The Analysis of the Teachers' and Students' Views about the Difficulties within Teaching & Learning Activity on Geology Units in Elementary School Science

초등학교 과학과 지질 단원 교수-학습 활동에서 교사와 학생이 겪는 어려움

The purpose of this study was to investigate and analysis the elementary teachers' and students' views about the difficulties in teaching and learning in geology units of elementary school science. For the purpose of this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted individually with seventeen elementary teachers who have serviced more than three years, and with sixteen elementary students located in Cheongju City. The interview questions were developed through Seidman's step to acquire a reliability in the interview data with triangulation, then in-depth interview questions were modified and completed through pre-interview after constructing the trustworthiness of interviewees. In-depth interviews were performed in applying the analytic induction method and the interviews were recorded. From the interviews, we found that elementary teachers' views about the difficulties in teaching geology units; teachers' inner difficulties, the difficulty of lab activities, the problems of rock samples, the problems of curriculum in geology units, the difficulty of the geological feature, the problems of the cramming education, the lack of the opportunity for the speciality, and so on. And the students have the views about the difficulties in learning geology units; the difficulty of the unit contents understanding, the problems of learning by heart, the lack of the interest, the lack of materials, the problems of rock samples, the difficulty of the field learning, and so on. Based on the results, the study suggested that an interesting lab activities should be included in the geology units and taught in the geological field trip to help elementary school students more fully comprehend contents of the geology units.