• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.82-93
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze the problems of rock specimens used for science education in elementary schools and to provide improvements of them. For the study, 20 sets of rock specimens were randomly selected from the five elementary schools in K city of Gyeongbuk Province and they were photographed and investigated. Also three elementary school teachers with more than 5 years of scientific career were interviewed. As a result, the sets of rock specimens that reflected the elementary curriculum were only 10%. The sets of rock specimens had many problems as follows: they were purchased a long time ago (up to 30 years), information presented in the nameplate and documentation was errorneous, some of rock specimens were too small and they did not show typical characteristics for education. In addition, the purchase and verification procedures of rock specimens were often neglected. With lack of interest and knowledge of teachers and lack of information about rock specimens, it was difficult to purchase good rock specimens for education. To improve the situation, a set of rock specimens should be verified by experts and should reflect the contents of curriculum and textbooks thoroughly. A manual of rock specimens is provided for science education in elementary schools.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.551-557
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to examine the questions in the 'Matter' units of elementary science textbooks under the 7th curriculum. For the analysis, a total of 338 questions were extracted from 15 units. Six criteria (recalling, recognizing, predictive, applied, divergent, and evaluative question) were reconstructed for textbook question analysis based on Blosser(1973)'s question category system for science. The results were as follows. First, there were more closed (recalling, recognizing, predictive, or applied) questions (72.2%) than open (divergent or evaluative) questions (27.8%) in elementary science textbooks. Second, cognitive-memory (recalling or recognizing) question type was the most frequently asked in all grade levels. Open (divergent or evaluative) questions increased according to grade level whereas convergent (predictive or applied) questions decreased. Third, question types were applied based on the characteristics of each unit rather than on children's developmental characteristics. Educational implications were discussed based on the results.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.417-428
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• 2022

This study analyzed the frequency and level of scientific practices presented in secondary science textbooks. A total of 1,378 student activities presented in 14 middle school science textbooks and 5 high school integrated science textbooks were analyzed, using the definition and level of scientific practice suggested in the NGSS. Findings show that most student activities focus on three practices. Compared to the textbooks for the previous science curriculum, the practice of 'obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information' was more emphasized, reflecting societal changes due to ICT development. However, the practice of 'asking a question', which can be an important element of student-led science learning, was still rarely found in textbooks, and 'developing and using models', 'using math and computational thinking' and 'arguing based on evidence' were not addressed much. The practices were mostly elementary school level except for the practice of 'constructing explanations'. Such repeated exposures to a few and low level of practices mean that many future citizens would be led to a naïve understanding of science. The findings imply that it is necessary to emphasize various practices tailored to the level of students. In the upcoming revision of the science curriculum, it is necessary to provide the definition of practices that are not currently specified and the expected level of each practice so that the curriculum can provide sufficient guidance for textbook writing. These efforts should be supported by benchmarking of overseas science curriculum and research that explore students' ability and teachers' understanding of scientific practices.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.282-290
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• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze life respect-related content in the 7th to 10th grade textbooks of middle and high schools. Methods: Sixty two textbooks adopted as middle and high school textbooks were analyzed for content on life respect. Results: There were 6 categories related to life respect content in the 7th to 9th grade textbooks ("prevention of accidents and the first-aid", "mental health", "sex and health", "prevention of drug abuse, smoking and drinking", "normal life and health", and "society and health"). Content on life respect in the 10th grade textbooks was categorized as "drug abuse, smoking, drinking, and health", "sex and health", "mental health", "life science and treating human life too lightly", "normal life and health", and "society and health". Conclusion: Content on life respect attached importance to more practical issue such as prevention of violence and suicide rather than fundamental understanding about self and life. These results suggest that the content on life respect should help adolescents find their own values and meaning of life within the concept of coexistence.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.625-634
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• 2011

This research examines educational effects on students' scientific process skills after applying a robot utilized MBL learning. Surveys and interviews concerning robot based science lessons were also conducted. The students were divided into experiment group who used the robots and controlled group who used traditional learning method with textbook and experiments. The result showed some significant differences in scientific measurement, prediction and inference(<.05). In contrast, no significant differences were found in observation and classification. The students answered the survey that the robots helped them understand science better and made science lessons more interesting.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2022

Although the concept of light is important in the elementary school curriculum, substantial research suggests that students and teachers have difficulties in understanding it. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the reasons for these difficulties-whether it is due to the content or due to the presentation method of contents, structure, and expression. The national curriculum and textbooks of Korea, the US, China, and Japan were comparatively analyzed from the following perspectives: 1) key concepts of light, 2) structure of light units in the textbook, 3) materials, light sources, and optics used in light units. Consequently, there were differences between countries in their inclusion of the concept of light in the curriculum. In particular, the Korean curriculum studies the concept of refraction by a convex lens, whereas the concept of light, light source, and vision is not introduced. Furthermore, countries also differed in their structuring of units. The Korean curriculum was presented segmentally by concept rather than structured according to core ideas or perspectives, and the connection between concepts was unclear. In addition, there were differences between the countries in materials, light sources, and optical instruments to explain key concepts. On using light, the US curriculum provides a purpose and uses light to achieve it, and China and Korea understand the concept. It was divided into the method of using the material to deepen. Based on the results of this analysis, the implications for the elementary science curriculum in Korea were derived as follows. First, it is necessary to introduce concepts sequentially and organize them so that the connection between concepts is well expressed. Second, it is necessary to introduce light and light sources as the predominant concepts. Third, it is necessary to include the principle of seeing objects. Fourth, it is necessary to adjust the material and content level of the refraction concept included in the light and lens unit. Fifth, an integrated approach is required because light has a deep connection with various concepts included in the elementary science curriculum.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.1175-1185
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• 2011

Language skills in science education seem to have a great impact on student achievement. Most of the language skills affecting students' science learning can be accounted for an understanding of scientific terms. The ultimate goal of this study is selecting and grading the scientific terms for science education. As a basic research, we investigated scientific terms contained in science textbooks, because they are the most basic and selected terminologies. As a result of investigation of scientific terms in physics units of middle school science textbooks, we made a list of 556 scientific terms by grade level. This includes 249 words for grade 7, 170 words for grade 8, and 137 words for grade 9.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.658-672
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• 2022

The unique teaching and learning difficulties of speed-related units in elementary school science are mainly due to the student's lack of mathematical thinking ability and procedural knowledge on speed measurement, and curriculums and textbooks must be constructed with these in mind. To identify the implications of composing a new science curriculum and relevant textbooks, this study reviewed the structure and contents of the speed-related units of three curriculums from the 2007 revised curriculum to the 2015 revised curriculum and the resulting textbooks and examined their relevance in light of the literature. Results showed that the current content carries the risk of making students calculate only the speed of an object through a mechanical algorithm by memorization rather than grasp the multifaceted relation between traveled distance, duration time, and speed. Findings also highlighted the need to reorganize the curriculum and textbooks to offer students the opportunity to learn the meaning of speed step-by-step by visualizing materials such as double number lines and dealing with simple numbers that are easy to calculate and understand intuitively. In addition, this paper discussed the urgency of improving inquiry performance such as process skills by observing and measuring an actual object's movement, displaying it as a graph, and interpreting it rather than conducting data interpretation through investigation. Lastly, although the current curriculum and textbooks emphasize the connection with daily life in their application aspects, they also deal with dynamics-related content somewhat differently from kinematics, which is the main learning content of the unit. Hence, it is necessary to reorganize the contents focusing on cases related to speed so that students can grasp the concept of speed and use it in their everyday lives. With regard to the new curriculum and textbooks, this study proposes that students be provided the opportunity to systematically and deeply study core topics rather than exclude content that is difficult to learn and challenging to teach so that students realize the value of science and enjoy learning it.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.501-520
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• 2022

Considering the importance of spatial thinking in the process of learning astronomy, it is necessary to educate pre-service teachers on teaching methods that consider spatial thinking from the teacher training program stage. Accordingly, after providing education on spatial thinking to pre-service science teachers, problems and improvement plans perceived by them were explored for the images and inquiry activities of astronomy textbook units. In this study, spatial thinking in the astronomical domain was defined as the amalgam of the concepts of space, representation tools, and reasoning processes. The juniors attending the University of Education in the metropolitan area were educated on spatial thinking for two weeks in October 2021. They were then asked to voluntarily select one of the astronomy units to analyze problems in the textbooks and present modification plans to address those problems. Finally, 33 cases presented by 22 pre-service science teachers were analyzed, and the results of the study were as follows. Pre-service teachers recognized the problems in textbooks in terms of the concepts of space and reasoning processes, and proposed improvement plans to supplement them. However, in some cases, even if pre-service teachers properly recognized a problem, the improvement plan was not appropriate, or they were not able to analyze the images or inquiry activities in terms of spatial thinking. This study is significant in that it shows that pre-service teachers have the potential to properly reorganize and revise textbooks by participating in teacher training programs on spatial thinking. Furthermore, based on the results of this study, the direction of the teacher training program concerning spatial thinking was discussed.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.171-191
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• 2004

This study presents revision scheme of Korean Decimal Classification appropriate for classification of children-related materials, mainly centered on social science(300) and pure science(400) occupying the majority of children-related materials in school Libraries. Towards this goal, 1 have studied the development and use of classification system for children-related materials available in domestic and overseas school libraries or children's libraries, and researched elementary school 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students' degree of understanding on classification item terms and children-related materials terms used for KDC's social science and Pure science. Based on the results of analysis, f have presented revision scheme of Korean Decimal Classification item terms and class numbers for children-related materials.