• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between elementary school teachers' points of view about the organization of the science curriculum and their views on the nature of science (NOS). We surveyed 132 elementary school teachers' view points about these two kinds of views, analyzed the data by their variables, and compared the two viewpoints with their personal details. The elementary school teachers thought the science curriculum should be emphasized through the process more than contents. They thought the contents of the science curriculum should be integrated rather than separated. As teachers' career progressed, they focused on the contents more than the process. On the other hands, because elementary school teachers showed the NOS views as relativism, deductivism, decontextualism, content, and instrumentalism, when we plotted sub-viewpoints of NOS in process-content dimension, we thought it would be similar distributions with point of views on the organization of science curriculum. However, there was no meaningful relation. This showed that teachers' views on the organization of the curriculum and the NOS are totally different. These findings suggest further research is needed to find how factors influence elementary school teachers' views on the organization of the science curriculum and what inclinations can occur in science classes with their different views.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.102-115
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• 2019

This study investigated how elementary school teachers reconstruct science curriculum and how they perceive about their experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with four elementary school teachers who had experience in restructuring science curriculum. Two distinct types of reconstruction were found; restructuring within the subject and integrating between subjects. The teachers who were restructuring science curriculum from personal needs usually substitute, delete, add some contents or activities and change the order of unit within science subject. In contrast, the teachers who were participating in research school usually integrated science with other subjects, developing a new unit or project. The latter recognized the need of teachers' reconstruction of science curriculum more strongly and the importance of teacher's voluntary learning community in implementing the reconstruction. Though they had some difficulties in identifying students' interests and level of understanding and lack of time, all teachers valued curriculum reconstruction by relating it to teacher professional development, identity as a teacher, and job consciousness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.32-42
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to provide meaningful basic materials for organizing a science curriculum in future by analyzing the status and changes of contents about astronomical phenomena in textbooks according to the changes of the science curriculum of elementary school. A main target of analysis is science textbooks of elementary school in curriculums from 1st to 7th. For the analysis, the analytic frame based on contents in astronomy textbooks of teachers colleges and colleges of education was used. The result of the analysis is as in the following. First, astronomy accounted for average about 7% of all pages of textbooks in all of science curriculums. The 1st educational curriculum had the most learning quantity of 10.40%, and the 6th curriculum had the least quantity of 4.39%. These results show that astronomy was not a small part and was considered important in each science curriculum of elementary school considering that earth science accounted for 17-26% of all pages in elementary school science curriculum. Second, the things that have been dealt with in common in all science curriculums from 1st to 7th of elementary school are the shape of the earth, the rotation and the revolution of the earth, the occurrence of the seasons, the apparent motion of the sun, the status and motion of the moon, the movement of a star, the brightness and distance of a star, constellations, the sun, planets and others. These contents are expected to be dealt with continuously as basic contents to organize astronomy regardless of the changes of curriculum. Third, in science curriculum of elementary school, astronomical phenomena based on life experiences regarding the earth, the moon and the sun are mainly dealt with in the first and the second grade. Contents requiring principles-understanding and research are dealt with in the fifth and sixth grade. These results show that elementary school science curriculum dealing with astronomy reflects the developmental stages of students and considers principle of learning possibility.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.295-310
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• 2021

For the continuous growth and development of students, continuity of learning content according to the school level is essential. However, research on the continuity of kindergarten education and elementary school science curriculum is relatively insufficient. In this respect, it is necessary to precede the analysis of the continuity between the science-related learning content presented in kindergarten education and the science curriculum in elementary school. In this study, the 2015 science curriculum was organized into 14 small sections, and the core contents of science education in kindergartens and elementary schools were presented as correspondence. As a result, it was possible to classify learning contents presented only in kindergarten, learning contents presented only in elementary schools, and learning contents showing a clear continuity between kindergarten and elementary school. This study is meaningful in that it presents implications for the continuity between the science curriculum of the kindergarten curriculum and the elementary school curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate about current status of science field study in elementary schools. A total of 72 elementary teachers in Busan and Gyungnam districts were involved and the data from questionnaire was gathered. The questionnaire was comprised two parts: items on general level include the epistemological aspect and actual condition and items on concrete level according to chapters of elementary school science curriculum. The major findings are as follows: 1. Many teachers cognize the requirement of science field study in 7th Korean elementary school science curriculum is larger than 6th one. But they respond the actual number of science field study in 7th curriculum is nearly equal to 6th. 2. In analysis to grades, the actual number of field study decrease as grade is high. 3. In the science content aspects, the requirement of field study is the largest on biology domain and earth science domain. 4. Many teachers have pointed out “the difficulty of administration for field study” and “inappropriated surrounding of their school” as the problems of science field study in elementary school.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.219-227
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to analyze field application of science subject competences of the 2015 revised curriculum for the second year of application. For this purpose, a survey with 133 elementary school teachers, and in-depth interviews with 10 teachers were conducted. According to the results, elementary school teachers had a positive awareness toward the science subject competence, which is a characteristic of the 2015 revised science curriculum, and teachers were applying the science subject competence to their own classes. This tendency was stronger in teachers in science-leading schools than in teachers in regular schools. Teachers wanted support for applying science subject competencies to their classes. To support this, it is necessary to provide the curriculum materials focused on science subject competencies, reinforce teacher training on competence-related curriculum, and activate the professional teacher community.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.373-381
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• 2009

This study investigated pre-service elementary school teacher's perception of science curriculum use in Korea and Japan. Ninety four pre-service elementary teachers in Korea and fifty three pre-service elementary teachers in Japan are participated in this study. As the result, four patterns were revealed. First, science isn't perceived as an important or interesting subject by the pre-service elementary teachers in both countries. Second, the perception of Korean pre-service teachers about the objectives of science subject is relatively negative. Third, in the case of Korea, the perception about the effectiveness of science subject content and level, and the amount of learning is shown to be more negative than those of Japan. Finally, in both countries, the science majors and the non-science majors have negative perceptions about the inclusion of the perspectives and methods of assessment and the preparation of teaching and learning plan in curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.1028-1038
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• 2004

This study investigated how the 7th national elementary school science curriculum was implemented at science classrooms. Data from surveys with 140 elementary schools, 18 science classroom observations, and in-depth interviews with teachers were used to examine the characteristics of elementary school science instruction. Based on the data, I explored (1)how science curriculum is operated in terms of objectives, contents, methods and evaluation of school science, and (2)how student-centeredness and localization themes are reflected on the reconstructed school science curriculum. It was found that the degree of the reorganization of the national curriculum at the teacher level was minimal. And most of the elementary teachers followed the directions and contents of the science textbook and teacher's guidebook regardless of their own local situations. For most teachers, restructuring science curriculum meant reordering the sequences of the contents, and adding or deleting some units or topics. I also examined why elementary teachers have difficulty in reconstructing science curriculum at the classroom level. The necessity of curriculum reconstruction at the teacher level is also discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.453-464
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• 2019

In this study, the types of inquiry activities in the $5^{th}$ & $6^{th}$ grade science textbooks according to the 2015 revised science national curriculum were analyzed and compared according to grade level and science area. Science textbooks for elementary school $5^{th}$ & $6^{th}$ graders contain quite diverse types of inquiry activities, which are student-centered inquiry activities. There were comparatively higher proportions of inquiry types such as experiment & observation and simulation, but relatively lower of inquiry types of investigation-discourse & presentation, discussion, expression. Elementary science textbooks are expected to cultivate science key competencies for elementary school students. Considering the science area, the motion & energy, substances, earth & space, and integration areas had the most experiment & observation among activity types, while the life area had the most simulation activities. Even in some area of the 6th grade science textbook, there was little or no data interpretation, discussion, and simulation activities. In order to achieve the goal of elementary science education, science textbooks should be developed considering the revision of future elementary science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.43-60
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to compare the configuration changes of content elements and inquiry activities between 2009 and 2015 revised national elementary school science curriculum, and to examine the trends in achievement standards. The results of this study were as follows. First, the number of content elements presented in the 2015 revised science curriculum was slightly decreased in comparison to 2009 revised one, but fell short of goal level for revision, that was to cut 20 percent of present achievement standards. The characteristics of changes in achievement standards were to enhance the relation to practical life, to integrate the content elements separated, and to adopt the achievement standard to introduce new concept. Second, the number of inquiry activities presented in the 2015 revised science curriculum was also slightly decreased, and to be linked with the changes of achievement standards. In some cases, the range of inquiry activity was adjusted, or the unit to present it was changed. Teacher should know exactly about the elements to be changed in the 2015 revised national elementary school science curriculum, and it will be needed them to make an efforts in the cause of its smooth application.