• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.857-870
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• 2015

Concerning elementary school science subject electric circuit units, which are regarded as difficult by teachers and students, this study aims to use the knowledge state analysis method along with interviews to analyze the knowledge state and hierarchy of inquiry abilities. Before and after applying the electric circuit inquiry abilities module, the question items aimed at assessing the basic inquiry abilities and integrative inquiry abilities for electric circuits were presented to students, and their knowledge state was analyzed along with interviews. Through analysis of the knowledge structure and hierarchy of inquiry abilities about electric circuits, the way of thinking of teachers who taught inquiry abilities, and the way of thinking of students were found to be visually different from each other, and this is an important factor that should not be neglected in the process of teaching and learning about inquiry abilities and should be considered. In addition, the presentation of the knowledge state of and hierarchical relations between inquiry abilities factors can offer implications for guidance on students' learning about inquiry abilities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.93-101
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• 1997

The purpose of this study is to develop a test of earth science inquiry abilities using structured items. To develop a more valid and reliable instrument factual data was used, and most of the previous studies regarding inquiry teaching method and inquiry evaluation were consulted. The model developed in this study is composed of 5 stages; recognizing problems and generating hypotheses, designing inquiry, pursuiting inquiry, interpreting data, and drawing conclusion. Also, in this study 10 science inquiry abilities; recognizing problems, generating hypotheses, controlling variables, designing experiments, performing experiments, transforming data, inferencing, predicting, conclusing, and generalizing were clearly defined. The test developed in the study, Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities, includes 25 multiple-choice (five-choice) items and requires testing time of 50 minutes. The content validity of items, objectivity of scoring keys and clarity of items were checked by 7 experienced specialists in science education and earth science. The developed test were investigated and revised through three field tests. According to the results of the third field trial, test reliability (Cronbach $\alpha$) was 0.62, difficulty index was 0.54 and index of discrimination was 0.35. Also, the developed Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities showed a correlation coefficient of 0.53 with TIPS. Therefore, the development of Test of Earth Science Inquiry Abilities using structured items satisfied the reliability and validity requirements for general assessment instruments for students' earth science inquiry abilities.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.242-254
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to understand the teaching effects according to the cognitive levels after conducting inquiry activities using science notebooks in the open inquiry activities of the elementary science class. The results of this study were as follow. first, students having the open inquiry activities using science notebooks showed improvement in scientific inquiry abilities in both groups with the low and high cognitive level. Second, regarding the changes of scientific attitudes, both groups with the low and high cognitive level exhibited improvement. According to the result of analyzing interaction between the cognitive level and class treatment on the effects for scientific inquiry abilities and scientific attitudes, there was no difference by the cognitive level. And the use of science notebooks in open inquiry activities had effects on improving scientific inquiry abilities and scientific attitudes regardless of the cognitive level.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.68-72
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• 1995

This is very important to know teachers' and children's scientific knowledge, scientific inquiry skills and cognitive abilities for better education of children. The subjects of this study are about 60-150 in each group. There are instruments used ; To test scientific knowledge a test is developed by the author. To test scientific inquiry skills, the test developed by Eun Kyung Yong is used. To test cognitive abilities, GALT, short version is used. There are results; Firstly, inservice teachers' scientific knowledge is better than preservice teachers', which is better than children'. Secondly, inservice teachers' scientific inquiry skills nearly equal preservice teachers', which are better than children'. Thirdly, preservice teachers' cognitive abilities nearly equal inservice teachers', which are better than children'. Fourthly, teachers' (special area-science) cognitive abilities are better than teachers' (special area-vidual art, music, physical education). Elementary teachers in Korea have fundamental abilities to teach elementary children.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.821-833
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of family related mathematical inquiry activities based on daily experiences on the young children's mathematical abilities. 38 three-years old children were selected from kindergarten in K City, Jeon-buk Province. Children were divided into 19 children for experimental group and 19 children for control group. And for the 5 weeks, the children in the experimental group participated in family related mathematical inquiry activities based on daily experiences. The Stanford Early School Achievement Test were used as both pre-test and post-test for the children's mathematical ability. And the data were analyzed by Independent-Sample t-test and ANCOVA. The results shows that the family related mathematical inquiry activities based on daily experiences had enhanced the children's mathematical abilities.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.207-218
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• 2010

The revised curriculum in 2007 adds an open inquiry approach to increase students' creativity and interest in science. Because it is the first time for elementary students to perform the open inquiry due to the national curriculum, it is essential that teachers give students' successful experiences in order to build a positive impression about inquiry activity. The purpose of this research is to develop and apply the open inquiry program. The research findings are as follows: First, we analyzed the students' traits of open inquiry ability during the program. The third and fourth grade students showed weakness in operating and inquiring abilities. They also feared failure and were unable to concentrate in classes which were based on explanation or discussion. When students had unexpected results, however, their inquiring abilities and creativeness increased considerably. Additionally there were some students who were stressed during the science-inquiry activity, due to no interest in science and an inability to think scientifically. Second, we developed an open inquiry program for elementary students. The program was modified, reflected upon the students' traits during open inquiry in class. Through repeated feedback like this, we completed the program. Third, for those who studied in the lessons there was a meaningful change in students' science inquiry abilities and abilities to perform 'formulating a hypothesis' and 'the control of variables'. These students' level of self-inquiry performance improved steadily. Moreover, they obtained a strong attachment to their inquiry and understood the method of quantitative experiments.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.294-305
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• 2012

Scientific literacy has long been as one of the key goals of science education, and using scientific inquiry in school science has became an important objective to be achieved. The processes of scientific inquiry consist of proposing/developing inquiry question, designing and conducting investigation, collecting, analyzing and interpreting data, and communicating the results. However, most students experience mainly collecting and transforming data in inquiry processes in science class and they are barely exposed to the opportunities of proposing/developing inquiry questions. Middle school earth science preservice teachers participated in this study (N=36) and their abilities of developing inquiry questions were surveyed. Participants' abilities of developing inquiry questions were investigated whether they were enhanced with activities using the Inquiry Questions Development Guide (IQDG). Also, this study was interested in whether there was any relationship between abilities of developing inquiry questions and designing inquiry investigation. The results of this study were as follows; first, the level and preciseness of inquiry questions and its preciseness developed by participating teachers were enhanced after experiencing IQDG. In addition, teachers' dominating inquiry question-types were two: one is a 'relationship-inquiry question' in which students could discover the relationship between results found in the given experimental situations and the other one is a 'why-how inquiry problem' in which students could explore a cause or a process that results in the outcomes. Finally, the higher level of and preciseness the of inquiry questions were identified as an important factor the determined teachers' abilities of designing more logical investigation. A process of proposing/developing inquiry question was identified as one of the most important processes contributing to a success of scientific inquiry investigation.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.39-57
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• 2017

Objective: This study aims to investigate the effects of science activities related to seasonal customs on young children's scientific inquiry abilities and communicative competences. Methods: Participants consisted of twenty-six 5-year-old children who were going to day care center in Gwangju metropolitan city. Half of them belonged to the experimental group and the other half to the comparative group. The experimental group participated in science activities related to seasonal customs, and the comparative group participated in science activities according to the Nuri curriculum. Results: The results of this study showed that scientific inquiry abilities and communicative competences of the young children in the experimental group were meaningfully improved. That is to say, the scores of the five sub factors of scientific inquiry abilities and the two sub factors of communicative competences of the experimental group were meaningfully higher than those of the comparative group. Conclusion/Implications: It is significant that this study provides basic information for future science activities related to seasonal customs that will be conducted in the early childhood field.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.642-649
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• 2005

Argumentative discussion is one of the important components of an educational program, which allows students not only to learn the process of social negotiation through discussions, but also to improve students' overall research abilities. The purpose of this study was to examine a) the changes between inquiry of before-argumentative discussion and inquiry of after-argumentative discussion, and b) the connections between the inquiry changes and online argumentative discussion. This study analysed 726 messages in an online argumentative discussion, as well as in first research reports and second research reports. The results of the study indicate that science-gifted students' research abilities were improved through on-line argumentative discussion that provided them with feedback based on interactive discussions, and encouraged them to re-examine hypotheses and experiment processes. The science-gifted students showed knowledge and abilities for identifying simple errors in research processes and arguing problems in the flow of the whole logic of research.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.27-38
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• 1995

The purposes of the 'Students' Science Inquiry Experiment Tournament' which is one of the 'Students' Science Inquiry Olympic Tournaments' are; 1) cultivate students' intellectual interests, inquiry abilities, and scientific attitude dealing with students' scientific reasoning abilities, problem solving abilities, and experimental apparatuses operation abilities. 2) contribute substantiality of science education through experimental inquiry learning. 3) make the ground of basic science development of the future society by selecting excellent students who have talents for science. 4) elevate science teachers' morale by this tournament. The test items set and evaluation results of the tournament were analysed in this study. The results of this study were ; 1) the discrimination ability of the paper-and pencils test and the experiments were low because the students' scores of the items were not normally distributed and standard deviations were very small values. 2) most of the tournament participation students did not answered to the subjective type test items. 3) according to the responses of the tournament participation students, the tournament contribute to the students' interests in science. But the opinion was dominant that the tournament didn't contribute to school science education improvement.