• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.399-419
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to develop performance assessment materials of scientific inquiry skills on 62 scientific activities in elementary science textbook for third and fourth grades. For this study, a total of 318 elementary teachers were sampled and surveys were carried out to examine the status of performance assessment of scientific inquiry skills in school. The classification system of assessment methods by Hart(1994) was also analyzed to create assessment strategy of scientific inquiry skills for elementary school students. Based on the quantitative data analysis, literature study and existing performance assessment materials analysis, performance assessment materials were developed and applied to science classes for third and fourth grades. Teachers and students were interviewed after the classes for asking about merits and improvements and the performance assessment materials were revised.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.341-358
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to develop performance assessment materials of scientific inquiry skills on sixty scientific activities in elementary science textbook for fifth and sixth grades. For this study, a total of 500 elementary teachers were sampled and surveys were carried out to examine the status of performance assessment of scientific inquiry skills in school. The classification system of assessment methods by Hart(1994) was also analyzed to create' assessment strategy of scientific inquiry skills' for elementary school students. Based on the quantitative data analysis and literature study, performance assessment materials were developed and applied to science classes for fifth and sixth grades. Teachers and students were interviewed after the classes for asking about merits and improvements and the performance assessment materials were revised. This study can provide elementary school teachers with reliable sources for performance assessment of scientific inquiry skills utilized in their science classes.

• 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 The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.92-103
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• 1995

Since the late of 1960,s, the improvement of science inquiry skills has been one of the most important goals in secondary science education. To achieve this goal, it is essential to develop a valid and reliable instrument for evaluating science inquiry skills. The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for evaluating science inquiry skills for high school students. The instrument is developed through R & D procedure, which includes two field trials of the instrument. This study has formed a clear definition of the elements of science inquiry skills (formulating a hypothesis, controlling variables, designing an experiment, numeric calculation, graphing experimental data, inference, determining relationship, determining causalities, predicting experimental results , drawing a conclusion, formulating a generalization or model), and established the goals of assessment and developed the items of assessment. The instrument, Test of Earth Science Inquiry Skills, consists of 33 items which measure 11 science inquiry skills. There are content-free items for each science inquiry skills. This study has selected 11 science inquiry skills which are considered appropriate for being evaluated by paper-and-pencil test with SIEI (Hur,1984). The content validity of items, objectivity of the scoring keys and clarity of the items were checked by six experienced specialists in science education. At the same time, the two field trials has been executed and produced the reliability of the instrument, item difficulty index, and the effectiveness of distracters. The first field trial was performed using a sample of 304 high school students, and the second one using a sample of 872 high school students. Because the content validity is 84 % and the reliability (K-R 20) is 0.84, the developed instrument in this study is considered valid and reliable. The difficulty index is 49.4 %, answer ratio 59.1 %, the discrimination index 0.47 and the effectiveness of distracters evenly distributed, which also suffice the criteria of good instrument. The developed instrument in this study can diagnosis the well-developed science inquiry skills and the ill-developed science inquiry skills of the students, and trace the degree of the improvement of science inquiry skills.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.407-417
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• 2007

The purpose of this research is to develop standards with which we can design an instrument to assess classifying inquiry skills by observing students' behavior and reported outcome which is not the paper and pencil test. This research is focused on developing a standard for analysis of classifying ability among research functions. To identify classifying inquiry skills, standards from classifying behaviors were comparing ways with other cards and using information included in the cards; Standards selected from the final reports were the appropriateness, inconsistency and hierarchy of the classification outcome. The standards were initially selected during the class with picture cards printed various birds appearances on the front side and their traits on the back which was specially designed among sixth graders. The picture cards prepared with plant leaves and stems had designed to identify whether standards was effective to assess student's classifying ability. The standards was an effective tool to assess student's classifying inquiry skills.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2002

Reasonable and reliable assessment method is one of the most important issues in science education, Partial credits method is an effective tool for assessing students' science inquiry problem solving. The purposes of this study were to classify the Problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking Process, and how much the related science concept and the science process skills were used in solving science inquiry problems, and to describe the possibility and rationality of the assessment method that gives partial credit 128 high school seniors were selected and their answers were analyzed to identify science concepts they used to solve each problem, and the result was used as the criterion in the scientific concept test development. Also, to study the science inquiry problem solving type, 152 high school seniors were selected, and protocols were made from audio-taped data of their problem solving process through a think-aloud method and retrospective interviews. In order to get a raw data needed in statistical comparison of reliability, discrimination and the difficulty of the test and the production of the regression equation that determines the ratio of partial credit, 640 students were selected and they were given a science inquiry problem test, a science process skills test, and a scientific concept test. Research result suggested it is more reasonable and reliable to switch to the assessment method that applies partial credit to different problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking process in problem solving process, instead of the dichotomous credit method.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.54-67
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• 1995

This study has been performed in order to achieve three objectives. They are as follows: To analyze, based on the research literatures, the nature of scientific inquiry ability and the characteristics of its constitutive elements. To identify inquiry skills and techniques essential to such areas as physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. To develop instructional models and materials for enhancing inquiry ability on the part of high school students. It was found in the study that the scientific inquiry was interpreted in terms of different meanings according to the viewpoint of the person who are interested in the nature of science. The scientific inquiry has been viewed as the process of knowledge formation, scientific method, inquiry process or process skills depending on the epistemological, methodological, educational perspectives, respectively. It was also identified that certain kind of skills or techniques would be used for inquiry in only one specific area of the science. The skills and techniques are effectively learned when those are taught with specific knowledge in each area of the science. The model and materials for fostering scientific inquiry skills will be presented on the second part of the report.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.507-515
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• 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 Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.107-122
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• 2001

The Purpose of this study is to find the effects of the portfolio assessment on elementary students' scientific knowledge, inquiry process skill, scientific attitudes in the teaching of science. And finally the parents' response to the portfolio assessment is also investigated. In order to reach the goal of this study, the investigator developed the evaluation instrument such as an experimental report and a cumulative observation sheet for the 4th-grade Unit-1 'Light Propagation' and Unit-3 'Separating Mixtures', and then these were administered to 42 4th-grade elementary students in Inchon. Based upon the findings and within the limitations of this study, several conclusions can be drawn regarding the problems investigated. First, as the portfolio assessment offers enough information about individual student's performance, it has a highly positive effect on evaluating the students' scientific knowledges. It can also make possible to grasp the several aspects of the student's progress. Second, the portfolio assessment can be implemented without giving students any psychological pressure from testing itself. Therefore, the portfolio assessment is an effective means of appraising inquiry process skills. Third, the portfolio assessment is effective to evaluate the students' attitude toward science by means of individual records which include such aspects that is hardly found by the teacher who teaches science in the class. Fourth, as most parents showed a positive response to this portfolio assessment, it is considered to be effective method of appraising the result of teaching science at elementary school. Accordingly, this study demonstrated that the portfolio assessment is an effective method that can assess students' scientific knowledges, inquiry process skills, and scientific attitudes gained from science teaching-learning. Therefore, it is necessary to implement the portfolio assessment to other grade students as well in the following study where teacher may give more encouragements and suggestions to sti dents for the better learning motives. Also teachers should suggest more definite evaluation criteria to students so that they may improve the students' self and peer evaluation skills.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.173-184
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• 1995

The purpose of this study was to analyse the problems of 'Science Inquiry Experiment Contest(SIEC)' which was one of 8 programs of 'The 2nd Student Science Inquiry Olympic Meet(SSIOM)'. The results and conclusions of this study were as follows: 1. It needs to reconsider the role of practical work within science experiment because practical work skills form one of the mainstays in current science. But the assessment of students' laboratory skills in the contest was made little account of. It is necessary to remind of what it means to be 'good at science'. There are two aspects: knowing and doing. Both are important and, in certain respects, quite distinct. Doing science is more of a craft activity, relying more on craft skill and tacit knowledge than on the conscious application of explicit knowledge. Doing science is also divided into two aspects, 'process' and 'skill' by many science educators. 2. The report's and checklist's assessment items were overlapped. Therefore it was suggested that the checklist assessment items were set limit to the students' acts which can't be found in reports. It is important to identify those activities which produce a permanent assessable product, and those which do not. Skills connected with recording and reporting are likely to produce permanent evidence which can be evaluated after the experiment. Those connected with manipulative skills involving processes are more ephemeral and need to be assessed as they occur. The division of student's experimental skills will contribute to the accurate assess of student's scientific inquiry experimental ability. 3. There was a wide difference among the scores of one participant recorded by three evaluators. This means that there was no concrete discussion among the evaluators before the contest. Despite the items of the checklists were set by preparers of the contest experiments, the concrete discussions before the contest were necessary because students' experimental acts were very diverse. There is a variety of scientific skills. So it is necessary to assess the performance of individual students in a range of skills. But the most of the difficulties in the assessment of skills arise from the interaction between measurement and the use. To overcome the difficulties, not only must the mark needed for each skill be recorded, something which all examination groups obviously need, but also a description of the work that the student did when the skill was assessed must also be given, and not all groups need this. Fuller details must also be available for the purposes of moderation. This is a requirement for all students that there must be provision for samples of any end-product or other tangible form of evidence of candidates' work to be submitted for inspection. This is rather important if one is to be as fair as possible to students because, not only can this work be made available to moderators if necessary, but also it can be used to help in arriving at common standards among several evaluators, and in ensuring consistent standards from one evaluator over the assessment period. This need arises because there are problems associated with assessing different students on the same skill in different activities. 4. Most of the students' reports were assessed intuitively by the evaluators despite the assessment items were established concretely by preparers of the experiment. This result means that the evaluators were new to grasp the essence of the established assessment items of the experiment report and that the students' assessment scores were short of objectivity. Lastly, there are suggestions from the results and the conclusions. The students' experimental acts which were difficult to observe because they occur in a flash and which can be easily imitated should be excluded from the assessment items. Evaluators are likely to miss the time to observe the acts, and the students who are assessed later have more opportunity to practise the skill which is being assessed. It is necessary to be aware of these problems and try to reduce their influence or remove them. The skills and processes analysis has made a very useful checklist for scientific inquiry experiment assessment. But in itself it is of little value. It must be seen alongside the other vital attributes needed in the making of a good scientist, the affective aspects of commitment and confidence, the personal insights which come both through formal and informal learning, and the tacit knowledge that comes through experience, both structured and acquired in play. These four aspects must be continually interacting, in a flexible and individualistic way, throughout the scientific education of students. An increasing ability to be good at science, to be good at doing investigational practical work, will be gained through continually, successively, but often unpredictably, developing more experience, developing more insights, developing more skills, and producing more confidence and commitment.