• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.64-80
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• 2024

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of verbal interaction in science class demonstrations conducted by elementary school pre-service teachers. Specifically, the study intends to examine the use of elements of verbal interaction and the progression of these interactions. Additionally, the study intends to analyze the perception of pre-service teachers about effective questioning and feedback and to determine the correlation between the proportions of the types of questioning and feedback positively perceived by the pre-service teachers and of the types of questioning and feedback used during class demonstration. Toward this end, the study analyzed the science class demonstration videos and class evaluation sheets submitted by 38 fourth-year students at the S University of Education. The results are as follows. First, pre-service elementary school teachers generally use close-ended questions during science class demonstrations. Moreover, they predicted that students would primarily provide the correct responses and would not engage in extended interaction by providing immediate feedback for the responses of the majority of the students. Second, pre-service elementary school teachers perceived the utilization of close-ended questions and immediate feedback in science class demonstrations more favorably than they did that of open-ended questions and delayed feedback. The study observed a weak positive correlation between the positive perception of specific types of questions and feedback and the use of such types in class demonstration. The results demonstrated that pre-service elementary school pre-service teachers tend to engage in fragmented verbal interactions during science class demonstrations. They primarily use close-ended questions and immediate feedback. This tendency is seemingly related to their perception of questions and feedback. Therefore, education institutions for training pre-service teachers need to provide opportunities for reflecting on verbal interactions, which tend to involve close-ended questions and immediate feedback. Lastly, assessing the perception of pre-service teachers of questions and feedback is also necessary.