• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.775-789
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze the relevance of the school science contents that have been implemented for the 7-10th grade students in Korea since 2001. To fulfill the purpose of the study, we 1) analyzed the 7th national science curriculum of Korea, California science standards, the national science curriculum of England, Japanese national science curriculum, and current Korean and Japanese science textbooks, 2) conducted a nationwide survey in order to gather opinions from students, teachers, and science specialists. The main findings of this research were as follows: First, the number of topics presented at each grade level should be reduced and similar topics and themes should be integrated for students' deeper understanding. Second, science contents were excessive compared to the allotted teaching time and to foreign countries. Thus, the excessive overlapping and repetition of science contents should be avoided among the primary, middle and high school level, and the number of science concepts and activities should be reduced to an appropriate level considering time allotment for science classes, teachers' workload, laboratory conditions, etc. Third, to cope with the decreasing students' understanding and interests in science as school level and school year goes up, the science curriculum and textbooks should be developed to allow for student to learn science concepts by solving problems confronted in their daily lives. Fourth, a differentiated curriculum such as in-depth and supplementary course should be described not in science contents, but in teaching and learning strategy.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.102-113
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• 2001

In order to compare with the 6th and 7th science curricular for the inquiry skill elements in the elementary and secondary school, we divided skill domains into five classes which were process skill, step skill for inquiry instruction, inquiry activity skill, manipulative skill and breeding-farming skill. And then we investigated the kinds and frequencies for the inquiry skill elements of the 6th and 7th curricular in the elementary and secondary school. The results were as follows: 1. The total kinds of inquiry skill element showed 17 kinds in the 6th curriculum and 23 kinds in the 7th. Therefore, the 7th curriculum was higher 1.4 times than the 6th curriculum in the kinds of skill elements. 2. The total frequencies for the inquiry skill elements of the 6th curriculum were 408 and those of the 7th were 729. Therefore, the 7th curriculum was about 1.8 times as many as the 6th. 3. In the kinds of inquiry skill elements according to the school levels, the course of the elementary school showed 14 kinds in the 6th curriculum and 18 kinds in the 7th. The course of middle school showed 7 kinds in 6th and 16 kinds in 7th. The integrated science course of high school was 10 kinds in the 6th and 10 kinds in the 7th. The skill elements in four science curricular of the high school course showed total 11 kinds in the 6th and 21 kinds in the 7th. And then the kinds of inquiry skill elements of the 7th curriculum in the middle and high school course showed about 2 times as many as the 6th curriculum. In the school level, the increase of skill elements showed the highest in the middle school course, and then in the high school course. 4. The total skill elements from the elementary school to the high school in the 6th science curriculum showed 17 kinds and in the order from the highest to the lowest rates, such as experimenting 20%, observing 15%, interpreting and analyzing data 13%, investigating 9%, measuring 7%, drawing a conclusion and assessment 7%, discussion 6%, communicating 5%, classifying 4%, recognizing problems and formulating hypothesis 4%, predicting 3%, designing and carrying out an experiment 3%, collecting and treating data 2%, manipulating skill 1%, modeling 0.5%, breeding and farming 0.3% and inferring 0.2%. 5. The total skill elements from the elementary school to the high school in the 7th curriculum appeared 23 kinds and in the order from the highest to the lowest rates, such as drawing a conclusion and assessment 31%, investigating 14%, collecting and treating data 8%, observing 7%, experimenting 7%, recognizing problems and formulating hypothesis 6%, interpreting and analyzing data 4%, measuring 3%, discussion 3%, manipulating skill 3%, modeling 3%, classifying 2%, project 2%, educational visits 1%, controlling variables 1%, predicting 1%, inferring 1%, operational definition 1%, communicating 1%, designing and carrying out an experiment 0.3%, breeding and farming 0.3%, applicating a number 0.2% and relating with time and space 0.2%. In the conclusion, the 7th curriculum was added 6 kinds of skill elements to the 6th curriculum, such as operational definition, applicating a number, relating with time and space, controlling variables, educational visits and project.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.897-908
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• 2009

Inscriptions are integral parts of the current science textbooks, and become medium that makes sense of scientific concepts effectively. This study analyzed the inscriptions from five science textbooks at the secondary level in terms of its type, function, and structures. Analyzing types of inscriptions resulted that the ratio of frequently used photographs and illustrations were much higher than that of graphs and tables used. In case of function analysis, illustrative and complementary functions were dominant in terms of frequency and ratio, whereas explanatory, decorative and inquisitive functions were relatively rare. Inscriptions of single structure was much more than multiple structure. Multiple structure of pair and series were mainly used for representing contrast and sequence, respectively. The proportion of inscriptions in type, function and structure across the textbooks was significantly different. Based on the results, it was suggested that semiotic study about the function and the structure of inscriptions need to be carried out in earth science area to better understand the pedagogical implications of inscriptions in school science.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.477-488
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• 2005

Fossil photographs in science and earth science textbooks on the 7th curriculum including those of elementary, middle and high school, are analyzed to estimate the adequacy and scientific significance focusing on the locality and scale. The results show that most of the textbooks have included various types of fossil photographs: 32 in elementary textbooks, 50 in middle school and 109 in high school. However, the presentation of scientific information on each photographs is insufficient. Only $68\%$ of the elementary textbooks designates locality and only $6\%$ includes scales. Among middle and high school textbooks, 40 and $16\%$ of photographs describe locality, and 14 and $18\%$ of photographs exhibit scale, respectively. More scientific and appropriate presentation of fossil photographs, such as locality and scale, is needed to enhance educational effect.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.652-666
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to analyze high school chemistry curricula in Korea and China in order to identify possible implications for the improvement of the Korean curriculum. The school curricula of Korea and China had been developed by the Ministry of Education of both countries as national curricula. The 1996 Chinese high school chemistry curriculum, and the 7th Korean high school chemistry curriculum announced in 1997 were compared in respect to the characters, objectives, history, time allotment, structure, subject contents, and assessment plans. Based on the comparative analysis of the curricula, some of the ideas, which provide implications for the improvement of Korean chemistry curriculum, were identified. The identified ideas were elaborated to seek directions for the solutions of current problems in chemistry curriculum. such as common science subject. tentative implementation of curriculum, compulsory provision of chemistry, subjects in science course, enlargement of curriculum, and methods of assessment.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.398-404
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• 2013

In this study, the analogies in the chemistry domain of middle school science textbooks developed under the 2007 revised National Curriculum were analyzed. A total of 235 analogies were found in 27 middle school science textbooks analysed, which means that one analogy per 10 pages was used on average. The number of analogies found in each textbook considerably varied depending on both publishing company and chemistry domain. Functional analogies, verbal and pictorial analogies, analogies with abstract target and concrete analog, enriched analogies, everyday contexts analogies, student-centered analogies, and analogies with low systematicity were frequently used. On presenting the analogies in the textbooks, the term analogy and description about the limitations of the analogies were rarely mentioned. In comparison with the analogies in the science textbooks developed under the 7th National Curriculum, the frequency of analogies per page was increased. There were positive changes in the aspects of representation, extent of mapping and artificiality. No differences, however, were found in the patterns of the other aspects.

• 한국지구과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.292-302
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• 2005

Science museum are the typical channels for students to experience science as outside school science lessons. Hereupon, in this study, middle school earth science contents system and achievement standards by the 7th Curriculum analyzed exhibit of science museum for basis. As a result, relevance between accomplishment level and Exhibition was insufficient in curriculum, and the area of geology in the exhibition overemphasized. Therefore, exhibit that consider curriculum is required. hereafter, Result of this study presents display of science museum and direction of education.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.162-176
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• 2001

This study was covered with the analysis of five kinds of the middle school science text books(chemistry part) based on the oth curriculum. Particularly, inquiry activities part was analyzed by the three dimension framework which consists of inquiry content dimension, inquiry process dimension and inquiry context dimension and the results are as follows;1. In the analysis of the contents in the middle school science textbooks(chemistry part), the average number of total pages was 197.6. The illustration and picture were contained 0.66 in number per a page, and the average number of further readings was 5.8.2. In the analysis of the inquiry content dimension of inquiry activities, the total number of themes in five kinds of textbooks was 222. And the number of imquiry activities in five kinds of textbooks was siverse : A textbook had 51, B texbook 49, C textbook 37 and E textbook 35.3. For the analysis of inquiry process dimension. it follows in the order of 'interpreing data and formulating generalizations (42.4%)','observation and measuring (38.1%)','seeing a problem and seeking ways to solve it (7.8%)' and 'building, testing and revising the theoretical model(11.7%)'.4. As for the analysis of the inquiry context dimension, the scientific context occupied 94.2%, the individual context 0.4%, the social context 2.7% and the technical context 2.7%. It shows that the proportion of STS(Science-Technology-Society) related contents in inquiry activities was only 5.8%.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.491-499
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• 2001

The purpose of this study was to examine for high school chemistry I textbooks published by the 6th curriculum and some foreign STS programs such as Chemistry in the Community, Science and Technology in Society, Chemistry: The Salter's Approach by analyzing STS contents, students' activity, overall structure of the books and space devoted to STS, and to provide improvement schemes for developing high school chemistry I textbooks to be developed by the 7th curriculum in future. It was found that STS topics in the high school chemistry I textbooks were related only to 'social problems and issues', 'applications of science', 'multiple dimensions of science', and STS contents were presented mostly by narration. Students' activities were limited to discussion and survey, and none of the topics were related to 'career awareness', and 'cooperative work on real problems' in high school chemistry I textbooks. On the contrary, a variety of STS topics and activities such as case study related to local and community, practicing decision-making strategies, role play, practical work career awareness were included in foreign STS programs. Desirable directions for the improvement of STS contents and structure of present high school chemistry I textbooks were proposed in this paper.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.659-667
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• 2004

The purposes of this study were to examine the middle school science textbooks published according to the 7th curriculum by analyzing overall structure of the books and STS contents, and to diagnose the current status of STS education in science classroom through interviews with teachers and students of the middle schools. It was found that STS approaches were of increasing importance in the science textbooks, however, they were not popular in the science classes. STS topics in the middle school textbooks were related mostly to 'applications of science' and 'social problems and issues', and few of the topics were related to 'cooperative work on real problems', 'multiple dimensions of science' and 'practice with decision making strategies'. Major barriers of STS education implementation in middle school science classroom were identified as follows; difficulties of assessment, teachers' insufficient cognitions and experiences regarding STS education, perceptions of students and parents that prefer didactic lecture methods and working on exercises. Desirable directions for the improvement of present status of STS education in middle school science classes were proposed.