• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.262-276
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze the elementary teachers' views and students' views about the difficulties in teaching and learning on open inquiry activities of elementary school science. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with three elementary teachers who have serviced more than three years, and with twenty four elementary students attending schools located in Cheongju City. And their anecdotes were collected and analyzed. The interview questions were developed through Seidman's steps to acquire the reliability in the interview data. From the interviews and anecdotes, we found that elementary teachers' views about the difficulties of teaching open inquiry activities: the difficulties of teaching in finding inquiry problem and planning inquiry, the difficulties of managing group activities, the difficulties of managing class hours for inquiry, the lack of the students' inquiry abilities, and problems on students' affective characteristics. And the students have the views about the difficulties in doing open inquiry activities: the difficulties of finding inquiry problem and planning inquiry, being unaccustomed to write reports, the troubles with investigating, problems on affective characteristics, the difficulties of joining in a group, and the lack of inquiry abilities. The teachers give suggestions for effective application of the open inquiry activities: first, the teachers must encourage students' emotion and will in doing open inquiry activities, second, there must be the steady inquiry teaching and learning in ordinary elementary science classes. Based on the results, this study suggested that elementary teachers should concern specially about students' being unaccustomed to write reports and the troubles in doing scientific investigation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to compare the science philosophical views and instruction strategies for open-inquiry between teachers of science-gifted and teachers of general students. The subjects were 45 teachers of science-gifted and 45 teachers of general students. The major results of this study were as follows: First, there was no differences on the science philosophical views between teachers of science-gifted and teachers of general students by chi-square tests (p<.05). Second, there were no differences on how task assignments, how to guide exploration data, and how to write reports between teachers of science-gifted and teachers of general students (p<.05). But there was meaningful differences on how to proceed with exploration activities between teachers of science-gifted and teachers of general students (p<.05). It is implied that this the results of this investigation will help the focus of future efforts to promote more adequate the science philosophical views and instruction strategies for open-inquiry in teachers of science-gifted.

• 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 Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.334-346
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• 2012

For teachers' conceptions and understandings are critical to their decision making and classroom practice, this study attempts to understand pre-service elementary teachers' views and practices of science inquiry during peer teaching practice. Fifteen 4th year university students in teacher education program participated in peer teaching practice. Their teaching and reflective discussion were video and audio recorded and written lesson plans were collected for data analysis. Five science teacher educators individually looked into the data and shared their comments and interpretations on pre-service teachers' views and practice. The study findings suggest that pre-service teachers emphasized the importance of providing students with motivating resources in the beginning of lesson, employing certain inquiry teaching models, the process of predicting and dis/proving via experiment, and teachers' minimal intervention as the important features of inquiry teaching. Science teacher educators emphasized that it is critical to help children understand inquiry questions in the beginning of inquiry process, to be mindful of children's problem solving and critical thinking rather than following instruction models or simply going through prediction and test process. They also commented that teachers' guidance could lead a good inquiry process in classroom practice, not always interfering students' inquiry. Based on the findings, the study suggests science teacher educators need to understand what and how pre-service teachers view and practice science inquiry teaching and consider these as useful resources where they can start effective teaching for pre-service teachers at the university level.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.7
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• pp.798-812
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning teachers' views of scientific inquiry envisioned in science education reform, which is the main goal of science education at schools. Teachers' views about scientific inquiry influence their students' learning in the classroom, so it is significant to investigate teachers' views about the scientific inquiry. 126 beginning science teachers participated in this study. The survey asking teachers' view of general scientific inquiry, nature of science (NOS) and the relationship of science, technology, and society (STS), was developed and implemented for 30 minutes. Alternative views of scientific inquiry including NOS and STS were emerged through data analysis with open coding system. The reliability and validity of data collection and data analysis were constructed through the discussion with experts in science education. The results of this study were as follows. Participants defined scientific inquiry as opportunities of 'Hands-On' and 'Minds-On' or its combination rather than 'Hearts-On'. However, teachers demonstrated the view of 'Hands-On' for the purpose of scientific inquiry and for teachers' roles in its implementation. The view of 'Hearts-On' about scientific inquiry was not identified. The naive view of NOS were identified more than informative one. More positive attitude about the relationship of STS was released. The implication was made in teacher education, especially structured induction program for beginning teachers.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary school students' understandings about scientific inquiry. Data were collected from 119 elementary students who are in the 4^th grade using the Views About Scientific Inquiry questionnaire for elementary students (VASI-E). We also conducted semi-structured interviews of 21 students from 119 students who responded to VASI-E. Students' responses were analyzed as naive, mixed, or informed views on each aspect of scientific inquiry that VASI-E includes. We found that, first, 53.8% of students have mixed views, and 30.3% of students have informed views, and 16% of students have naive views on the knowledge 'investigation begin with a question'. Second, 54.6% of students have naive views, 37.8% of students have mixed views, and 7.6% of students have informed views on the knowledge 'scientists use many methods to answer their questions.' Third, 47.9% of students have informed views, 34.5% of students have naive views, and 17.6% of students have mixed views on 'procedures guided by question asked.' Fourth, 55.5% of students have mixed views, 42% of students have informed views, and only 2.5% of students have naive views on 'conclusions must be consistent with data and explanations come from data and prior knowledge.' Based on the results, implications for teaching and learning scientific inquiry at elementary level in Korea were discussed.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.791-797
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• 2019

In this study, we investigated the influences of Integrated Science and Science Inquiry Experiment developed under 2015 Revised National Science Curriculum on students' interest in science, scientific attitude, views on STS, and the nature of science (NOS). 223 tenth graders in Seoul metropolitan area participated in this study. We conducted the survey prior to and after the Integrated Science and Science Inquiry Experiment course using same instruments and compared the results of the pre-test and post-test. The analyses of the results reveal that there were significant improvements in the scores of the pre- and post-test on the interest in science and scientific attitude. In the case of views on STS, there were significant improvements in items related to science research ethics, however there were no significant differences in the remaining items. Also, there were no significant differences in the scores of the pre- and post-test on views on NOS. On the bases of the results, we discuss educational implications and suggest further studies.

• 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 The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.135-145
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary teachers' views on the democratic scientific inquiry and the methods for promotion of democratic citizenship in science classroom, and to conduct exploratory discussions about science classroom for promotion of democratic citizenship based on their views. Data were collected from 96 elementary teachers. AS results show, the elementary teachers in the study thought that the features of democratic scientific inquiry was 'communication and cooperation', 'autonomy and fairness', and 'contribution to the benefit of mankind and society'. In addition, the participants regarded the 'inquiry/activity focused on communication and cooperation' as the best method for promotion of democratic citizenship in science classrooms. Finally, several suggestions on the science education for promotion of democratic civic literacy and the democratic inquiry were given.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.658-666
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• 2014

This study was designed to explore pre-service secondary science teachers' understanding and views of argument-based inquiry approach. Participants were 17 pre-service secondary science teachers enrolled in chemistry curricular materials and teaching methods course for majors in the college of education at a university in Seoul. Main data sources included each student responses to an open ended survey and individual interviews. Data analyses indicated that the pre-service teachers had very limited and biased understanding on scientific inquiry at the beginning of the semester. While the pre-service teachers understood that scientific inquiry should be an essential component of science teaching, a few pre-service teachers mentioned 'argumentation' or 'discussions' when they defined what scientific inquiry is. The majority of the pre-service teachers mentioned that science should be taught through scientific inquiry since science is inquiry itself. However, the pre-service teachers expressed several potential barriers and their concerns on implementing argumentation in scientific inquiry. While they concerned about students' lack of participation at the beginning of the semester, they concerned more about the teachers' ability of leading student argumentation at the end of the semester.