• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.57-63
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• 1984

An inquiry approach in teaching science has been advocated by many science educators for the past few decades, and most elementary and secondary science curricula have incorporated it in varying degrees. It has been proven in recent studies, however, that there exists considerable discrepancy between the expectation of outcomes of the inquiry approach and the actuality. This in part implies that there is a somewhat urgent need for the systematic evaluation of the approach in teaching science. The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive instrument for evaluating inquiry teaching approaches embedded in science curricular materials. To develop a more valid and reliable instrument a set of empirical data was used in the developmental procedure, and most of the previous studies regarding inquiry teaching method and inquiry evaluation were consulted. The inquiry evaluation method developed in this study, called the Scientific Inquiry Evaluation Inventory (SIEI), is composed of three parts: (1) analyzing and coding each science process task of inquiry activity; (2) evaluating each inquiry activity as a whole; and (3) evaluating each science laboratory curriculum as a whole. The first part of the instrument consists of twenty science process categories and thirty subcategories grouped into four sections: (1) gathering and organizing data; (2) interpreting and analyzing data; (3) synthesizing results and evaluation; and (4) hypothesizing and designing an experiment. The science process categories are arranged according to the level of difficulty, psychological level of thinking, degree of creativity demand, and the model of the process of scientific inquiry, which is also developed in the study. The second part of the instrument contains four evaluation scales of inquiry activity: (1) competition/cooperation scale; (2) discussion scale; (3) openness scale; and (4) inquiry scope scale. And the last part consists of three methods for evaluating a science laboratory curriculum as a whole: (1) inquiry pyramid; (2) inquiry index; and (3) difficulty index. The instrument is designed to be used by teachers, science curriculum developers and science education evaluators for the purpose of diagnosing the nature and appropriateness of scientific inquiry introduced in secondary science curricular materials, especailly in laboratory work and field work.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.501-510
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• 2005

An analysis was done on the “inquiry sections” of Earth Science chapters of 10th grade science textbooks. The Inquiry sections were classified into different types and the frequencies of basic process skills, integrated process skills, and inquiry activities were measured in section to find out whether they sufficiently satisfy the requirements based on the 7th National Curriculum. The number of selected science textbooks that have been used in high school for this study were eleven. The number of inquiry tasks were on an average of 24.0. The types of inquiry sections and the elements of basic and integrated process skills were different in every textbooks. The number of inquiry activities were also different and analyzed more than those presented. They were not integrated activities but presented as scientific process skills. The basic process skills and integrated process skills presented in textbooks were $16\%\;and\;77.2\%$, respectively. However, the distribution of two kinds of process skills were analyzed to be $45.6\%\;and\;55.4\%$, respectively. In the process skills, the frequencies of inferring $(49.5\%)$ and data interpretation (68.7%) were the highest; however, the other process skills including recognizing problem, formulating hypothesis and generalization were not even presented in any of the text books. Due to the lack of the definitions of Science process skills and inquiry activities in the 7th National Curriculum, each text book defined these terms differently. It suggests that the meaning of inquiry, science process skills, and inquiry activities should be operationally defined in the national curriculum and the criteria for construction of inquiry activities are required.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.634-645
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the analysis on the pattern and proposition process of science inquiry problems proposed by elementary school general students and science-gifted ones. The science inquiry problems were composed of one quantitative problem and one qualitative problem. To conduct this study, general students and science-gifted ones of grade 4 and 5 in elementary schools were selected. The results of this study were as follows. In both quantitative and qualitative problem, most of the students, including all the sciencegifted students and general ones, used N-IP pattern and S2 proposition process strategy to propose inquiry problems. In the relationship between proposed problem and proposition process strategy, when using S2 strategy, N-IP problems were chiefly proposed. And when using S2, S3 strategies, more patterns of inquiry problems were generated than using any other strategies. Drawing proposition processes of inquiry problem into map, science-gifted students used much more proposition process strategies than general ones.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.257-280
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze middle school students' learning characteristics they showed on the inquiry-based learning process of circumcenter using various teaching tools, and then to identify the effects of using teaching tools in the middle school students' learning process of circumcenter. For this purpose, we developed teaching materials for inquiry-based learning of circumcenter using textbook, origami, ruler and compass, GeoGebra and sand experiment. Then we applied them on the learning process of circumcenter for five groups of middle school students. From the analyzing of audio/video materials and documents which are collected from the process of participants' inquiry-based learning of circumcenter, we identified the following results. First, inquiry-based learning of circumcenter using various teaching tools promoted mathematical discourses among participants of this study. For example, they conjectured mathematical properties or justified their opinions after manipulated teaching tools in the process of learning circumcenter. Second, inquiry-based learning of circumcenter using various teaching tools promoted participants' divergent thinking. They tried many inquiry methods to find new mathematical properties relate to circumcenter. For example, they tried many inquiry methods to know whether there is unique circle containing four vertices of given quadrangles. Third, we found several didactic implications relate to inquiry-based learning of circumcenter using various teaching tools which are due to characteristics of teaching tools themselves. Participants showed several misconceptions about mathematical properties during they participated inquiry-based activity for learning of circumcenter using various teaching tools. We identified their misconceptions were not due to any other variables containing their learning characteristics but to characteristics of teaching tools.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.487-494
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• 2003

In this study, the effects of science achievement faculties improvements upon students' logical thinking, science inquiry skills, experiment attitudes, manipulated skills and inquiry process skills were investigated in high school inquiry chemistry experiments. For this purpose, the participants were 150 students taking the course of high school chemistry class in Anyang-city. Logical thinking and science inquiry skills' data were collected from written tests, inquiry process skills' data were collected from reports and experiment attitudes and manipulated skills' data were collected from classroom observations. As the results of this study, students' inquiry process skills, experiment attitudes and manipulative skills were very low. But other parts except inquiry process skills were significantly increased. And the science achievement of students were improved when continuously inquiry chemistry experiment were applied to students.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.318-330
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to compare the biology contents of elementary schools science textbooks between Korea and Japan. To this end, the organization of subject matter and the type, process and context of inquiry activities were analyzed. The findings of this study were as follows: First, the sheer number of topics presented at each grade level was considerable and the contents of science textbooks were fixed in a set form in Korea. However, the organization and development of contents were made by considering the state of things and seasons in the case of Japan. Second, the amount of inquiry activities in Korea was higher, but the relationship between concepts and inquiry activities was lower than in Japan. Third, actually conducting (or 'doing') inquiry type activities was highest in Korea, on the other hand, 'experimenting' appeared to have a higher priority in Japan. Fourth, inquiry processes of activities in each country were very similar, in that the ratio of performing an inquiry was high, and perceiving a problem or designing an inquiry was low. Fifth, the results of analyzing the inquiry contexts of activities showed that the framework of evaluating inquiry activities based on curriculum objectives should be provided in the earlier stages of science textbook development.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.239-247
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of an free inquiry method based on PBL(Problem-Based Learning: PBL) to improve students science process skills and self-directed learning characteristics. To verify this research, twenty-two third-grade students were selected from Chung-ryeol Elementary School located in Busan. They have received pre-test and post-test about their abilities in their science process skills and abilities for self-directed learning characteristics. Also, their self-reflection data was analyzed. The teaching and learning PBL process is to provide the information named 'I am the expert on Earth and Moon' which is recreated by analyzing the science curriculum and characteristics of students from Lesson 3 'Earth and Moon', and to make plans for solving the information with K/NK method. Then, to solve the information is gathered and investigated using the PBL workbook. Lastly, students present their finding using the free inquiry method in a group. The post-test showed following results : first, the free inquiry method based on PBL stimulates inquisitiveness in students about science learning and the research group shows improved science process skill. It shows us that using the free inquiry method based on PBL can be used effects to elevate science process skill. Second, the free inquiry method based on PBL has a positive effect on self-directed learning. The research tells us that using the free inquiry method based on PBL can improve a student self-directed learning characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.283-300
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• 2010

This paper investigated the effect of music and science integrated activities using instruments designed to test both musical concept and science inquiry process skills of children. The subjects of this study consisted of two classes of children aged 5 at H Kindergarten in Busan city. This study involved a class of 31 children using a music and science integrated curriculum as the experimental group and another class of 32 children using a traditional music and science curriculum as the control group. The integrated activities were used 12 times over a 6-week period. A test was taken to evaluate the effects of the integrated activities on the children's understanding on seven sub-categories of musical concepts and six sub-categories of science inquiry process skills. The results were that the experimental group showed significantly higher improvements in all subcategories of musical concept and science inquiry process skills, compared to the control group. Based on these results, we concluded that these integrated activities were effective in the development of both musical concepts and the science inquiry process skills of children.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.334-346
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• 2012

For teachers' conceptions and understandings are critical to their decision making and classroom practice, this study attempts to understand pre-service elementary teachers' views and practices of science inquiry during peer teaching practice. Fifteen 4th year university students in teacher education program participated in peer teaching practice. Their teaching and reflective discussion were video and audio recorded and written lesson plans were collected for data analysis. Five science teacher educators individually looked into the data and shared their comments and interpretations on pre-service teachers' views and practice. The study findings suggest that pre-service teachers emphasized the importance of providing students with motivating resources in the beginning of lesson, employing certain inquiry teaching models, the process of predicting and dis/proving via experiment, and teachers' minimal intervention as the important features of inquiry teaching. Science teacher educators emphasized that it is critical to help children understand inquiry questions in the beginning of inquiry process, to be mindful of children's problem solving and critical thinking rather than following instruction models or simply going through prediction and test process. They also commented that teachers' guidance could lead a good inquiry process in classroom practice, not always interfering students' inquiry. Based on the findings, the study suggests science teacher educators need to understand what and how pre-service teachers view and practice science inquiry teaching and consider these as useful resources where they can start effective teaching for pre-service teachers at the university level.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.509-524
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• 2007

The purpose of the study is to compare elementary school science textbooks ($3^{rd}$ grade) in Korea and the U.S., centering on the ways to present scientific concepts and inquiry process in the units of 'matter.' The analysis is focused on: a) general structure of the units; b) how to present scientific concepts in terms of its connections and complexity; c) how to present inquiry process in terms of its types and skills. The findings of the study are as follows. First, the contents of 'matter' units are scientific discipline-based in both countries. The general structure of the units in Korean textbooks is unrestricted compared to those in the U.S. Second, the connections among the concepts are poor and the level of complexity is low in Korean textbooks, which are contrary to those in the U.S. textbooks. Third, it is a common feature that the inquiry process is based on learners' everyday experiences with simple experiments in two countries' textbooks. However, the inquiry process in the U.S. textbooks is provided with detailed instructions while the process in Korea is presented with diverse activities without formal guidelines. Based on the results, the study suggests three recommendations to improve Korean textbooks: a) science contents should be linked to other disciplines in order to promote practical applications; b) scientific concepts are required to be tightly connected and provided with in-depth explanations; c) inquiry process is needed to be presented with specific guidance to facilitate scientific thinking.