Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education (한국과학교육학회지)

The Korean Association for Science Education (한국과학교육학회)
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How do Elementary Students Classify the Branches of Science?

  • Published : 2009.05.30
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Abstract

Science curriculums for elementary schools were, traditionally, developed to be balanced in content and contain equal proportions of the four branches of science: physics, chemistry, biology, and earth science. To develop a successful science curriculum, we asked some questions about how elementary students recognize these branches and about what they think of the domains of science in the science curriculum. Our study was designed to investigate how elementary students classify the domains of science in the curriculum. Previous research (Lee et al., 2001) seemed not to be successful, because verbal expressions in that research might be inappropriate for elementary students who were unaccustomed to the technical language of science. For this reason, instead of using only words, we developed image card instruments, made of picture duplicates of the introductory covers of each unit in the 3$^{rd}$, 4$^{th}$, and 5$^{th}$ grades' science textbooks. We asked students to classify these cards into their own categories and record the reasons for classifying them. The ratio and distribution of the units was then analyzed to identify their view of the science domains. 30% of the 4$^{th}$ grade students created the following categories: 'nature,' 'observation,' 'seasons,' 'living things,' 'sounds,' 'separating,' and 'the things necessary for everyday life'. In the case of the 5$^{th}$ grade, over 30% created the categories of 'living things,' 'weight,' and 'water.' Over 30% of the 6$^{th}$ grade created the categories of 'nature,' 'light,' 'water,' 'living things,' 'solution,' 'fire,' 'properties of an object,' and 'experiment.' Upon scrutinizing the above results, we discovered that the science domains selected by students into three types of domains: academic contents and concepts; activities related to a science class; and lessons and experiences in students ' lives. The last category was a new, complex kind of domain. We concluded that students did not utilize the four branches of science when constructing their own domains of science. Instead, they created many alternative domains, which reflected students' thoughts of and their experiences. The educational needs of elementary students suggest that when organizing science curriculum as 25 % allocation of the four science branches, newly-created domains should be considered.

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