• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.349-357
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to consider the implications of science experiment in class and to seek a direction for its improvement. For this purpose, Science textbooks, teachers' cognitions, and classroom activities have been analyzed to find out how many and what kind of levels of inquiry elements are included in those. In this study, 22 teachers have participated in the questionnaire to investigate their perception about experiment class, and the two instruction cases in two classes of 9th grade have also been analyzed. Results show that most of the textbooks have included questioning, evidence collecting, explanation of phenomena, and connection with existing scientific knowledge. But the elements of communication and justification have been few. Most levels of the inquiry are teacher-led. Although the teachers thought communication and justification are important, their classroom activities does not coalesce with their thoughts. The students mostly spend their time with connecting evidence, they hardly explain the phenomenon based on the proofs as the results of experiment, and the activities of connection with the existing scientific knowledge, and communication and justification.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.10
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• pp.1524-1536
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• 2012

Science attitudes affect the quality of learning, and they are considered as one of the major concerns in science education. It is necessary to analyze the proximity between concepts with science attitudes. Accordingly, this study was designed to analyze the proximity of the concept related to photosynthesis as it changed after class according to the levels of science attitudes. A survey on the concept of photosynthesis and science attitudes before and after class was conducted on 270 7th-grade students. The concept of photosynthesis was composed of 'the place of photosynthesis,' 'products of photosynthesis,' 'reactants of photosynthesis,' and 'environmental factors.' The proximity of the concept of photosynthesis was analyzed through the utilization of multidimensional scaling (MDS). The research results were as follows: (1) Students changed the proximity between concepts by acquiring concrete concepts through class. (2) The upper group in science attitudes tends to be closer to the proximity between scientific concepts through class, compared to the intermediate and lower groups. (3) In all students with entire levels of science attitudes, non-scientific concepts continued to exist even after class, and the non-scientific concepts were deemed to interfere with the proximity between scientific concepts related to photosynthesis. (4) Students turned out to be aware of the concepts related to each other in four areas associated with photosynthesis. That is, it can be said that students are closely aware of the place where photosynthesis can occur and the materials needed as well as materials generated as a result of photosynthesis and the materials needed in terms of concepts related to photosynthesis.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.14-29
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to investigate the components of scientific attitude by some learning topics in the 3rd~6th grade science textbooks that the pre-service elementary school teachers judge to be teachable in class and the educational effects of this analysis activity for the pre-service teachers. The several results of this study are as follows: The pre-service teachers responded that, for all learning topics, they could teach diverse components of scientific attitude and the number of components expressed in their responses is more than the components specified in the teacher's guides. Among the components of scientific attitude, 'curiosity', 'open-mindedness', 'respect for evidence', and 'objectivity' showed relatively high possibility of teaching, while 'honesty', 'collaboration', 'positive acceptance of failure', 'critical mind' and 'suspension of judgment' showed relatively low possibility of teaching. The responses that pre-service teachers judged to be teachable also showed similar patterns in the number of components of scientific attitude and the rate of the components between the learning topics of the 3~4th grades and the learning topics of the 5~6th grades. In addition, this pre-service teachers' analysis activity on the components of scientific attitude by learning topics in science textbooks suggested educational effects such as 'the deep understanding of the components of scientific attitude', 'the understanding and applying the components of scientific attitude in the context of science class', and so on.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.96-108
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate how prospective elementary school teachers perceived teacher's inquiryoriented teaching practice, with an emphasis on students' scientific explanations based on scientific evidence. For this study, 94 prospective elementary school teachers were participated. 14 among 94 participants had chances to intensively experience this particular teaching methods for 15 weeks. All of the 94 participants observed the intended science teaching practice for 4th graders in two different elementary schools, which utilized the science talks emphasizing students' scientific explanation activity. For quantitative data analysis, they were asked to provide their reaction to the science teaching methods after their classroom observation. For qualitative data analysis, 5 among the participants, who had relatively long term experience with this teaching practice, were chosen to interview in order to understand their individual reasons of the ways they perceived about the inquiry-oriented teaching methods boosting students' scientific explanation. The results show that the prospective elementary teachers generally thought the emphasis of students' scientific explanation based on scientific evidence could enhance young elementary students' science content understanding, stimulate their curiosity/interests, and further develop their ability to engage actively in scientific discussions. However, some prospective teachers tended to think that the science teaching. methods would not be effective in terms of managing science classes, though. This study concludes that the prospective teachers tended to hold an endemic dilemma. On the one hand, they had their clear preference to the inquiry-oriented teaching practice as the most ideal teaching methods. On the other hand, they also had their persistent hesitance in using these methods due to their fear that elementary students might not adequately grasp the important science content when engaged in scientific discourse through an inquiry-oriented class.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.127-148
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• 2023

In this study, we used an analysis of the literature on socio-scientific issues (SSI) classes to examine domestic SSI class research and to determine the characteristics of SSI class research for each subject. A search for papers related to SSI classes published in Korea Citation Index-listed journals and candidate journals of the Korea Research Foundation found 95 relevant papers, which were then categorized according to participants and topics. Studies with both pre-service and experienced teachers attempted to investigate SSI-related perceptions. Studies of pre-service teachers tended to examine the level and development pattern of argumentation or to analyze decision-making characteristics and informal reasoning. Studies of experienced teachers tended to analyze instructional expertise in SSI teaching activities, focusing on teachers with substantial SSI teaching experience. Middle and high school students-related studies examined student decision-making and reasoning processes in SSI learning activities, developed SSI class programs, and analyzed educational effects. Examining the characteristics of SSI classes for elementary school students was difficult because few such studies have been published. However, the characteristics that elementary school students show in SSI learning situations could be inferred. A plan to revitalize SSI classes in the elementary science education field from the perspective of teacher education and class research is suggested.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.341-358
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to develop performance assessment materials of scientific inquiry skills on sixty scientific activities in elementary science textbook for fifth and sixth grades. For this study, a total of 500 elementary teachers were sampled and surveys were carried out to examine the status of performance assessment of scientific inquiry skills in school. The classification system of assessment methods by Hart(1994) was also analyzed to create' assessment strategy of scientific inquiry skills' for elementary school students. Based on the quantitative data analysis and literature study, performance assessment materials were developed and applied to science classes for fifth and sixth grades. Teachers and students were interviewed after the classes for asking about merits and improvements and the performance assessment materials were revised. This study can provide elementary school teachers with reliable sources for performance assessment of scientific inquiry skills utilized in their science classes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.353-368
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• 2020

This study analyzed the teacher's perception for influence of behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students on general students in elementary school science class. To do this, we selected the eight elementary school teachers who were conducting the regular science classes including scientifically-gifted students belonging to the gifted education institutes in Seoul and conducted individual in-depth interviews. The analysis of the results reveal that the teachers mentioned seven behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students in general elementary school science classes.: 'excellent in designing and performing experiments', 'playing a leading role in experiments', 'expressing their abundant prior knowledge frequently', 'attempting their tasks with curiosity and persistence', 'displaying scientific creativity', 'often asking scientific questions in detail', and 'expressing their opinions logically'. These behavioral characteristics of scientifically-gifted students had positive effects on general students, such as 'providing them with a successful experience in conducting experiments', 'improving understanding of science class contents', 'developing scientific thinking and reflective thinking', and 'improving their students' positive experiences about science'. However, the excessive learning-driven behaviors of scientifically-gifted students had negative effects on general students, such as 'limiting opportunities for general students to participate in classes', 'conducting passive exploration centered on results', and 'causing conflicts with general students'. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.409-420
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• 2023

This study aims to investigate the impact of science classes employing creative science drama on elementary school students' academic achievement and attitudes toward science during the final step of elementary science classes. The creative science drama used in this study is a class-closing activity wherein the teacher provides a basic script for the learning topic and then allows students to complete the rest of the story using their assignment. It devised a creative science drama class based on the research of Yoon (2016), and the contents of this study were centered on the use of magnets and the appearance of the Earth in the first semester of third grade. Students in their third year at H Elementary School in Gyeonggi-do were the subject of this study. The results showed that scientific achievement through science drama in the experimental class was improved, with a statistically significant difference. However, ANCOVA analysis revealed no statistically significant differences in attitudes toward science. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference in scientific drama perception. Interviews with students in the experimental class applying science drama revealed that students found difficulty in writing science drama scripts and that coordinating and reaching a mutually acceptable opinion in group activities required the most discussion and cooperation. However, many of them stated that the experience of scientific drama was enjoyable and informative, and since what they learned was transformed into a scientific drama, they remembered the lessons longer.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.243-252
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to analyze affective characteristics and the demands of elementary science gifted students on gifted educations in urban and rural areas. The subjects were 196 science gifted students. The survey questionnaires were consisted of self-esteem, interests in science, scientific attitudes, and demands regarding gifted classes. The results of this study were as follows. First, self-esteem and interests in science, particularly interests toward science, toward science learning, toward science related careers, in urban gifted students were higher than those in rural areas. Whereas interests toward science activities and science anxiety of science gifted students in rural areas were significantly higher than those in urban area. Furthermore, scientific attitudes of science gifted students in urban area were higher than rural those in open-mindedness, critical-mindedness, voluntariness, creativity, whereas science gifted students in rural areas were higher than urban those in cooperation. Second, for the analysis on demands regarding class contents and methods, 'teaching content that challenges and exciting stimuli' of science gifted students in rural areas were significantly higher than those in urban area. Third, for the analysis on demands regarding educational environments, 'satisfaction with class materials provided by gifted classes' of gifted students in urban area were higher than those in rural area.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.407-417
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the roles of classroom activities in science lessons and student learning motivation in achieving students' scientific competencies, and to suggest implications for science lessons to develop scientific competencies. For this, based on the PISA 2015 data of Korean high school students, we analyzed how classroom activities in science influenced students' scientific competencies through learning motivation variables. As a result of the path analysis, the activities emphasizing interaction and a link to real life predicted intrinsic motivation, instrumental motivation, and science efficacy significantly. On the other hand, the activities that emphasize the student-led inquiry process did not show any effect on learning motivation. In addition, the higher the motivation to learn the science, the higher their scores in three scientific competencies: explaining phenomenon scientifically, evaluating and designing scientific inquiry, and interpreting data and evidence scientifically. The practices of school science lessons indirectly influenced the achievement of scientific competence through learning motivation. Specifically, the activities emphasizing interaction influenced achieving scientific competencies through intrinsic motivation, and the activities emphasizing linkage to real life influenced it through all learning motivation variables. Finally, we discussed some implications for the roles and practices of school science class for enhancing students' scientific competencies.