• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.11-22
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• 1998

The present educational and social circumstances require the improvement of science education and the promotion of scientific technology simultaneously Under this situation, it is necessary to develop the performance assessment evaluating the ability of scientific inquiry. The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument of the performance assessment that is can evaluate the scientific inquiring ability. The characteristics of the instrument developed through this study, are as follows, 1. The performance assessment can be impartially achieved for all the elements of scientific inquiry, which are required in the units of elementary science from 3rd to 6th grade of elementary school. 2. To maintain the objectivity of performance assessment, the detailed standpoints and standards are established. 3. The instruments are devised to evaluate the thinking skills with the experimental reports of student, the operation skills by the check list of evaluation that the teacher's observation for the student are recorded. 4. Considering the level of elementary school student, the items required the complex thinking and the investigative skills are exclude as much as possible. 5. The items are arranged according to the learning steps of elementary school, so that the evaluation may be achieved in parallel with the process of the real teaching -learning in class. 6. According to circumstances, make use of these materials for the evaluation as the practical teaching-learning materials instead of the normal teaching-learning materials The first field trial with the instrument was carried out, using a sample of 20 students from the 3rd to 6th at K and Y elementary school located in Kwangju city. The results of mean achievement quotient for each grade are as follows, the first term of 3rd grade (experiment and exercise skills ; 85%, inquiry thinking skills ; 74%), the second term of 3rd grade (experiment and exercise skills : 81%, inquiry thinking skills ; 76%), the first term of 4th grade (experiment and exercise skills ; 70%, inquiry thinking skills ; 59%), the second term of 4th grade (experiment and exercise skills ; 61%, inquiry thinking skills ; 71%), the first term of 5th grade (experiment and exercise skills ; 84%, inquiry thinking skills ; 67%), the second term of 5th grade (experiment and exercise skills; 73%, inquiry thinking skills ; 70%), the first term of 6th grade (experiment and exercise skills : 83%, inquiry thinking skills ; 84%), the second term of 6th grade (experiment and exercise skills ; 87%, inquiry thinking skills ; 81%).

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.271-280
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• 2006

In this paper, an Online Scientific Inquiry Learning System was developed with the aim of improving student's scientific literacy and scientific inquiry ability. It was determined that there should be 4 distinct principles applicable to the design of the Learning system. First, it should enrich learner's motivation. Second, it should provide students with the chance for reflecting on the inquiry process. Third, it should emphasize multi-dimensional forms of interaction. Fourth, students should be able to create new information through it. The server system including the database, equation editor, reporting tool, search engine were all utilized for developing the learning system. In addition, the authors produced 24 web-based projects which were guided inquiry activities in which various inquiry abilities (reasoning, prediction, experiment design) could be developed. An Online Scientific Inquiry Learning System is not the only program which could be utilized in improving scientific inquiry abilities, but at the very least, such a system can serve as the prototype for developing an online learning system.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.452-458
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• 1995

Science textbooks are very important materials in order to know elementary science learning in Japan and Korea. In this research the 5th grade science textbooks in Japan and Korea are analyzed by an analyzing category. The analyzing category is consisted of knowledge and scientific inquiry. Knowledge is divided by fact, concept, and rule. Scientific inquiry is divided by problem cognition, variable control, experiment planning, observing, measuring, categorizing, inferring, data transformation, predicting, correlation, cause and effect, result, communication, which are 13 subcategories. Analyzing methods are counting the frequency of each subcategory and tabulating the data. The results of this study are: 1. The frequency of scientific inquiry appeared in Korean 5th grade science textbooks is three times more than that in Japanese textbooks. 2. In scientific inquiry category, Japanese science textbooks emphasized observing, predicting, measuring and problem cognition; Korean science textbooks emphasized experiment planning, observing and problem cognition. 3. In knowledge category, fact subcategory is mostly emphasized in both countries.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.8
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• pp.860-869
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to suggest an instructional direction for improving scientific inquiry problem-finding ability of the scientifically-gifted. For this purpose, this study has made an in-depth analysis of the scientific inquiry problems generated by the scientifically-gifted in Problem-Finding Activity in Ill-structured Inquiry Situation (PFAIIS) and Problem-Finding Activity in Well-structured Inquiry Situation (PFAWIS). The results of this study turned out to be as follows: First, most of the problems generated in PFAIIS and PFAWIS could be categorized into seven types (measurement, method, cause, possibility, what, comparison, relationship) according to the inquiry objectives, while the frequency of each type shown in each inquiry objective was a little different. Second, the frequency of scientific concepts stated in inquiry problem was more in PFAWIS than in PFAIIS. But the scientific concepts were shown more diversely in PFAIIS than in PFAWIS. Therefore, results of this study have the following educational implications. First, it is necessary to offer various opportunities of problem-finding activity under ill-structured scientific Inquiry situation. Second, it is needed to emphasize that a new inquiry problem can be found out even during general scientific experiment and frequently to discuss inquiry problems generated during an experiment. Third, it is needed to encourage the scientifically-gifted to generate a scientific inquiry problem based on at least more than seven types.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.757-767
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• 2002

This study investigated the effects of scientific inquiry experiments emphasizing social interaction on the academic achievement, the ability for science inquiry and the learning motivation of the students. To examine the differences among the classes of scientific inquiry experiments according to the way of organizing small groups, the effects of the group in homogeneous cognitive level and the group in heterogeneous cognitive level were compared. 255 7th-graders were grouped into the treatment group and the control group. After the treatment group received the scientific inquiry experimental lessons emphasizing social interaction and the control group received traditional lessons for one year, academic achievement, ability for scientific inquiry, and learning motivation were examined. These inquiry experiments were composed of four steps which are eliciting, familiarizing, constructing and bridging. And students can interact with peers and teachers through the process of relating observed phenomena to concept, constructing experiment procedure, and eliciting results. The ANCOVA results revealed that there were significant effects of science inquiry experiments emphasizing social interaction on the academic achievement, the ability for scientific inquiry and the learning motivation of the students. The significant academic achievement of the students in most of the cognitive levels, if not all, was found and degree of improvement in the ability for scientific inquiry was lower than that in the academic achievement. Concerning the effects according to the way of organizing small groups, there were significant improvement in academic achievement and learning motivation of the group in homogeneous cognitive level compared to the group in heterogeneous cognitive level. These results indicate that social interaction in learning is important and it has positive influences on the improvement in academic achievement and ability for scientific inquiry of students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 1996

The purpose of this study is to develope and analyze a test for the assessment of physics inquiry experiment. To do this, three experiments about 'analysis of motion', 'the relation of force and acceleration', and 'free fall motion' in high school physics textbooks were chosen, and 5 scientific inquiry domains and 16 science process skills have been specified. For each experiments, test sheet of $29{\sim}44$ questions for assessing students' ability about physics inquiry experiment were developed on the basis of the scientific inquiry processes developed earlier. After instruction about 3 experiments mentioned above, a test was administered to the students who took experiment. After the adminstration of a test, the ratio of correct answers, discrimination index, and reliability were analyzed. Using the ratio of correct answers, we can determine item difficulty. Through the D.I(discrimination index), we can find which items can discriminate the students who took experiment well from those who took experiment badly, and we can also find the stability of a test result by the reliability analysis. The test developed in this study were also administered to the students who did not take experiments, and the results were compared with the those of the students who took experiments. With the comparison by chi-square method, we could find which items can discriminate the students who took experiments from those who did not take experiments.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.61 no.5
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• pp.263-276
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to investigate the understanding of nature of scientific knowledge and attitudes toward scientific inquiry of pre-service science teachers experienced open inquiry. The study was conducted in 10 sessions of open inquiry-based chemistry experiment. The subjects were 40 pre-service science teachers recruited from the experiment class. They received pre-test, mid-test, post-test on understanding nature of scientific knowledge and attitudes toward scientific inquiry of open inquiry activities. 20 pre-service science teachers among them participated in the interview. The results of this study are as follows. First, there was a significant difference in pre-service science teachers' understanding of the nature of the scientific knowledge (p<.05). In particular, understanding of creativity and sociality parts improved gradually. Second, pre-service science teachers' attitude toward scientific inquiry had changed negatively until the middle of the semester, and then changed positively later. The post-test score was significantly higher than the mid-test score (p<.05).

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.441-450
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of elementary gifted students' argumentation and examine the special features of argumentation founded in scientific inquiry. 28 students were selected in the special education center for the gifted in K National University. They were organized 8 groups of 3~4 students and engaged in scientific inquiry activity. The researcher wasn't involved in students' inquiry activity and argumentation except for the guiding and introducing their activity. In the first session, each group carried out the experiment 'Putting a heated can in the water' and then, the students discussed to probe their experimental results and build their explanation. In the second session, each group presented their experiment results and evidence from their experiment justifying their claims, and had questions from other groups. The protocol data during 8 groups' argumentations were analyzed using 'Rubric for Scientific Argumentation Assessment' (Yang et al., 2009) in three domains- the form, content and attitude. As a result, in form domain, almost groups were rated 2 points due to their argument without rebuttal on the subcategory of 'composition', but they got a good grade above 3 points in subcategory such as 'claim', 'ground', and 'conclusion'. In content domain, almost groups got points above 3 points. In attitude domain, there were some striking contrast between each groups. Six groups got good score more than 4 points on the subcategory of openness, but two groups, they alleged and got score below 3 point. While the 6 groups of all got 4 points in the aspect of participation, 3 groups got 3 points lower than because they only just asserted and not interact with other groups. Throughout the argumentation, two features were found that; as time goes by, arguments were refined; Students tended to use their prior to knowledge rather than evidence such as experimental data in making claims and conclusions.

• 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 earth science society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.759-772
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to understand characteristics of eighth graders' conclusions presented in their self-directed scientific inquiry reports. We developed a framework, Analysis of Conclusions of Self-Directed Scientific Inquiry, to analyze students' conclusions. We then compared the conclusions with the inquiry questions students generated to find out whether the questions affected students' conclusions. In addition, we analyzed students' responses from the survey about their perceptions of drawing conclusions. According to the results, the conclusions were characterized into two categories, i.e., scientific basic assumption and scientific explanation. Almost half of the students' conclusions fall under the scientific basic assumptions. Most of the scientific explanations were deductive explanations and inductive explanations. Then, the kinds of conclusions were affected by the inquiry questions because the scientific explanations were made more than the scientific basic assumptions in answering the inquiry questions. Some students couldn't recognize differences between conclusions and experiment results.