• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.183-198
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to develop teaching modules related to Earth Science courses in order to enhance scientific inquiry skills of middle school students. A 'process skill-centered' module was developed to induce scientific process skills, while students explore specific scientific context. A module consists of several activities, and each activity focuses on a specific science process skill. Modules were designed such that the skills would improve depending on the completion of the module. To evaluate the effectiveness, field workshops for middle school science teachers were done twice. Science teachers, who were participants of the workshop, commented that the activities in each module were suited to enhance students' interest in science. They noted that scientific inquiry skills would be developed from each activity. Students responded that the activities in the modules were interesting, and it was a good experience to do them by themselves. Students were the focal point in class, not teachers. This enabled teachers to evaluated each student's achievement level, and provide a proper feedback. Hence, applying these modules in classes should enhance the students' scientific inquiry skills.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.37-58
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine whether or not the use of number-related fairy tales had any effects on young children's mathematical inquiry skills in a bid to help facilitate their development of mathematical capabilities. The subjects in this study were 30 preschoolers who were four years old in Western age and attended G kindergarten in Jung-gu, Ulsan. The instrument used to assess their mathematical inquiry skills was Choi Hye-jin(2003)'s Preschooler Math Capability Inventory. The collected data wee analyzed with SPSS Win 11.5 program, and analysis of covariance was utilized. The findings of the study were as follows: The application of number-related fairy tales turned out to be effective in developing the young children's abilities to figure out the regularity of things, conception of number, geometrical abilities, measurement abilities and mathematical inquiry skills of the preschoolers. The above-mentioned findings suggested that the application of number-related fairy tales was one of good teaching methods to step up the development of young children's mathematical inquiry skills. Specifically, that could inner motivation to preschoolers in mathematical contexts and take their problem-solving skills to another level.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.210-224
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to analyze students' recognition of the free inquiry activity and to investigate what effect the free inquiry activity of the 2007 Revised Educational curriculum revision has on the science inquiry ability of middle school students. To conduct the research we worked with 262 female students, 8 classes of first graders in a middle school. Among them, 4 classes were taught in free inquiry activity and the remaining 4 classes were taught in the traditional way. The results of Likert-questionnaire indicate that students were learning about cooperative spirit through group investigation activities and discussions and did not take the free inquiry activity as a hard activity. Also they showed positive reaction agreeing that this activity is both a helpful method in learning science and interesting. However, it seemed that the investigation tends to flow between the leading 1~2 members of the group and showed difficulty in carrying out the investigation as a group after school hours. It showed there are few problems and obstacles in operating the free inquiry activity. The free inquiry activity did not give any meaningful influence on the improvement of science inquiry ability of students. Integrative inquiry process skills did not give a relevant influence, however, it showed a meaningful influence on the improvement of basic inquiry process skills. Especially, among the low-ranking element of basic inquiry process skills, it enhanced the capacity for prediction.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.203-218
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reflective thinking-based laboratory report on learners' metacognition and inquiry skills. In a general physics experiment class consisting of 11 experiments, 20 college students used reflective thinking-based laboratory report, and then the changes of their metacognition and inquiry skills were compared with those of who used general laboratory report. The opinions of students used reflective thinking-based laboratory report were surveyed. The results showed that their metacognitions were increased more than those of comparison group that used common experiment report. Their inquiry skills also were increased as much as comparison group's. According to the survey results, they recognized that reflective thinking-based laboratory report helps to improve their performance, metacognitions, and inquiry skills.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.60-74
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brain-based science teaching and learning model on the science related attitudes, scientific inquiry skills and science knowledge of the 2nd graders in Intelligent Life course. For this study, 117 elementary students from four classes of the 2nd grade in Seoul were selected. In the comparison group, traditional instruction was implemented and in the experimental group, instruction according to brain-based science teaching and learning model was implemented for four weeks. The results of this study were as follows : There were little differences between the comparison and experimental groups in terms of the science related attitudes except for the sub-domains of interest and curiosity. And brain-based science teaching and learning model programs improved a few scientific inquiry skills, especially observation and classification. In addition, the experimental groups showed a positive effect on science knowledge. In conclusion, brain-based science teaching and learning model programs were more effective in improvement of the science related attitudes, scientific inquiry skills and science knowledge of elementary students.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.415-424
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• 2009

This study was performed to reveal the effects of a science experience class, in which children of low-income family(LIF) were involved. The children's science inquiry skills, science-related attitude, self-esteem and self-competence were investigated before and after the science experience class. Not only 61 children in LIF but also 75 ordinary ones participated in the class and the tests to collect the data, and interviews in which 9 children of each group participated were conducted as well. The results are as follows. First, through the science experience class, the children in LIF's average point of science inquiry skills increased meaningfully, but ordinary children's did not. Second, the science attitude's points of both increased meaningfully. Third, the children in LIF's average self-esteem point increased meaningfully, but the ordinary group's did not. Fourth, the children in LIF' self-competence increased meaningfully, but the other's did not. The children from both groups were influenced positively by the science experience class. Especially, compared with ordinary children, the children in LIF who have fewer chances of science experience than other children were more positively influenced m every aspect of this study.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.95-112
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• 2012

The research evaluated the effects of the improvements in scientific inquiry for elementary school students and focused on the development and application of the explicit and reflective learning strategy through observation and classification. The explicit and reflective learning strategy was modified and completed with the review of the experts after the development of the draft based on the theoretical approach. The students were evaluated for their academic achievements in scientific inquiry skills before and after taking the course. The results were as follows: First, the steps of the developed learning strategy (1) to motivate, (2) to explore reflectively, (3) to guide explicitly, (4) to inquire explicitly, and (5) to verify reflectively were set to reflect the verification. Second, the results of applying the developed model to the lessons based on the quantitative analysis was effective for observation and classification skills in the quest for improved performance of the whole (the sum of observation and classification, inquiry skills) and the observed features, but there was no effect on classification. Also, the lessons applied the developed teaching strategy and showed effectiveness in improving academic achievement. Particularly in analyzing the relationship between the academic achievement and exploration capabilities, in order to improve academic achievement, the importance of improving inquiry skills was found. Third, the qualitative analysis of teaching and learning strategy developed by applying the lessons of this teacher guide and small group activities through the explicit and reflective observation and classification of the student learning activities showed the significant improvement of ability of the scientific inquiry skills. In addition to the improvement in the abilities of the classification showed after the formation of the most basic observation skills of the scientific inquiry.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.137-158
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• 2014

The present study aimed to develop an instrument to assess young children's understanding of science inquiry skills. For the purposes of the study, based on analysis of literature and evaluation tools related to young children's science inquiry skills, five categories of understanding science inquiry skills including observing, classifying, predicting, measuring, and discussing were selected. Then 30 test items were developed and verified three times through opinions from science education and early childhood education professionals and teachers. Finally, a total of 19 test items within five categories were developed. The 19 items' item difficulty, item discrimination, and item internal consistency were verified statistically. In addition, concurrent validity and test-retest reliability of the items were verified by the significant correlation coefficients. The instrument developed in this study was administered to 300 children who were 3, 4, and 5 years old. The results showed that 5 year old children had better competence to understand science inquiry skills than 4 and 3 year old children, while there were no differences in the competence between boys and girls.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.783-790
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• 2016

The 'Integrated Inquiry' unit is a new addition in the 5th~6th grade science textbooks, and was developed for the 2009 revised national curriculum. The unit deals with six integrated inquiry process skills: problem cognition, formulating hypotheses, controlling variables, transforming and interpreting data, drawing results, and generalization. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions and the teaching practices of elementary school teachers on this unit in their school curriculum and where improvements can be made. Data was collected from questionnaires filled out by 92 elementary school teachers. The results are as follows: First, teachers do have a positive perception on the importance of teaching integrated process skills. Second, with that being true, this unit ended up receiving both positive and negative reviews by teachers. This research found that there were good and bad responses on the educational aspects of this unit in three particular areas: dealing with the development of integrated inquiry process skills, facilitating science learning in other units, and implementing open inquiry. Third, teachers have difficulties particularly in problem cognition, formulating hypotheses, controlling variables, transforming and interpreting data, generalization, and drawing results. There is a lack of student understanding as well as a lack of professionalism for teachers on this unit, and many issues related to the composition of the textbook. This study may have important implications for making improvements in this unit and teaching integrated process skills.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.147-153
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• 2002

Reasonable and reliable assessment method is one of the most important issues in science education, Partial credits method is an effective tool for assessing students' science inquiry problem solving. The purposes of this study were to classify the Problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking Process, and how much the related science concept and the science process skills were used in solving science inquiry problems, and to describe the possibility and rationality of the assessment method that gives partial credit 128 high school seniors were selected and their answers were analyzed to identify science concepts they used to solve each problem, and the result was used as the criterion in the scientific concept test development. Also, to study the science inquiry problem solving type, 152 high school seniors were selected, and protocols were made from audio-taped data of their problem solving process through a think-aloud method and retrospective interviews. In order to get a raw data needed in statistical comparison of reliability, discrimination and the difficulty of the test and the production of the regression equation that determines the ratio of partial credit, 640 students were selected and they were given a science inquiry problem test, a science process skills test, and a scientific concept test. Research result suggested it is more reasonable and reliable to switch to the assessment method that applies partial credit to different problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking process in problem solving process, instead of the dichotomous credit method.