• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.236-264
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to provide teachers with sub-components of inquiry skills and help them to give direct instructions on the skills to their students. Inquiry skills and strategies are considered by-products of science and inquiry instruction by most of the science teachers. On the other hand, much research shows that many students are not familiar with the way that they can use inquiry skills therefore direct instruction on the inquiry skills is needed. The lack of guidance on the sub-components for the inquiry skills, however, results in science teachers' ignorance of the inquiry skills. As shown in the previous studies which suggest that without teachers' guidance, students cannot acquire the intended skills, and it is necessary to inform science teachers of the necessity for direct instruction on the inquiry skills and strategy as well as give them the sub-components of the inquiry skills. On the basis of the results from the previous research on the inquiry skills, this study presents the sub-components of basic inquiry skills (observation, classification, measure, prediction, and reasoning) and integrated inquiry skills (problem recognition, hypothesis formulation, control of variables, data transformation, data interpretation, drawing conclusion, and generalization).

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.669-677
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to estimate the direct and indirect effects of relevant variables on students' science achievements. Path analysis was conducted with data from middle school to examine the effects of perceived positive parenting attitudes, attitudes toward science, science inquiry skills on the science achievements of middle school students. A total of 502 middle school students from the metropolitan area participated in this study. Results suggest that students' perceptions of positive parenting attitudes had no direct influence on their science inquiry skills. However, the students' attitudes toward science and science inquiry skills were found to have meaningful direct effects on their achievements. Students' perception of positive parenting attitudes also presented a significant direct effect on their attitude toward science. In addition, the students' perceived positive parenting attitude revealed an indirect effect on science achievement, through their own attitudes toward science and science inquiry skills. Research findings called for more educational programs and teaching methods considering students' attitudes toward science and science inquiry skills to improve their science achievements. At home, parents need to have positive parenting attitudes to influence their children's attitudes regarding science.