• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.674-683
• /
• 1999

The purpose of this study was to compare the ideas of pupils with that of the scientists about controlling and identifying of variables, in the two cases: open or guided inquiry. The subjects were the 7th grade boys and girls in a school, in Seoul, Korea. For the guided inquiry, the problems were given by the experiments of pupils' text. Pupils were asked to identify the variables in the experiments. For the open inquiry, pupils set their own inquiry problem. The pupils whose marks are within upper one-third of three classes were chosen. Pupils' ideas on variables were investigated in the design of experiment for their problems. In that, questionnaire developed by researchers was used. In the former, many of the pupils identify just only one variable despite of the fact there were two independent or dependent variables in the experiments. In the latter, the number of independent variables increased two or three. However, pupils do not control independent variables: they vary two independent variables simultaneously in the design of experiment. From these, we compared the pupils' ideas on variables with the scientists'

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.36 no.1
• /
• pp.139-152
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to provide some suggestions for future improvement of scientific inquiry activities in Korean elementary science textbook. The modified framework of Lee(2005) and Millar et al.(1998) was used to compare inquiry activities in the Korean and Singaporean science textbooks. The results of this study are as follows: Korean text books have more activities than Singapore's, but both countries have similar time allotment for science classes. In the area of 'inquiry process skill', Singapore is more balanced in 'Basic inquiry process skills' and 'Integrated inquiry process skills' than Korea. Singapore's integrated inquiry rate is also higher than Korea's. Next the results of comparing leaning objectives to scientific inquiry activities shows that Korean text books tend to focus on 'contents objectives', while Singapore's text books focus on balancing 'contents objectives' and 'process objectives'. Korean science textbooks encourage students to communicate the results of experiments but in most case these communication activities are actually not performed. Lastly Korea and Singapore have low degree of openness in inquiry activities. Remarkably 'Suggest questions' are totally conducted by teachers. This study implies that Korean science textbooks should have lower amounts of inquiry activities to accomodate enough time for communication about results. Next we need to make balance not only 'Basic inquiry process skills' and 'Integrated inquiry process skills' but also 'Content objectives' and 'Process objectives'. Lastly we need to make student to be the leader in science classes through encouraging them to plan procedures for experiments and to discover results by themselves.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.204-220
• /
• 2011

This study was intended to develop an experimental module based on inquiry processes conducted by photosynthesis scientists. It was aimed to enhance scientific inquiry ability of the middle school students by applying the developed module. Developed module included some experiments conducted by earlier photosynthesis scientists such as Helmont, Woodward, Priestly, Hales and Ingen-Hausz. Inquiry process was involved in the developed module for instructing the inquiry methods. Rapid-cycling Brassica rapa known as a Fast Plant was used for the experimental material. Developed module was applied to the experimental group consisting 27 eighth grader, while experiments suggested in the science textbook was applied to the control group consisting 30 eighth grader. Developed module was more effective in improving students' scientific inquiry ability, especially measuring, forecasting and hypothesizing ability as its subordinate elements. When the result of post-test was compared to one of pre-test in the experimental group, their observing, forecasting, and generalization ability were improved. Experimental group showed that students' conception in photosynthesis and conceptual development related with the role of plants in the ecosystem and plant's food and movement of the water and nutrients were also improved. Before application, students in the experimental group did not have enough understanding of the abstract concept such as the existence or the role of the materials like $CO_2$ or $O_2$ or the energy accumulation. Developed module could help students to achieve the comprehensive concept regarding the role of plants as producers of organic matter and oxygen and to enhance their scientific inquiry ability and concepts regarding photosynthesis.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.507-515
• /
• 1999

This study is to develope the performance scoring rubrics for the inquiry-based experiments of general chemistry course in the college of education. Two types of analytic scoring rubrics have been developed for nine different experiments. The first one is to assess scientific process skills from the written experimental reports. These analytic scoring rubrics include seven process skills selected from the Lawson's 'creative and critical thinking skills' and other known process skills. The second one is to assess the individual manipulative skills and experimental attitudes through direct observations by the teacher. The content validity of all scoring rubrics was testified by six science educators. Also the inter-scorer reliability of analytic scoring rubrics administered on the students' experimental reports was examined. The correlation coefficient between the scores obtained from the experiments and those of the written test for theoretical knowledges was found to be r=.663(p <.01). From the variance($r^2$=.440), we would say indirectly that the 56% of this experimental assessment does not overlap with the theoretical knowledges test and assesses students' science process skills, manipulative skills, and attitudes.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.64 no.5
• /
• pp.277-290
• /
• 2020

In this study, four gifted students in the second year of middle school at Gifted Education Center of the National University in Jeollanam-do were surveyed students' perceptions of the effectiveness of science class using science writing heuristic in terms of metacognition and the goals of the 2015 revised science curriculum. Through questionnaires and interviews with gifted science students, science gifted students recognized that the science class using science writing heuristic had a positive effect on the four subdomains (planning, monitoring, control, and evaluation) of metacognition. For this reason, the science gifted students presented self-directed experience in designing experiments, continually checking the collected experimental data, feedback process, and reflecting experience in preparing conclusions. Science gifted students recognized that science class using science writing heuristic had a positive effect on the goals of the 2015 revised science curriculum(attitudes, inquiry, knowledge, Science·Technology·Society(STS), and the enjoyment and usefulness of science learning) that correspond to through inquiry science writing lessons. For this reason, the science gifted students presented self-directed inquiry experiences, continual inquiry experiences on the same subject, thinking process at each stage of inquiry, learning experiences through inquiry, experience of the whole inquiry process, and inquiry of phenomena closely related to real life. Therefore, for the effective science class, it is necessary to apply the characteristics of science class using science writing heuristic which is responded by science gifted students to general science class as well as science gifted class later.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.2
• /
• pp.307-324
• /
• 2022

This study examined the content diversity of seven authorized science textbooks by comparing the characteristics of the science concept description and the contents of inquiry activities in the "weight of objects" unit. For each textbook, the flow of concept description content and the uniqueness of the concept description process were analyzed, and the number of nodes and links and words with high connections were determined using language network analysis. In addition, for the inquiry activities described in each textbook, the inquiry subject, inquiry type, science process skill, and uniqueness were investigated. Results showed that the authorized textbooks displayed no more diversity than expected in their scientific concept description method or their inquiry activity composition. The learning elements, inclusion of subconcepts, and central words were similar for each textbook. The comparison of inquiry activities showed similarities in their contents, inquiry types, and scientific process skills. Specifically, these textbooks did not introduce any research topics or experimental methods that were absent in previous textbooks. However, despite the fact that the authorized textbook system was developed based on the same curriculum, some efforts were made to make use of its strengths. Since the sequence of subconcepts to explain the core contents differed across textbooks, this explanation process was divided into several types, and although the contents of inquiry activities were the same, the materials for inquiry activities were shown differently for each textbook to improve and overcome the difficulties in the existing experiments. These findings necessitate the continuation of efforts to utilize the strengths of certified textbooks.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.43 no.2
• /
• pp.225-230
• /
• 1999

The inquiry activities closely related to chemistry which were presented in the 4 middle school science textbooks were compared and analyzed. The total volume of chemistry part was 64.8 pages (22.3%), which were the smallest one in the four categories of science. The total numbers of inquiry activities related to chemistry were 171; 59 for the first grade, 47 for the second, and 65 for the third grade and those were composed of 29 observations, 20 measurements, 113 experiments, 9 data explanations, no investigation and discussion. Therefore, the major inquiry activity was experiment (66.7%) and this maldistribution will need to be improved.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.102-111
• /
• 2010

This study examined the instructional influences of MBL programs on elementary school students' science achievement, scientific inquiry skills, and science learning motivation. The perceptions of students and their teacher toward science classes using MBL programs were also examined. The subject of this study was sixty four 4th grade students from two classes. The experimental group engaged in science classes that applied MBL and the control group engaged in traditional science classes based on the textbook and experiment workbook. As results, there was no significant difference in academic achievement, scientific inquiry skills, however, were significantly higher for the experiment group compared to the control group. There was also significant difference in the relevance and confidence, the sub-categories of science learning motivation. In the analyses of students' perceptions toward science classes using MBL, students showed positive perceptions in aspects of interests of science classes, content comprehension, and convenience of experiments. The teacher also showed positive perceptions using MBL in elementary science classes. Educational implications of appling MBL in elementary science classes were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.565-578
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to search for the factors that influence students' understanding of the nature of science through the experience of the cognitive processes of authentic open inquiries. The freshmen of a science high school practiced authentic open inquiries reflecting epistemological characteristics of authentic science. The case study was conducted with four focus students who were successful or unsuccessful at learning the nature of science during the authentic open inquiry activity. Questions that the focus students asked during the inquiries as well as students' answers to pre- and post-VNOS (C type) were analysed, and then elaborated in the semi-structured interview. The findings suggest that open inquiry activities provide the inquiry contexts that help science high school students to understand the nature of science, and that the characteristics of students' cognition influence the understanding of the nature of science. For instance, designing experiments with their own research questions had an influence on the students' understanding about the scientific methods and the diversity of research types, and drawing conclusions from their own data made students experience scientific reasoning. In addition, the experience of collecting anomalous data helped students to understand the role of inferences in generating scientific knowledge and the creative nature of scientific knowledge. In this inquiry context, the reflective thinking that came from proactive discussion among students, made students think about the validity of the designing experiments and interpreting data, and helped them to understand the uncertain nature of reasoning and the diverse nature of scientific methods. Moreover, divergent thinking linked to analogical thinking helped students to understand the creative nature of science.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.253-264
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate implications of self-directed learning experiments in elementary science education through understanding elementary school students' awareness of their experiences in self-directed learning experiments. Twenty students joined the school science club voluntarily and conducted self-directed learning experiments. We collected data through observation of the experiments, interviews, and questionnaires. The students who participated in the club showed high satisfaction with self-directed learning experiments. The participants were aware that their scientific interest and knowledge, and the confidence in conducting experiments were increased. The students felt positive about the inquiry process of conducting self-directed learning experiments with their own subjects. They also felt a sense of achievement in attempting their experiments in defiance of several failures. The participants realized that the self-directed inquires led to increased declarative and procedural knowledge of science. The students stated that they had some difficulties in coping with the different results contrary to expectations and preparing laboratory materials and instruments. Nonetheless, they showed the promotion of their scientific literacy during overcoming those difficulties. We suggest that self-directed learning experiments can be a more effective way in science learning to make students experience the nature of science than existing school experiments. This can be implemented through a creative experience activities such as science clubs.