• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.558-570
• /
• 2005

The importance of teaching the nature of science (NOS) has been always emphasized in science education. However, the NOS is hardly taught in elementary science class. We are lacking in the strategies and materials for teaching NOS. So we designed the science drama teaching, and investigated the effects on pupils' perceptions about NOS. The subjects of this study were 185 third graders from a elementary school. The treatment group was provided with science drama lessons and the control group was provided with traditional lecture-type lessons. Their perceptions about NOS were investigated before/after the science lessons and after 3 months following them, and both of two groups were compared. The pretest results revealed that the pupils of both groups were found to have similar views on NOS. Dey had traditional views of the most items except for social construction of theories, mathematical knowledge and decision-making. After science lessons, they tended to change their views toward modem views, but the pupils of the treatment group showed more modem views than those of the control group on the observation, model, social construction of theories, predictions. After 3 months, the pupils of the control group tended to come back to their traditional views, but those of the treatment group showed tendencies that their changed views were kept up on the observation, scientific model, scientific knowledge, scientific methods, decision-making, social construction of theories, mathematical knowledge. Therefore this study suggests that science drama teaching could be one of the effective ways for teaching NOS.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.458-475
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the responses of pre-service elementary teachers to the plant learning using plant-observation activities and observation journal writings. Thirty pre-service teachers participated in this study. Before and after practicing plant observation and observation journal writing for 11 weeks, pre-service teachers' interest to plants, attitude to plant-observation teaching, and plant-observation teaching efficacy were examined using a questionnaire. Also, the observation journals, reflective journal writings, and interviews were analyzed to investigate their qualitative change. In addition, the pre-service teachers were classified by multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analysis with respect to attitude to plant-observation teaching and observation journal writing, and teaching efficacy. While the pre-service teachers showed significant increase of the interest to plants and plant-observation teaching efficacy, and positive change of the attitude to plant-observation teaching, there was a little difference between gender with more positive effects on females. The positive attitude changes of pre-service teachers included positive recognition about plants and the diversity, increased interest and curiosity about plants, careful observation about nearby plants, and independent learning and positive inquiry with plants. In terms of teaching efficacy, they showed positive change such as enjoyment and satisfaction with plant-observation, confidence as elementary teachers in the future, and recognition about the importance of elementary teachers for plant education. However, the changes were different among the groups classified by attitude to plant-observation teaching and observation journal writings, and plant-observation teaching efficacy.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.1
• /
• pp.69-83
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that influenced elementary school teachers in choosing websites that support science teaching and learning. The participants of this study were four elementary school teachers. The data was collected through semi-constructed and in-depth interview. The results of the research are as follows: First, the individual factors that influenced participants to choose a website were teacher's thinking about appropriate science teaching and learning methods and teacher's lack of ability to prepare science lessons. Second, the surroundings factors were the image of the teachers using the website, the formation of consensus, belonging to the peer teachers, and students' preferences and interests. Third, participants chose a website where they could provide ideas for science lessons that are not available in textbooks and instructional materials for all subjects, and see stories and tips related to teaching career. In addition, the website was selected according to whether the developer of science instructional materials was a teacher, whether the materials uploaded on the website were up-to-date, and whether the teachers can learn by themselves to prepare for the science class. Fourth, participants considered the design and interactivity of the website and chose a website that is easy to search for information. Finally, we suggested the implications for building the websites that support science teaching and learning.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.47 no.2
• /
• pp.127-138
• /
• 2023

In this study, the implementation of science classes by pre-service elementary teachers were explored to foster the digital literacy of elementary students. To this end, interviews were conducted with four university students in their 4th year of study at 'G' Education University in Gwangju, also their teaching plans and class implementation videos were analyzed. Interview questions were divided into the science class planning stage, the science class implementation stage, and the post-science class implementation stage, and the interview contents were transcribed and categorized after recording. The results of the study are as follows. First, in the science class planning stage, pre-service elementary teachers considered the degree of elementary students' familiarity when choosing digital teaching and learning tools to foster digital literacy. While writing the teaching plan, it was difficult to set standards related to fostering digital literacy. Second, while pre-service elementary teachers had positive experiences such as improving students' participation in classes and increasing student-specific guidance through real-time data sharing, class time was exceeded due to poor use of digital teaching and learning tools. Third, after teaching their science classes, pre-service teachers presented reflections and requirements for the class. Based on these results, the necessity of developing digital literacy for pre-service elementary teachers and the need to improve the curriculum of education university were proposed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.192-199
• /
• 2003

The Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education has been developed in both quantitative and qualitative aspects during twenty years since first published year 1983. This study was intended to survey the research trend of the journals, which has been published so far. It will give an orientation of science education research and suggestions towards research to improve science education. The 243 articles of the journals, which were published from 1983 to 2002 by Korean Elementary Science Education Society, were classified into 7 categories including science teaching, science learning, assessment in science, science teacher education, science curriculum, educational facilities & materials, and general science education. The results are as follows: 1. The articles published last decade are increased four times compared with the first decade. 2. The half of articles published so far concentrated on science teaching and learning. The articles on educational facilities & materials or general science education are few. 3. During the last decade, the articles on science teacher education, educational facilities & materials, assessment in science, and science learning relatively increased than the first decade. The number of articles on science curriculum was fluctuated every five years. 4. Most of articles were focused on the narrow subject areas. For example, the articles on science teaching, science learning, assessment in science, science teacher education, science curriculum, and educational facilities & materials were largely focused on the teaching strategies, pupils' conception, affective assessment and teaching practice survey, teachers' appreciation about the nature of science or instruction, analysis of science textbooks, development of the experimental materials or the audiovisual aids respectively. 5. The subject areas highlighted so far in science education, for example, inquiry or experimental activities, STS instruction, environmental education, gifted education, instruction with multimedia, problem-solving or reasoning, experimental skill assessment, etc. were not much researched.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.262-276
• /
• 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
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.103-116
• /
• 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perception on video material making and the effect on science teaching ability after conducting non-face-to-face teaching material making activity for elementary pre-service teachers. This activity consisted two processes. One is that elementary pre-service teachers conduct inquiry, understand related science concepts, analyze science textbooks and then make video material. The other is that they watch video materials produced by colleagues. This study was conducted on 89 elementary pre-service teachers for 8 weeks. After this activity was completed, the perception on video material making and the effect on science teaching ability of elementary pre-service teachers were investigated, and the results were analyzed. In the process of making and watching non-face-to-face teaching materials, elementary pre-service teachers showed positive results in teaching-learning, video production, and emotion and attitude toward video material making. In addition, it was found that they improved their science teaching ability through this activity and were very satisfied with this activity. However, they also mentioned several disappointments such as exclusion of learners' right to self-determination, lack of various communication channels, and errors in content of materials. This suggests that if these problems are solved, non-face-to-face classes can also be a good form of class.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.37 no.3
• /
• pp.538-549
• /
• 2013

This study investigated the preservice and inservice elementary teachers' perceptions on professionalism of teaching profession, professionalism of science teaching, and their self-efficacy on science teaching. For this study, 64 sophomore, 53 senior preservice teachers and 23 elementary teachers who were also graduate students were participated. The questionnaires consisted of 5 Likert scaled and descriptive items about the professionalism of teaching profession, professionalism of science teaching, and self-efficacy on science teaching. The results showed that some areas of the professionalism of teaching profession had significant differences between the grades in preservice teachers and/or inservice teachers. Most preservice teachers and teachers thought that they need to have professional ability, but not a few teachers thought it was not necessary to have professionalism of science teaching as a elementary teacher, even though their major was science education. The teachers who had higher perceptions on the needs of the professionalism of science teaching showed high self-efficacy on science teaching.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.75-82
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching strategies for scientific conceptions in the units of oxygen and combustion in elementary school science textbook. 70 elementary school 6th grade students in Seoul participated. They were divided into experimental group and controlled group. Five scientific concepts were adopted from the units of oxygen and combustion in the 6th grade science textbook. Subjects' preconceptions were investigated by pre-questionnaires. A series of 6 instructional sessions based on the teaching strategy of cognitive confliction theory were given to the experimental group. By the end of the instructional session, a post-test was administered to both experimental and controlled groups. There was a statistically significant difference between post-test gains of the experimental and controlled groups. These results support the notion that the teaching strategy was effective for changing from preconceptions to scientific concerts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.418-427
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to describe the elementary teachers' teaching behavior procedure in verification-type laboratory instructions. In order to do this, we should know first what constituted the teaching behavior elements in the teachers' instructions, before the teaching behavior can be analyzed. Thirty sets of instructions were recorded and their transcripts were used in this study. The results of this study indicated that the number of teaching behaviors numbered twenty four in total, and that the teaching behaviors could be classified into nine categories, and finally the procedure used in verification-type laboratory instructions generally followed seven steps. These steps can be described as follows; reminding subjects of the preliminary learned concept, presenting inquiry type questions or introducing the main concept, explaining the method used or presenting the predictable outcome/matter for verification, performing lab-based activities, presenting the outcomes, applying the main concept, and finally closing the instruction. For the purpose of promoting more authentic scientific inquiries using these types of instructions, the authors's claims were discussed.