• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1245-1255
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable evaluating instrument for elementary school fifth and sixth graders. The instrument is developed through R&D procedure, which includes two checks of science specialist and two field trials of the instrument. Evaluating items are content-free for each science inquiry skill. Each science inquiry element is based on SAPA and the 7th curriculum. This study has selected 10 science inquiry skills(observing, classifying, measuring, predicting, inferring, recognizing of a problem, controlling variables, interpreting data, drawing a conclusion, designing an experiment), formulated a clear definition of the elements of science inquiry skills, and established the objectives of evaluation. The content areas are divided into three categories, material and energy, life and environment, and the earth and circulation. Each category contains 10 items. So the instrument consists of 30 items. The content validity of items, objectivity of the scoring keys, and clarity of the items has been checked twice by specialists in science education. At the same time, two field trials were performed to produce the reliability of the instruments, discrimination index, and item difficulty index. The instrument has the content validity is 91.6%, reliability 0.79, objectivity 93.3%, discrimination index 0.30, and item difficulty index 66.1%.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.617-626
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• 1998

Inquiry approach in teaching science has been widespread in Korea since the Third National Curriculum in 1970's. But the effect of the approach has never been evaluated systematically in Korea, so the science educators do not know if the inquiry approach really works and if any critical problems inhibit the effect of the approach. In this context, the NAEP of the Unied States and the APU of the United Kingdom were model programs for assessing the effect of the inquiry approach in teaching science. The purpose of this study is to develop an assessment system for evaluating the effect of inquiry teaching in elementary and secandary schools. For this purpose, an assessment framework and 240 test items were developed and tried with a sample of 8,906 students. The results say that the developed tests are reliable. The average Cronbach $\alpha$ reliability coefficient of the tests was 0.69. The discrimination index(point-biserial correlation coefficient) ranged from 0.39 to 0.54 with a mean of 0.49, which indiate they are excellent in discriminating students in terms of their inquiry achievement. The test items were also analyzed by "item response theory." The results also say that the items are successfully developed.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.376-388
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to develop the experiment-based problem for evaluating scientific ability of elementary scientifically gifted students, and to examine its potential of application for them. The problem for evaluating scientific ability was related to the plant vascular structure of 'the structure and function of plants' unit of elementary school science, and consisted of three components such as observing and inferring, designing an experiment, and concluding. In order to apply for scientifically gifted students, scoring criteria were detailed. For the observing and inferring domain, the arrangement and structure of vascular bundles of the dicotyledon and the monocotyledon, xylem position, reason of putting plants in ink were included. Those of designing an experiment domain were method of dissecting stems of plants, and design experimental procedures, those of concluding were the prediction of experimental results, and comparison and verification with prediction and results. Finally, the scientific ability evaluation problem was applied for 22 scientifically gifted students, who had been taught in the Science Education Institute for the Gifted adjacent University, and we had found the potential of utilization for scientifically gifted students.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.525-537
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• 2013

The purpose of this study was to investigate science integrated process skill of the students in science education center for the gifted. In order to do this, 'free-response test for the assessment of science process skills' developed by Yu-Hyang Kim(2013) was administered to 102 students(15 in elementary school science class, 58 in middle school science class I, and 29 in middle school science class II) who attend the program of science education center for the gifted in C university. The assessment tool measured 9 skills ; formulating inquiry questions, recognizing variables, formulating hypotheses, designing experiment, transforming data, interpreting data, drawing conclusions, formulating generalizations, and evaluating the designed experiments. As a result, the students in science education center for the gifted had relatively high scores in the area of 'formulating hypotheses' and 'recognizing variables', but they had relatively low scores in the area of 'transforming data', 'interpreting data', and 'evaluating the designed experiments'. The 2 items' percentage of correct answers were below 40% ; one is about a drawing a line graph in 'transforming data', and the other requires finding improvements of the experimental design in 'evaluation'. There was no significant difference between boys' scores and girls's one, and between the scores of students in the field of biology and those of students in the other fields(physics, chemistry, and earth science) in science integrated process skills. And there was significant difference according to the periods receiving the gifted education in 'formulating generalizations'. The teaching and learning has to focus on improving science integrated process skills in the program of science education center for the gifted and teaching and learning materials needs to be developed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.3
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• pp.196-208
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• 2019

This study analyzed achievement standards in the 2015 revised Science Education Standards as well as activities and assessment items in grade 7 science textbooks using science core competencies and subcomponents. Scientific participation and lifelong learning capacity was not involved in the achievement standards. Logical thinking of scientific thinking capacity, planning and carrying out investigation, analyzing and interpreting data, developing and using models, and constructing explanation of scientific inquiry capacity, collecting and selecting information of scientific problem solving capacity, and using various communication methods of scientific communication capacity were involved in the achievement standards. All five scientific core competencies including all subcomponents except rational decision making of scientific problem solving capacity and understanding and coordinating diverse thoughts of scientific communication capacity were involved in activities of science textbooks. All five scientific core competencies were involved in assessment items of science textbooks. Logical thinking and creative thinking of scientific thinking capacity, planning and carrying out investigation and constructing explanation of scientific inquiry capacity, identifying problems, collecting and selecting information, suggesting solutions, and performing of scientific problem solving capacity, using various communication methods, arguing based on evidence of scientific communication capacity, and being interested in science technology and society issues of scientific participation and lifelong learning capacity.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.295-302
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• 2008

In this study, the test that were used in entrance examination for chemistry class in a Science-Gifted Education Center for middle school students were analyzed by using criteria for identification and measurement of scientific giftedness and a classical test theory. The result of analysis exhibited that most of problems measured more than two elements of scientific giftedness and required applications of scientific knowledge of middle school level to solve problems. In the analysis of sub-elements of scientific giftedness, originality, fluency in creativity and finding problems/formulating hypothesis, planning inquiry, interpreting data in science process skills were dominant while drawing conclusion and generalization processes were lacking. In correlation analysis between total score and each type of problems, total score was most influenced by the problems measuring science inquiry linked with scientific knowledge. Item difficulty is moderately high and item discrimination is moderate.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.32-46
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to analyse the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of paper-pencil tests for exploring its appropriateness as a selection tool of the gifted in science. For this purpose, we developed two (internal and external) item analysis frameworks, and applied these frameworks to analyse qualitative characteristics. Also, we analysed the relationship between two characteristics. The results of analysing qualitative characteristics revealed that the portion of items with acceleration context exceeding middle school curriculum level was relatively large, which caused low content validity. Furthermore, there was considerable deviation in content and context by subject matter and year, which caused test unstability. Items measuring knowledge domain was the most prevalent, and too much weight on data interpretation & analysis domain in inquiry process skills. In case of creativity test, the portion of items measuring convergent thinking was much larger than that of divergent or associative thinking. Most of these items were represented by using pictures and tables rather than using graphs. Item types of multiple-choice and short answers were superior to essay types. Discrimination index, on the whole, was appropriate (above 0.3), but item difficulty showed a vast deviation ($0.01{\sim}0.90$). Correlation coefficients among subject matters and test tools were very low, and test reliabilities were also low. Low item difficulty & high discrimination index item types were distinguishable. Items with acceleration context were more discriminating than enrichment context. Implications of developing quality paper-pencil test items in the selection of gifted students are discussed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.469-479
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• 2001

This study investigated the trends in the number of applicants and mean score and applicants’ responses on the test items of Earth Science in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) implemented for 3 years (1999-2001). The percentage of applicants of science track were 43.14% in 1995, but reduced through 29.5% in 2001 to 26.92% in 2002 CSAT For elective subject, about 22% of science track students applied to Earth Science II which ranked third to Biology II and Chemistry II. In 1999, test items were developed to have the expected difficulty 40 ${\sim}$ 59% (6 items) to 60 ${\sim}$ 79% (10 items). But in 2001 every 16 items were developed to have difficulty 60 ${\sim}$ 79%, which was caused by the policy of so called ‘easy CSAT’. Thus the mean score of ‘Earth Science II’ was increased from 50.26 in 1999 through 64.47 in 2000, to 67.58 in 2001. Applicants were generally very good at solving test items focusing on process skills only and familar items but poor at solving test items related to the motion of the earth and planets and sea wave, especially items calling two or more concepts. Thus special measures to cope with the decrease in applicants of science track should be provided. And it is recommended to develop test items with wider range of difficulty and to reduce test items calling process skills only. And special consideration should be given to teaching the content area with poor achievement and high actual difficulty compared to the expected.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.210-235
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable assessment tool for measuring scientific creative problem solving ability for middle school students. To achieve this aim, an assessment framework, four assessment items, and detailed rubrics for scientific creative problem solving were developed. The assessment framework had three dimensions (i.e. science contents, inquiry process, and thinking skills) and sub-elements for each dimension. The assessment items were tested with 320 middle school students in order to determine reliability, difficulty, and item discrimination. Science teachers and experts in science education checked the validity of the items and the rubrics. The results proved that the assessment tool was reliable enough to evaluate students' scientific creative problem solving skills.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.486-504
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• 2019

This study analyzed achievement standards in the 2015 Science Education Standards as well as activities and assessment items in the Integrated Science, Chemistry I, and Chemistry II textbooks using science core competencies and subcomponents. All five scientific core competencies, in order of scientific thinking capacity, scientific inquiry capacity, scientific communication capacity, scientific problem solving capacity, and scientific participation and lifelong learning capacity, were included in the achievement standards of Integrated Science. Scientific thinking capacity, scientific inquiry capacity, and scientific communication capacity were included in the achievement standards of Chemistry I. The achievement standards of Chemistry II only included scientific thinking capacity. All five scientific core competencies were involved in activities of Integrated Science, Chemistry I, and Chemistry II textbooks and the highest propotion was scientific thinking capacity and scientific inquiry capacity. All five scientific core competencies were involved in assessment items of Integrated Science, Chemistry I, and Chemistry II textbooks and the highest proportion was scientific thinking capacity.