• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.511-530
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• 2011

This study aims to find out science talented students' percentage of cognition about the views of nature of science and science inquiry which are essential for having a good understanding with science concepts. Each group of 40 science gifted students and 35 ordinary students was tested with a test of views of nature of science and science inquiry which consisted of 19 items with index of content validity 97% and reliability index 0.86, then its results being compared and analyzed. A group of science gifted students' percentage of cognition about the views of nature of science ranges from 20% to 97.5% -although it differs according to detailed views-showing its mean of 67% (50% in a group of ordinary students). Especially, the percentage of cognition about the sub view that there can be different opinions among scientists was high among woman science gifted students. A group of science gifted students' percentage of cognition about the views of science inquiry ranges from 27.5% to 77.5% -although it differs according to detailed views- showing 53% in their mean (41.8% in a group of ordinary students). Especially, the percentage of cognition about the sub view that scientists can have different research methods was high among woman science gifted students. The percentage of mistaken cognition by science gifted students about views of nature of science and about views of science inquiry was 33%, 47% respectively.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.273-290
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• 2020

This study aims to investigate tenth graders' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI). A total of 100 public school students participated. A questionnaire of Views about Scientific Inquiry was used to assess their understanding of the NOSI, and data were collected using qualitative research methods such as open-ended questionnaires and, when necessary, semi-structured interviews. By employing a constant comparison method to analyze their responses, five students were consistently categorized as the group with informed views regarding all the eight aspects of the NOSI. The rest of the students showed different levels of understanding regarding each aspect. A large portion of the students represented a group with mixed views about four aspects and informed views about three aspects, whereas naive views about one aspect prevailed among them. The results showed that many students comparatively lacked understanding of the aspect related to the scientists' process of constructing explanations and formulating theories. This study discusses the relationship between its results and the current science curriculum and presents implications for the overall enhancement of students' understanding of the NOSI. Finally, it encourages the acquisition of scientific inquiry ability and makes suggestions to promote further studies.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.396-404
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• 2010

This study aimed to investigate a perception of teachers engaged in special education for scientifically gifted regarding nature of science and identify attitudes toward teaching nature of science. The sample of this study consists of 122 science teachers who are teaching or taught students attending gifted classes of any primary school in Korea and any gifted education center of every District Office of Education. We made a partial amendment of a VOSE that was developed by Chen(2006) and then used. We tested their perception and attitudes in regard to nature of science. In terms of nature of science, we devide it into 7 sub-areas to analyse. For attitudes toward teaching nature of science, we investigate and analyse following 5 sub-areas; tentativeness of scientific knowledge, nature of observation, scientific methods, theories and laws and subjectivity and objectivity. The result showed that the generally teachers have a desirable recognitions about a nature of science. For attitudes toward teaching nature of science, the teachers showed that they have positive attitudes. However between degrees of teachers' recognition about a nature of science and attitudes toward teaching nature of science showed a low correlation. To increase their understanding of nature of science and develop attitudes toward teaching nature of science, there should be more training time for the teachers and training contents also should be changed. In addition, we hope that this study contribute to develop contents and direction of training for the teachers as a basic reference.

• 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 the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to analysis the 6th students' conceptions of the nature phenomenon focused on the systematic characteristics. For this study, 12 students of the 6th grades participated in special class for testing their conceptions about the water cycle in the earth system. And we analyzed the outcomes of students' conceptions based on SBF conceptual representation. The results indicate that most of the subjects perceived that the water cycle in earth system wasn't complex system maintaining its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of its parts but simple system maintaining some actions between atmosphere and hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere(biological world). And they didn't perceive the characteristics of the water cycle whose all parts must be presented the change of volume between vapor and water, glacier proposing the total hydro-volume are established in the earth system. Based on the results, it was suggested that the main goals of the schools' science education should be to provide students who understand the water cycle system as attaching importance to form with the skills needed to coherent understanding of the essential qualities for the nature phenomenon system.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 1998

Scientific literacy implies an adequate understanding of the nature of science. However, little is known about factors that can influence students' conceptions of the nature of science. The purpose of this study was to test the validity of the prevalent assumption that teachers' philosophical perspectives of science directly influence their students' conceptions of the nature of science. A comparison between science teachers' and students' perspectives of science did not support the assumption that a science teachers' perspectives of science is significantly related to students' conceptions of science. The data clearly indicated that there was no relationship between teachers' philosophical perspectives and those of their students. The results convincingly indicated that the nature of science was not being considered or taught to students as a consequence of students' needs and curriculum guide objectives. It is believed that the results of this investigation will help to redirect the focus of future efforts to promote more adequate conceptions of the nature of science in our secondary schools.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.337-345
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• 1998

This study examined the influences of computer-assisted instruction(CAl) upon high school students' conceptual understanding, algorithmic problem solving ability, learning motivation, and attitudes toward chemistry instruction. CAl programs were designed to supply animated molecular motions for emphasizing the particulate dynamic nature of matter and immediate feedbacks according to students' response types at each stage of four stage problem-solving strategy(understanding, planning, solving, and reviewing). The CAl and control groups (2 classes) were selected from a girls high school in Seoul, and taught about gas law for four class hours. Data analysis indicated that the students at the CAl group scored significantly higher than those at the control group in the tests on conceptual understanding and algorithmic problem solving ability. In addition, the students at the CAl group performed significantly better in the tests on the learning motivation and attitudes toward chemistry instruction.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.430-441
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• 2011

We investigated the elementary students' epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement. The Views About Scientific Measurement (Ibrahim, 2005) was administered to 117 sixth graders. The analyses of the results indicated that there was an inconsistency in their epistemological views depending on the contexts of the measurement. They also had some difficulties in understanding a distribution of the data, which is needed to understand the necessity of repeating measurements, choosing a best representative value, and comparing data sets. They were found to have some naive views on scientific measurement which influenced negatively for fostering modern epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement. The results suggest that the nature of scientific measurement should be emphasized explicitly in the national curriculum, and an effective method which improves elementary students' epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement also be developed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.499-518
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• 2004

This study focused on research that illustrates the important interplay between learners' epistemological beliefs about science knowledge, physics textbook knowledge and knowing physics in the classroom. Also this study investigated learners' conceptual changes on the value of mechanical energy. To explore these topics, six sophomores were chosen as participants. Three categories were introduced to classify how participants' understanding of the nature of science knowledge, physics textbook knowledge has been linked with epistemological beliefs of knowing physics. The three categories were (1)receiving physics knowledge as authority, (2)receiving physics knowledge as the perception of teacher's role and (3)understanding physics knowledge as the perception that science knowledge is a product of a variety of human ideas. These categories were also concerned with construction of individual conceptions of mechanical energy. The participants who understood physics knowledge as the perception that science knowledge is a product of a variety of human ideas naturally used metacognitive strategy in classroom compared to other participants. And they had scientific conceptions about the value of mechanical energy. Others who were passive in classroom had unscientific conceptions about the value of mechanical energy due to definition of energy and epistemological beliefs about the nature of science knowledge. In the process of their conceptual changes on the value of mechanical energy, it was important to understand an instrumental aspect of scientific knowledge and to think about the relation between formulae and physical phenomena.

• 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.