• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1199-1213
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the difficulties in engaging in open-inquiry activities - especially finding inquiry topics for student themselves. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with 11 middle school students and their open-inquiry worksheets from 4 months of activities. The investigation tools were composed of three domains for topic choice: selecting subjects, making 10 questions, and choosing a topic with the 10 questions. The study revealed that middle school students have difficulties in the domain of 'object selection' and 'finding inquiry topic.' Under the object selection domain, they showed burden of selection of unlimited subject, lack of knowledge on the science object, and lack of interest in object. Under the domain of finding inquiry topic, they have difficulties from their selected topics that were non-scientific, focus only on interest, lack of background information or those that could be resolved by short answers. Each student has difficulty in doing open-inquiry with relatively different seriousness. The findings suggested that an open inquiry program should be provided along with a systematic guide program on finding inquiry topic for open-inquiry activities to be a successful and continual performance gauge.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.404-414
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• 2009

The revised curriculum in 2007 includes open inquiry approach to increase students' interest in science and to build up creativity. So teachers and pre-service teachers should be equipped with the ability of open inquiry performance. In order to investigate pre-service teachers' readiness to perform open inquiry tasks, we analyzed reports written as homework by a group of 71 juniors in a national university of education. The investigation tool was composed of four domains: topic selection, the inquiry process, the conclusion, and reporting. Each domain had three or four sub-domains. By using the framework, four raters scored the students' inquiry reports. The findings reveal that the pre-service elementary school teachers have difficulty in the domain of 'topic selection' and the 'conclusion' compared with the other domains. Under the topic selection domain, they showed weaknesses in 'creativity' and 'scientific topic' and under the conclusion domain, they had difficulty in 'recognizing limits' and 'value of conclusion'. The finding suggests that pre-service teaching program should provide with opportunities to perform open inquiry continually.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.180-189
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• 2003

Purpose: To provide basic data for developing problematic drinking prevention problem through the investigation of the educational needs on drinking of primary students. Method: Subjects were 630 fourth, fifth, and sixth grades in 5 primary schools in Seoul. Data were collected from November to December 2000 by using structured questionnaire. Result: 1) Among the students under inquiry, 41.2％ answered the had educational need about drinking. Educational need about drinking was significantly higher in the students with higher mothers educational level than those of with lower ones. 2) With regard to the appropriate class in providing education, 37.3％ selected normal class education. 47.3％ of the respondents said experiments would be the most effective education method. 61.8％ of the students picked school nurses as the most appropriate person in carrying out the education. As for the most effective media for education, 40.3％ chose video/television. The most concerning topic was academic achievement with 51.9％ of the surveyed. As for the rate of preference in methods of drinking prevention education, Significant differences were shown in the class, teaching method, instructor, media, memory of education and concerning topic according to the gender. Conclusion: The results of the finding suggest that the various programs of drinking prevention education for the primary students should be developed with consider the difference of preference by the grade and the gender.