• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.318-331
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to develop the systems thinking learning program and to confirm the effects of its application in the fourth grades' science class. For it, the test tools were designed to survey divergent thinking and the closed loop based on the casual relation. The systems thinking learning program was developed to make students learn scientific knowledge and systems thinking educational strategies through their regular science class. The two classes of fourth grade were selected and divided into experimental and control groups. After applying pre-test to two groups, the system thinking education program was applied to an experimental group according to the reconstructed lesson plan. Subsequently, post-test was applied to two groups 3 weeks after pre-test. The findings in this study were as follows. In divergent thinking, the systems thinking program was useful to two groups. It could be the repetition effect, but only the experimental group shows a statistically significant change. The effect of the closed loop based on casual relation was deemed statistically significant. It shows these educational strategies were effective in making students understand the systems thinking. Finally, the results of students' interviews shows they were satisfied with this program because they were able to express their thinking with confidence and to find new relations in the change of land. The results suggest that the more research is needed to further develop and improve on students' thinking skills in their regular science classes.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.353-368
• /
• 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 the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.194-204
• /
• 2004

The purpose of this literature review is to investigate what kinds of research have been done about scientific inquiry in terms of scientific argumentation in the classroom context from the upper elementary to the high school levels. First, science educators argued that there had not been differentiation between authentic scientific inquiry by scientists and school scientific inquiry by students in the classroom. This uncertainty of goals or definition of scientific inquiry has led to the problem or limitation of implementing scientific inquiry in the classroom. It was also pointed out that students' learning science as inquiry has been done without opportunities of argumentation to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed. Second, what is scientific argumentation, then? Researchers stated that scientific inquiry in the classroom cannot be guaranteed only through hands-on experimentation. Students can understand how scientific knowledge is constructed through their reasoning skills using opportunities of argumentation based on their procedural skills using opportunities of experimentation. Third, many researchers emphasized the social practices of small or whole group work for enhancing students' scientific reasoning skills through argumentations. Different role of leadership in groups and existence of teachers' roles are found to have potential in enhancing students' scientific reasoning skills to understand science as inquiry. Fourth, what is scientific reasoning? Scientific reasoning is defined as an ability to differentiate evidence or data from theory and coordinate them to construct their scientific knowledge based on their collection of data (Kuhn, 1989, 1992; Dunbar & Klahr, 1988, 1989; Reif & Larkin, 1991). Those researchers found that students skills in scientific reasoning are different from scientists. Fifth, for the purpose of enhancing students' scientific reasoning skills to understand how scientific knowledge is constructed, other researchers suggested that teachers' roles in scaffolding could help students develop those skills. Based on this literature review, it is important to find what kinds of generalizable teaching strategies teachers use for students scientific reasoning skills through scientific argumentation and investigate teachers' knowledge of scientific argumentation in the context of scientific inquiry. The relationship between teachers' knowledge and their teaching strategies and between teachers teaching strategies and students scientific reasoning skills can be found out if there is any.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.1-13
• /
• 2009

This study examined the extent to which young children's scientific inquiry capabilities and curiosity are affected by their mothers' awareness about science education and their mutual interaction. Instruments were Levels of Mothers' Awareness about Science Education and Interaction with Children (Jeon, 2006), Children's Scientific Thinking Capabilities (Lee, 2000), and Children's Curiosity (Lee, 2001). Differences between high-and low-ranked groups were analyzed by t-tests. Results showed that children whose mothers displayed high levels of awareness about science education and mutual interaction showed better scientific inquiry capabilities and curiosity than children whose mothers did not display such high levels. By confirming the significant role of mothers in their children's science education these results can be an aid to parent education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.1
• /
• pp.32-40
• /
• 2007

The scientific creativity problem solving ability of children has been greatly emphasized in recent years, because it has been regarded as an example of highly developed reasoning and thinking skills. This study aimed to identify the relationships between scientific aptitude, creativity, and scientific creative problem solving abilities in children. The subjects were 100 5th graders residing in Seoul and a small city in Choongnam. Data was analyzed by t-test and by correlation using spss program packages. The main results of this study were as follows: first, a significant difference was found in the scientific creative problem solving ability of children by their respective levels of science aptitude. Secondly, the scientific creative problem solving ability of the children by their levels of creativity was found to be insignificant. Thirdly, no significant difference was found between creativity and scientific creative problem solving ability among the children examined; however there was a significant difference found between the science aptitude and scientific-creative problem solving ability and between science aptitude and creativity in the children who participated in this study.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.242-257
• /
• 2014

Researchers have employed a diversity of definitions and measurement methods for creativity. As a result, creativity research is underrepresented in the literature and the findings of different studies often prove difficult to draw into a coherent body of understanding. With regard to assessment, there are some important problems both in creativity research and practice, such as originality bias and Big-C creativity bias in teachers' perceptions about creativity and creative thinking, and additive rather than multiplicative scoring systems of creativity assessment. Drawing upon most widely accepted conceptions of the creativity construct, I defined 'student's scientific creativity' as the ability to make a product both original and useful to the student in terms of little-c creativity, and 'scientist's scientific creativity' as the ability to come up with a product both original and useful to the science community in terms of Big-C creativity. In this study, an 'Assessment Formula for Scientific Creativity' was developed, which is consisted of the multiplication of originality and usefulness scores rather than the sum of the two scores, and then, with scores calculated from the assessment formula, the scientific explanations generated by children were categorized into four types: routine, useful, original, and creative types. The assessment formula was revealed to be both valid and reliable. The implications of the assessment formula for scientific creativity are examined. The new assessment formula may contribute to the comprehensive understanding of scientific creativity to guide future research and the appropriate interpretation of previous studies.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.520-544
• /
• 2021

This study aims to develop a scientific creativity test for exploring the relationship between elementary students' creative process and product. For this, the researcher reviewed the literatures of scientific creativity and developed the items based on the constructs of creative process and product. After a review conducted by nine science education specialists, a pilot test, and additional revision and supplementation of observation test, the test, consisting of two sets-"animals" and "plants"-was finally conducted on 105 fifth-grade students. The test results were analyzed by using statistical analysis software. WinSteps, SPSS, and AMOS. The main findings from this study are as follows. First, when it comes to scientific creativity, creative process consists of science knowledge, inquiry skills, and creative thinking skills (divergent, convergent, and associative thinking skills). Creative product in science is a new and scientifically useful idea realized in a certain form. Second, observation, which was selected as a representative inquiry skill in this research, should not be related to creative thinking skills. Third, among the rest of the items, usefulness had the lowest averages, as it was, perhaps, difficult to satisfy the teachers' criteria for the scientific validity and usefulness. Fourth, the Spearman correlation coefficients between the items of "animals" and "plants" to find out the parallel-form reliability were significant, except for the item of originality. Fifth, the test was satisfactory with regard to the three aspects of construct validity-convergent, discriminant, and nomological. This study concludes by discussing the usefulness of this test, which has the possibility of exploring the relationship between creative process and product and of playing a role as an authentic evaluation tool in school.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.11-27
• /
• 2024

This study aimed to investigate the role of scientific empathy in influencing students' productive disciplinary engagement in scientific activities and analyze the key factors of scientific empathy that manifest during this process. Twelve fifth-grade students were divided into three subgroups based on their general empathic abilities. Lessons promoting productive disciplinary engagement, integrating design thinking processes, were conducted. Subgroup discourse analysis during idea generation and prototype stages, two of five problem-solving steps, enabled observation of scientific empathy and practice aspects. The results showed that applying scientific empathy effectively through design thinking facilitated students' productive disciplinary engagement in science. In the idea generation stage, we observed an initial increase followed by a decrease in scientific empathy and practice utterances, while during the prototyping stage, utterance frequency increased, particularly in the later part. However, subgroups with lower empathic abilities displayed decreased discourse frequency in scientific empathy and practice during the prototype stage due to a lack of collaborative communication. Across all empathic ability levels, the students articulated all five key factors of scientific empathy through their utterances in situations involving productive science engagement. In the high empathic ability subgroup, empathic understanding and concern were emphasized, whereas in the low empathic ability subgroup, sensitivity, scientific imagination, and situational interest, factors of empathizing with the research object, were prominent. These results indicate that experiences of scientific empathy with research objects, beyond general empathetic abilities, serve as a distinct and crucial factor in stimulating diverse participation and sustaining students' productive engagement in scientific activities during science classes. By suggesting the potential multidimensional impact of scientific empathy on productive disciplinary engagement, this study contributes to discussions on the theoretical structure and stability of scientific empathy in science education.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.68-79
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the recognition of middle school students on 'Thinking Science' activities and the influence on the understanding of the gas particles behavior concepts. For this study 125 students of four classes first grade in middle school were divided into two groups, the experimental and the control group. The SRT II test was carried out to identify the cognitive level of the students. The logical factors, needed to understand of the gas particles behavior concepts, were extracted. And the 9 'Thinking Science' activities designed to develop these factors were chosen and then implemented to the students of the experimental group. After the lesson for the gas particles behaviors, the achievement test of understanding of the gas particles behavior concepts and the survey of the students' recognition on 'Thinking Science' activities were administered. According to the results of the achievement test, there was not significant difference between the two groups on the whole. But only mature concrete operational students in the experimental group got high scores than those in the control group in analyzing the effect size. According to the results of the ANCOVA analysis, there was significant difference between the two girls' group. When students in the experimental group had a positive perceptions about 'Thinking Science' activities, they got higher achievement scores. This implied that there was a correlation between perception about 'Thinking Science' activities and their achievement in the gas particles behavior concepts. Especially, students with positive perception in mature concrete operational period got higher scores in science achievement. After the 'Thinking Science' activities, there was a high perceptions about improving in scientific thinking.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.458-469
• /
• 2003

Hypothesis is defined as a proposition intended as a possible explanation for an observed phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to generate a grounded theory on the process of undergraduate students' generating hypothesis-knowledge about scientific episodes. Three hypothesis-generating tasks were administered to four college students majored in science education. The present study showed that college students represented five types of intermediate knowledge in the process of hypothesis generation, such as question situation, hypothetical explicans, experienced situation, causal explicans, and final hypothetical knowledge. Furthermore, students used six types of thinking methods, such as searching knowledges, comparing a question situation and an experienced situation, borrowing explicans, combining explicans, selecting an explican, and confirming explicans. In addition, hypothesis-generating process involves inductive and deductive reasoning as well as abductive reasoning. This study also discusses the implications of these findings for teaching and evaluating in science education.