (CA type). Second, the general strategy that gifted students used to solve the dimple problem was using deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, finding the rule, solving the problem in reverse, building similar problems, and guessing & reviewing strategies. The supplementary strategies used to solve the dimple problem was finding clues, recording important information, using tables and graphs, making tools, using pictures, and thinking experiment strategies. Third, the higher the knowledge level of gifted students, the more common type of strategies they use. In the case of supplementary strategy, it was not related to each type according to knowledge level. Knowledge-based learning related to problem situations can be helpful in understanding, interpreting, and representing problems. In a new problem situation, more problem solving strategies can be used to solve problems in various ways.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.282-295
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• 2011

Prior research has reported that student epistemological beliefs might affect their participation in learning and the process of conceptual change. The purposes of this study were to investigate the characteristics of sixth grade students epistemological beliefs about science and the relation between their epistemological beliefs about science and factors related their learning. For this research questions, 245 sixth grade students participated and various test instruments were used in this study. Students answered two types of questionnaires on epistemological beliefs about science and three test instruments on factors related students' learning(achievement in science, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels). The results of this study were as follows. First, a large number of elementary school students believed that the purpose of science to perform activities like simple experiments. A lot of students believed that scientific knowledge was changeable according to the nature of scientific knowledge and that scientific knowledge could be learnt on their own. Also, many students believed experiment results to be basis on which to form personal scientific conceptions. Second, students who believed in more modern epistemology about science represented higher levels of science learning achievement, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels. Therefore, when developing science curriculum, science educators need to consider how to develop student modern epistemological beliefs about science.

• 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 Science Education
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.43-63
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• 2019

The types of inquiry activities included in Life Science II textbooks under the 2015 revised science curriculum were extracted and compared with those of six major and five different publishing companies. The fact that the number of investigation discussions and presentations (IP) increased and the expressions (EX) were included in each unit was interpreted as sufficient to transform the classroom instruction in the 2015 revised science curriculum into student-centered activities. The type of inquiry activities in student-centered activities such as experiment observation, simulation activities, investigation discussions, and presentations accounted for about 41% more than the 27% of 2009 revised science curriculum. However, since data interpretation type is still the largest, it is necessary to reduce the types of data interpretation and to increase the number of types of simulation activities and expressions in order to expand students' creativity and thinking ability when textbook development is needed in the future. In addition to the development of biotechnology, teachers need to reconstruct diverse science materials for each textbook and then use them for students to induce balanced thinking, and try to expand expressive power, creativity, logic, and critical thinking skills.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.515-529
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• 2020

'Scientific inquiry experiments', which was newly created subjects in the 2015 revised curriculum, was expected in the aspect of learning science and developing core competences through science practices. Based on changed view of evaluation, assessments of a practice-centered subject 'Scientific inquiry experiments' should be try to conducted in various ways, but many challenges were reported. In this study, through analysis of current status of assessment of the subject, we intended to find the way of conducting and supporting 'Scientific inquiry experiments'. We collected assessment materials and explanatory description about them from 25 teachers who taught 'Scientific inquiry experiments' in 2018 and 2019. And we analyzed the cases with framework which were consisted with three main categories: elements, standards, methods of assessments. Also, we investigated how the results of assessment were utilized. For the validity, we requested verification of the results of our data analysis to experts of science education and science teachers. From them, we also collected their opinions about our analysis. As a result of the study, teachers assessed some elements of inquiry skills such as 'analysis and interpreting the data', 'conducting inquiry' more than others which were closely related to what subject-matter the teachers used to organized inquiry program with. In the aspect of domain of assessments, though cognitive domain and affective domain as well as skills were evaluated, we also found that the assessment of those domains had some limitation. In terms of standard of assessment, the goals of assessment were presented in most cases, but there were relatively few cases which had the specific criteria and the stepwise statements of expected performance of students. The time and subject of the assessment were mainly post-class and teachers, and others such as in-class assessments, peer-assessments were used only in specific contexts. In all cases, the results of assessments used for calculating students' grade, but in some cases, we could observe that the results used for improving teaching and feedback for students. Based on these results, we discussed how to support the assessments of 'Scientific inquiry experiments'.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.213-223
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to identify the types of essential inquiry activities presented in elementary science textbooks for grades 5-6, and to find out what difficulties teachers have in the actual teaching process. To this end, the essential research activities presented in the textbook were analyzed into six types: experimentation/observation, investigation/discussion and presentation, data interpretation, discussion/discussion, simulation activity, and expression. In addition, 108 elementary school teachers were investigated for the suitability of inquiry activity achievement standards, suitability at the student's level, student interest, and difficulty in teaching instruction. To summarize the research results, the most frequently suggested type was the experiment/observation type, followed by simulation activity type and data interpretation type. It was analyzed that there was no discussion/discussion type in the 5th grade textbooks, and the 6th graders did not present research activities that correspond to the research/discussion/presentation type and the expression type in the textbook. In the results of teachers' responses to the suitability of achievement standards for inquiry activities presented in textbooks and the suitability of the student's level, 5th graders showed lower average scores than 6th graders, and showed similar average scores in student interest and instructional difficulty. Also, it was confirmed that improvement was required for a total of 17 inquiry activities. Specifically, teachers responded that they had difficulty in guiding inquiry activities when the experimental results did not appear as intended in the textbook, when students' interest in inquiry activities was low, and when students and teachers had low understanding of related science concepts. Teachers pointed out practical problems such as difficulties in long-term observation in astronomy-related units, and students in upper elementary school not actively participating in dynamic play activities.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.35-46
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• 1999

The most of elementary school science textbook contents are composed of observation and experiment activities. When students study natural phenomena, observation and experiment are st rongly emphasized to improve understanding of scientific concepts and inquiry abilities. The purpose of this study is deep understanding about experimental science classes. This ethnographic study is conducted by observations of experimental science classes in natural setting and interviews of teachers, students of the 5th grade. The conclusions of this study are as follows: First, the general process of the elementary science experimental classes is 'identifying learning purposes -1 planning experiments -1 predicting the results -1 experimenting-t summarizing the results.' The experiments are conducted by group activities and the teachers conceived that the me st difficult step considered by students is 'planning experiments'. Second, students like hands-on activities, but they feel difficulty on less guided experiments. Students perform results oriented-activities. Third, in group activities, students prefer to work with the same gender or collaborative peers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.870-880
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to understand the change and characteristics of interactions in a heterogeneous group in scientific inquiry experiments. For this purpose, the process of students' interactions in small group activities were analyzed. This study focused on two, small heterogeneous groups of eighth graders. Students were involved in 13 scientific inquiry experiments for one year and students' interactions in each experiments were observed and recorded using video/audio and the data recorded were transcribed. The analysis of data was based on the method of making a note by looking and listening to the data repeatedly. Students' interactions in heterogeneous group changed toward that 3A (early formal operation student solved the problems by oneself and other students only listened to 3A student's explanation or copied the answer. The least able student was alienated from peers' interactions. In the meantime, new interactions of two middle level students were shaped. Educational implications of the progression of activities emphasizing interactions and the organization of grouping were drawn.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.183-199
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• 2012

Previous Earth Science textbooks have mostly lacked the latest astronomical phenomena frequently being reported in mass media such as popular science magazines. One of the main directions in the revision of the 2009 National Curriculum of Korea is to actively include those phenomena. Furthermore, despite a close link between astronomy and physics, the concept of modern physics has not been actively introduced in Earth Science textbooks and at the same time the linkage of physics to astronomy has rarely been studies in physics textbooks. Therefore, the concept of integration among different fields in science is emphasized in the new National Curriculum. Transient phenomena in the high energy astrophysical objects are examples that reflect such issue. The purpose of this study is to introduce transferring a real-time data and making imaging of astronomical observations using e-Science. As a first step, we performed the first experiment for a large data transfer of astronomical observation between Korea and Japan using KOREN, a National Research and Education Test Network. We introduce actively on-going fields of e-Science in observational activities of astronomy and astrophysics, and their close interrelationship with scientific inquiry activities and public outreach activities. We discuss our experiment in the scientific and educational aspects to the primitive e-Science activity in the Korean astronomical society and, in turn, provide a prospective view for its application to the scientific inquiry activities and public outreach activities in the upcoming commercial Gbps-level internet environments.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.19-34
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• 1985

Teaching inquiry process is one of the most important objectives in science education. To promote students scientific process skills, a science teacher should encourage the students do something by themselves. One method for that purpose which has been used in many schools would be group experiment. The researcher has been experienced a lot of difficulties in controlling or guiding every group to finish the assigned experiment within the given class hour. Therefore, the researcher decided to select several leaders from students and trained them in advance of the given class hour. This leaders are expected to guide the remaining students in the class. As the result of this study, the classroom with and without student leaders showed very significant difference(P>0.001) in their achievement of scientific process skills. The experimental group also showed more positive attitude toward science. The researcher concluded that the use of student leaders is very effective in promoting scientific process skills. This method is also regarded very effective in a large class sized like Korean Schools.