• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.5
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• pp.434-444
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• 2015

Inquiry-based experiments provide opportunities to understand scientific knowledge and acquire nature of science. In this study, the difficulties which pre-service teachers experienced in inquiry-based experiment class were investigated and analyzed. Twenty-two pre-service teachers attended course designed as ‘ill-structured inquiry’ for 13 weeks, and researchers investigated their difficulties by questionnaires and interview. They showed difficulties mostly in designing experiment and interpretation and also in understanding inquiry purpose, lack of prior knowledge, confidence in inquiry performance, and understanding of experimental instruments and facilities. As a result, it is necessary to provide opportunities to engage in inquiries and environments to properly instruct pre-service teachers the inquiry ability in college of education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.318-327
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of small-scale chemistry(SSC) laboratory activities implemented in high school chemistry II classes on the students' inquiry process skills and science-related attitudes. For this study, 112 students in the 12th grade were chosen and divided into an experimental and a control group. Seven SSC lab programs that can replace the traditional experiments in chemistry II textbooks were selected and administered to the experimental group while the traditional textbook experiments were administered to the control group. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the enhancement of inquiry process skills between the two groups while no significant difference was found in science-related attitudes. Further analysis showed that the difference in the inquiry process skills came from the basic inquiry process skills. The experimental group students thought that the SSC experiments have many advantages compared to the traditional experiments, e.g., individual work, learning lab and theory in parallel, short experiment time, safety, environmental aspects, etc. These results suggest that the SSC lab programs are valuable in high school chemistry classes and developing and distributing various SSC lab programs is needed to replace the traditional experiments in the current textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.387-394
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• 2005

We have analyzed the science-gifted educational program (year 2002) at the Seoul National University in terms of its educational objectives, scientific models, and cognitive processes in scientific inquiry in order to provide insights into developing and improving science-gifted educational program. We assumed the following items as important factors for teaching scientifically gifted students: higher-order thinking skills involving synthesis domain in the educational objectives, highly abstract nature and complexity in the scientific models, cognitive processes of planning experiments in the cognitive processes in scientific inquiry. According to the analyzed results, the program has the following characteristics: (1) the rates of both higher and lower-order thinking skill domain in the educational objectives are similarly high, but the rate of synthesis domain is relatively low; (2) in the case of the scientific models, the rate of the multiple concepts and/or processes model is relatively low, while the level of the abstractness is relatively on average (3) cognitive processes of authentic scientific inquiry is not thoroughly reflected in the scientific inquiry activities, and very few cognitive processes of planning experiments factor is reflected. Therefore, we conclude in the synthesis domain in the educational objectives, multiple concepts and/or processes model, and cognitive processes of planning experiments should be especially reflected more on the science-gifted educational program in order to serve the needs of scientifically gifted students.

• 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 Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.470-480
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of science inquiry experiments emphasizing social interaction on the development of process skills of the students. The social interactions by cognitive level of the students were also analyzed. For this study, 197 8th grade students were sampled. They were divided into an experimental group and a control group. During four-month period, the experimental group received science inquiry experiments treatment emphasizing social interactions while the control group received traditional treatment. Not only science inquiry ability pretest-posttest, but also multiple data collection method such as a questionnaire, class observation, and audio/video recording were used in collecting the data. According to the results of this study, it was found that the mean score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group at 0.05 level. It was also found that the students of high cognitive level led the peers and participated in the class discussion actively with the teacher while the students of low cognitive level followed the students of high cognitive level and showed inactive interaction with the teacher. Analysis of the students' perceptions on inquiry experiments showed that students participated in discussion actively in the class as these experiments gave an opportunity for them to discuss and were able to solve the problems with peers' help through discussion.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.50 no.5
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• pp.385-393
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• 2006

In this study, we analyzed the effects of science inquiry learning that applies open-ended hypothesis-testing learning model in a high school chemistry class of grade 11 in respect of science process skills, science-related attitude, and appreciation towards science class by cognitive level. Open-ended science inquiry learning activities on Metals and their applications unit in Chemistry I were developed and applied to the treatment groups while the conventional science activities were applied to the control groups. Four classes of 92 students in a high school located in Seoul were assigned into the treatment and control groups, respectively. According to the results in the test of science process skills, the students treated with the alternative experiments emphasizing open-ended hypothesis-testing obtained higher scores in experimental design, data conversion and description, and hypothesis test than those with conventional experiments but not in problem cognition and definition and hypothesis fixing'. There was negative effect on science-related attitude due to increased roles and tasks in the open-ended science inquiry learning activities.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.364-373
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to investigate inquiry levels in the laboratory practices of beginning middle school science teachers. For this research eight teachers were chosen among a pool of beginning teachers. Then four finalists were chosen individually by interviews. Topics associated with hands-on activity experiments were provided by the author. In order to analyze teaching-skill development, classroom observations were made under the same topic after one year. The inquiry levels of four novice teachers were confirmation or structured inquiry but the inquiry levels were not out of confirmation or structured inquiry levels when those compared to last year's one. This study contributes to the professional development of teachers and provides various informations for instructional development of beginning teachers.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.509-524
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• 2007

The purpose of the study is to compare elementary school science textbooks ($3^{rd}$ grade) in Korea and the U.S., centering on the ways to present scientific concepts and inquiry process in the units of 'matter.' The analysis is focused on: a) general structure of the units; b) how to present scientific concepts in terms of its connections and complexity; c) how to present inquiry process in terms of its types and skills. The findings of the study are as follows. First, the contents of 'matter' units are scientific discipline-based in both countries. The general structure of the units in Korean textbooks is unrestricted compared to those in the U.S. Second, the connections among the concepts are poor and the level of complexity is low in Korean textbooks, which are contrary to those in the U.S. textbooks. Third, it is a common feature that the inquiry process is based on learners' everyday experiences with simple experiments in two countries' textbooks. However, the inquiry process in the U.S. textbooks is provided with detailed instructions while the process in Korea is presented with diverse activities without formal guidelines. Based on the results, the study suggests three recommendations to improve Korean textbooks: a) science contents should be linked to other disciplines in order to promote practical applications; b) scientific concepts are required to be tightly connected and provided with in-depth explanations; c) inquiry process is needed to be presented with specific guidance to facilitate scientific thinking.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.346-356
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of elementary science gifted students' modification of scientific explanations based on evidences. For this study, sixteen $6^{th}$ elementary students were participated. The subjects of this study were enrolled in the program for the science gifted. Students were asked to generate initial hypotheses before experiment, and to modify and revise their scientific explanations based on the experiments about water rising in burning candle(s). All the processes of small group discussion during the inquiry were audio-recorded. Students' modification of their scientific explanations were appeared in three types: 1) appropriate connections among evidences, reasoning, and claims, 2) disconnections among evidences, reasoning, and claims and/or use of inappropriate reasoning, 3) scientific explanations without their own understanding. Other problems that students encountered in the processes of modification of their explanations were also discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.731-747
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• 2004

The scientific inquiry enterprise consists of formulating hypotheses, testing hypotheses, evaluating evidence, and revising hypothesis. Scientific inquiry in the science classrooms requires students' background experience and knowledge with the phenomenon in order to ask appropriate questions, identify and define variables operationally, formulate hypotheses, and design clear and complete experiment. The ability to test hypotheses has been postulated to play a central role in cognitive processes. The purpose of this study was to analyze what the change of the quantity and quality of the hypothesis, the rejecting or accepting of the hypothesis, and the use results in the repetitional hypothesis activity experiments. To examine the problems, this study analyzed 5 classes which were designed and administered to 16 students of the 7th grade. The results of this study showed that students preferred the engineering method to scientific method and the quality of a second hypothesis got low. The quality of the hypothesis came to be higher through a repetitional hypothesis and the number of hypothesis was reduced. The results of the experiments did not play central roles in revising hypotheses and accepting or rejecting hypothesis.