• 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 Association For Science Education
• /
• v.27 no.7
• /
• pp.547-558
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to compare inquiry activities in science textbooks' physics contents for Korean secondary schools with those of Singapore in order to provide a reference for further improvement of inquiry activities in Korean science textbooks. We analyzed inquiry activities using the framework of Millar et al.(1998) and Chinn & Malhotra (2002). The results of this study are as follows: There are differences between Korean and Singaporean inquiry activities in the area of 'learning objectives', 'students' thinking activities' and 'degree of openness'. In the area of 'learning objectives', the Korean textbooks have more activities associated with the learning of science content than those in Singaporean, whereas the Singaporean textbooks have more activities associated with the processes of scientific inquiry than in Korean textbooks. In the area of 'students' thinking activities', the Singaporean textbooks have activities like 'test a prediction', which Korean textbooks lack. The 'degree of openness' is higher in Singaporean textbooks than in Korean textbooks. And some differences in the area of 'authentic scientific inquiry' between Korean and Singaporean textbooks were also found. While the Korean textbooks do not have any activities associated with 'generating research questions', the Singaporean ones feature such activities. In the area of 'designing studies', the Singaporean textbooks have activities corresponding to 'selecting variables' and 'controlling variables', while the Korean ones never have such activities. The results of this study imply that it is necessary to balance inquiry activities in the area of 'learning objectives', 'students' thinking activities' and 'degree of openness', and to present activities close to authentic scientific inquiry in inquiry activities in textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.202-212
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this study was to examine the connection among inquiry activities related to 'Metabolism' presented in life science textbooks developed according to the national common basic curriculum. To perform this, the type, process and context of inquiry activities of life science textbooks were analyzed. The number of inquiry activities is gradually increased from elementary to secondary school. As result of analysis, types, processes and skills, and context of inquiry were not balanced according to textbooks and school levels. It is suggested that the framework of evaluating inquiry activities based on curriculum objectives be provided when developing science textbooks. It also implies that teachers need to reconstruct inquiry contents and activities suitable to school situations when they teach in the real fields of education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.275-286
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to investigate the features of inquiry activities using technology in the 2015 revised elementary science digital textbooks. For this, we analyzed the features of inquiry context and inquiry method presented in inquiry activities using three kinds of technology: Virtual experiment, virtual reality and augmented reality. As a result, firstly, the most common types of 77 inquiry activities were realistic type which shows the phenomenon actually and vividly as possible and realistic-abstract type which shows the phenomena with the abstract concepts. Second, the ways of using three technologies were different depending on the processes of inquiry and the sub-domains of science. For example, virtual experiment technologies were mostly used in the contents of physics and chemistry with the inquiry context of realistic-abstract type for investigating the relationship between variables of experiments and describing the phenomena mechanically. On the other hand, virtual reality and augmented reality techniques tended to be used more frequently in biology and earth science contents with the inquiry context of realistic type for observing and describing the phenomena. Finally, we discussed educational implications in terms of developing and applying technology-based inquiry activities.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.528-541
• /
• 1999

In order to obtain data for developing an ideal science curriculum. four kinds of General Science textbooks based on the 6th curriculum were analyzed. Particularly inquiry activities were analyzed by Scientific Inquiry Evaluation Inventory(SIEI). The results are as follows: 1) The average number of inquiry activities in four kinds of textbooks is 115.5. And the number in each textbook is very diverse: textbook A contains 94 inquiry activities, textbook B 147. textbook C 100 and textbook D 121. 2) As for the number of inquiry activity scopes in four kinds of textbook. observation comes to 22, experiment 117, interpreting data 196, investigation 64, discussion 51, classification 4 and prediction 8. And then the conceptional inquiry activity is about 2.3 times as many as the inquiry experiment. 3) According to the analysis of each inquiry task by SIEI. textbook A has 268, textbook B 328, textbook C 207 and textbook D 304. 4) In the analysis of the structure of inquiry activity, the evaluation of the competition and cooperation scale shows more emphasis on common tasks. no pooled results(87.1 %). The discussion scale mostly consists of activities without discussion required among students(83.5%). The evaluation of openness scale shows more emphasis on activities with problems, procedures and answers presented(58.3%). In the evaluation of inquiry scope scale, the inquiry scope scale mostly has the activities to demonstrate or verify the contents of the text(66.9%). 5) As for the analysis of inquiry activities as a whole. The inquiry pyramid in four kinds of General Science textbooks shows the type I that emphasizes the inquiry activities in low level such as gathering and organizing data. The inquiry index in four kinds of textbooks is average 47.8, shows very high level (above 35).

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.77-94
• /
• 1990

The Inquiry Activities the newly developed Korean High Schol Biology Textbooks were evaluated using SIEI(Seientific Inquiry Evaluation Inventory). The textbook evaluated are five Introductory Biology books and five Advanced Biology books developed in 1990. The instrument, SIEI, was developed by Myung Hur in his doctoral study at Columbia University in 1984. The major findings of the study are summarized below. 1. The inquiry activities in the textbooks are focusing on the low level science process skills 2. Students are rarely asked to formulate a hypothesis or to design an experiment. 3. The structure of the Inguiry Activities are mostly competitive, thus inhibiting the inquiry achievement of students. 4. The Inquiry Indices of the textbooks are between 14 and 16, meaning only 14 to 16 percent of the total instructional time are to be devoted to inquiry activities.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.541-557
• /
• 2012

Interest is acknowledged to be a critical motivational variable that influences learning and achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interest of the elementary students when free inquiry activities were performed through a brain-based evolutionary scientific teaching and learning model. For this study, 106 fifth grade students were chosen and performed individually free inquiry activities. The results of this study were as follows: First, after free inquiry activities, as to free inquiry science related attitude, a statistically significant difference was not observed. But they came to have positive feelings about the free inquiry. Especially students marked higher mean score in openness showed consistency in sub-areas of free inquiry science related attitude. Second, students had interests in various fields, especially they had many interests in area of biology. They chose inquiry subjects that seems to be easily accessible from surrounding and as an important criterion of free inquiry they thought the possibility that they could successfully perform it. And students who belong to the high level in the science related attitudes and academic achievement diversified more topics. Third, most of students failed to further their topics. However, the students who specifically and clearly extended their topics suggested appropriate variables in their topics. On the other hand, students who couldn't elaborate their topics were also failed to suggest further topics and their performance of inquiry was more incomplete. In conclusion, the experiences of success in free inquiry make the science attitude of students more positive and help them extend their inquiry. These results have fundamental implications for the authentic science inquiry in the elementary schools and for the further research.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.114-126
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study is to identify the theory of inquiry and to suggest an example of teaching/learning strategy through inquiry for effective environmental education. This study was based on the review of literature in the area of background of inquiry, inquiry in school subjects-social science, science, and environment and activities for inquiry. The teaching/learning strategy which was developed in this study included several inquiry activities focusing on recent social issue. And it can be used in environmental class.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.21-29
• /
• 2014

This study analyzed the inquiry activities in the 'matter' units from each science textbook for the fifth and the sixth graders developed by the 2007 revised national curriculum, using Practical Activity Analysis Inventory proposed by Millar(2009) to examine types of learning objectives, hands-on contents(what students have to do with objects and materials), minds-on contents(what students have to 'do' with ideas), and logical structure each activity had. The results of this study are as follows: First, most learning objectives of the inquiry activities seems to be suitable for the standards of 2007 revised national curriculum. Second, the standards of 2007 revised national curriculum are properly reflected in hands-on contents of inquiry activities. Third, minds-on contents of inquiry activities are well developed to meet the standards of 2007 revised national curriculum as a whole. Fourth, the logical structures of inquiry activities are mostly adequate for achieving the goals of the 2007 revised national curriculum. In the textbook for the fifth graders, however, all the activities are focusing too much on using students' current ideas to generate a prediction and collecting data to explore or test it. Based on these findings, this research has concluded that learning objectives, minds-on contents and logical structures of inquiry activities need to be designed carefully for students to be exposed to various activities when developing following textbooks.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.143-152
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate the contents of open inquiry activities of the newly revised 2007 National curriculum for each grade level and to teach open inquiry activities and selection of rational inquiry activities. For this study, 470 elementary students in Seoul, ranging from 3rd to 6th grades were surveyed. The experiment plans written by students were analyzed based on the analysis criteria. These criteria consisted of the reason for the selection, type, and suitability of open inquiry activities. The reason for selecting open inquiry activities were analyzed according to the reason why they want to conduct the activity, degree of getting help and the object of getting help. The types of the open inquiry activities were analyzed according to the field of inquiry, the inquiry method and the period of inquiry. Suitability of the open inquiry activities were analyzed according to the reason of suitability or unsuitability.