• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.693-711
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• 2009

One of the most important objectives in science education is to develop students' science literacy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relevance between biology instructional objectives in the 7th curriculum taught in elementary and secondary schools. For this study, 7 major parts in each grade were analyzed including cell, the form and function of plants, the form and function of animals, genetics, diversity, evolution, ecology, and environment. The strand map of instructional objectives is completed that represents the relation between the objectives. The summary of the results from this study is as follows. First, the concept about cells is not fully covered in lower grades including elementary schools. While the concept of energy metabolism is repeatedly covered, there is no concept of energy covered in learning the concept of energy metabolism in elementary schools. Second, the textbooks in elementary and middle schools have main concepts about the form and function of plants while those in high schools don't. The concept related to the part of the form and function of animals is repeatedly involved in the curriculum throughout the elementary, middle, and high schools. Third, the concepts such as genetics and evolution are involved in higher grades since these concepts are abstract ones. The part of genetics and evolution as well as diversity has no connection between grades in schools, so the development of "notion between" is necessary to relate these concepts with each other. Fourth, the 4 parts of diversity, ecology and environment, evolution, and the form and function of plants are covered in limited grade levels. The results of the relevance of gene in lesson goals will play an important rein as the primary material in developing the connection between textbooks in which lesson goals are closely related to each other throughout all grade levels in elementary, middle and high schools.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.239-252
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to develop an evolutionary STEAM education program based on the brain and to analyze its effects on scientific interest and scientific creativity of elementary school students. Four different topics based on four scientific fields (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Science) were derived from the science textbook under the 2015 revised curriculum to build a brain-based evolutionary STEAM education program. The research subjects were 90 fourth graders of S-elementary school located in Gyeonggi Province, Korea and they were divided into an experimental group of 45 students and a comparative group of 45 students. The main findings of this study are as follows. First, according to the independent samples t-test of scientific interest, no statistically significant difference were found between the two groups, but the brain-based evolutionary STEAM education had meaningful effect on improving 'interest in scientific learning' and 'anxiety about scientific learning'. Second, according to the paired samples t-test of scientific interest, the experimental group had significantly improved 'interest in science' but on the other hand, there was no effect on the comparative group. Third, scientific creativity and originality of the experimental group were significantly higher after the class than that of the comparative group. Fourth, although there were some significant differences between the two groups in scientific creativity after the class, both groups had improved scientific creativity between the results of pre and post test. Based on these results, we discuss implications for science education and STEAM education research.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.333-351
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• 2016

This study analyzed what STEAM elements, except mathematical content, are contained in 2009 revised elementary school 5th and 6th grade group mathematics textbooks. STEAM elements in the textbooks were examined by grade and by content area in the elementary school mathematics curriculum. The results were as follows. First, the number of STEAM elements in mathematics 5-1, 5-2, 6-1, 6-2 are 151(18.4%), 212(25.9%), 211(25.7%), 246(30.0%), respectively. The 6th Grade than in 5th Grade can be seen a few plenty. Second, the number of STEAM elements are different depending on the type of STEAM. The number of arts element is 617(75.2%) and this elements are seen the most. The number of representative art and cultural art is 445(54.3%) and 172(20.9%), respectively. The number of technology-engineering and science is 158(19.2%) and 45(5.5%), respectively. We need to developed to promote use of science element in next mathematics curriculum.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.525-542
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• 2014

This study was performed to look into the difficulty of students in understanding science stories in 6th grade science textbooks and to analyze those factors. To do this, 6th grader (N=65) were selected from J Elementary School located in Gyeonggi-do Siheung-si as study subjects. 26 science stories in 6th grade science textbooks were classified by field and context (complement of knowledge, science history of scientists, science in life, cutting-edge science technology, environment issues) in which the characteristics were investigated and analyzed. Also, a survey about the difficulty in understanding science stories(26 items) was conducted(65 students) and a semi-structured interview was conducted for students to clarify the meaning of collected data from surveys(4 students). As result of analyzing surveys on science story context in science textbooks and interviews, 4 fields of 'energy,' 'matter,' 'life,' and 'earth' were evenly mentioned. Science in life and complement of science knowledge were mentions most for context and this had relation with the characteristic of science textbooks to provide many opportunities to apply learned knowledge in actual social issues. Reactions of students on science stories were mostly positive that they help studying science, but there was also difficulty in well understanding science stories. Difficulty of understanding context, problems of context suggesting methods, difficulty of science terminology, lack of interest, and etc. were analyzed as factors. Specific causes were mentioned to be description type class, unimportant context, lack of explanation on suggested context, problem of pictures by students.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.139-152
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to provide some suggestions for future improvement of scientific inquiry activities in Korean elementary science textbook. The modified framework of Lee(2005) and Millar et al.(1998) was used to compare inquiry activities in the Korean and Singaporean science textbooks. The results of this study are as follows: Korean text books have more activities than Singapore's, but both countries have similar time allotment for science classes. In the area of 'inquiry process skill', Singapore is more balanced in 'Basic inquiry process skills' and 'Integrated inquiry process skills' than Korea. Singapore's integrated inquiry rate is also higher than Korea's. Next the results of comparing leaning objectives to scientific inquiry activities shows that Korean text books tend to focus on 'contents objectives', while Singapore's text books focus on balancing 'contents objectives' and 'process objectives'. Korean science textbooks encourage students to communicate the results of experiments but in most case these communication activities are actually not performed. Lastly Korea and Singapore have low degree of openness in inquiry activities. Remarkably 'Suggest questions' are totally conducted by teachers. This study implies that Korean science textbooks should have lower amounts of inquiry activities to accomodate enough time for communication about results. Next we need to make balance not only 'Basic inquiry process skills' and 'Integrated inquiry process skills' but also 'Content objectives' and 'Process objectives'. Lastly we need to make student to be the leader in science classes through encouraging them to plan procedures for experiments and to discover results by themselves.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2020

This study analyzed the illustrations presented in the elementary science paper textbooks and digital textbooks under the 2015 revised curriculum in terms of gender role stereotypes. The frequency of pupils and adults on illustrations was counted by gender, and the types of activities and behavior of characters were analyzed. For pupils, paper textbooks showed a higher frequency of girls than boys, and digital textbooks showed similar gender rates. In the aspect of the activity, paper textbooks showed similar gender rates in non-learning activities, but more girls in learning activities. In digital textbooks, the learning activity was balanced by gender, but the non-learning activities presented boys more frequently. For both paper and digital textbooks, most pupils were described to be active regardless of gender. For adults, paper textbooks were balanced in the frequency by gender, but digital textbooks had a higher proportion of men. Paper textbooks showed similar gender rates in out-of-home activities, but more men in housework activities. In digital textbooks, housework activities were balanced by gender, but out-of-home activities presented men more frequently. For both paper and digital textbooks, men appeared in a broader range of occupations than women. Female scientists appeared more than male scientists in paper textbooks, and opposite tendency appeared in digital textbooks. As a result of analyzing the characteristics of adults, both paper and digital textbooks showed gender stereotypes in specific behavioral characteristics.

• Journal of The Korean Association of Information Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2011

The purpose of the research is examine the effect of STEM integration education using educatinal robot on academic achievement and subject Attitude of mathematics and science. The participants were 73 students of two classes, sampled from 6th graders of an elementary school. They were divided into a control group who learned a traditional mathematics and sciences education based textbooks and an experimental group who learned STEM integration education using educational robot during 12 sessions. The results are summarized as follows : First, there is a significant difference in academic achievement between two groups. STEM integration education using educational robot based group accomplished higher achievement than textbook based instruction group. Especially, post test analyzes results on the three factors of academic achievement, knowledge, understanding and adaptation, indicate statistically meaningful difference between two groups in understanding and adaptation area except knowledge area. Second, it shows that it greatly affected a positive influence on experimental group's attitude toward subjects in affective area. So we can expect STEM integration education using educational robot to be an alternative for stimulating children's higher learning interest on mathematics and science subject.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.706-716
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the science process skills and teaching methods between the 6th and the 7th elementary school science textbooks. For this study, science textbooks and teacher's guidebooks from the 3rd to the 6th grade were analyzed. In this research the science process skills are divided by basic process skills(BPS) and integrated process skills(IPS). The BPS is composed of observing, classifying, measuring, predicting and inferring skill, which are 5 subcategories. The IPS is composed of problem cognition, formulating hypothesis, controlling variables, transforming data, interpreting data, drawing result, and generalization, which are 7 subcategories. The results found in the analysis of science process skills in the 6th and 7th science textbooks are as follows: 1. The percentage of the BPS was increased, but the IPS was decreased in the 7th than the 6th. 2. The percentage of the IPS was higher than the BPS in the 6th science textbooks, but the BPS was higher than IPS in lower grade and the IPS was higher than the BPS in higher grade in the 7th textbooks. 3. Observing and problem cognition skill were most dominant in the 6th and 7th science textbooks. 4. The percentages of observing(24.8%), classifying(5.4%), measuring(5.6%), inferring(6.0%) in the BPS and interpreting data(4.4%) in the IPS were increased, but predicting(3.8%), formulating hypothesis(0.5%), controlling variables( 1.8%), transforming data( 1.2%), drawing result(0.8%) and generalization(0.9%) skills were decreased in the 7th. And teaching methods suggested in the curriculum are as follows: the percentages of learning by observation(19.2%) and role play(0.1 %) were decreased, but learning by experiment(6.2%), learning by discussion(2.0%), learning by investigation(4.6%) and creative learning(6,4%) were increased in the 7th than the 6th. In conclusion, it was found that the basic process skills were emphasized in the 7th science textbooks than the 6th and the science process skills in the science textbooks of the 7th curriculum were distributed by the grade level of the elementary children.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.261-272
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to compare the earth science curriculums of South Korea and North Korea. Aspects such as the content of the curriculums and the timing of learning were analyzed, in order to provide basic data that can be used to design a revised and integrated Korean curriculum. The objects of this study were South Korean Science textbooks from grades 5-9, and the high school Unity of Science and Earth Science I and II textbooks. Additionally, from North Korea, the junior middle school Natural Science 1 and 2 textbooks and the senior middle school Chosun Geography 2 and Geography 1 textbooks were analyzed. The results of this study obtained through an analysis that used the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 2019) grade 8 earth science assessment framework were as follows. First, South Korea needs to adopt iterative learning. Repetitive learning, which is effective for understanding what is being learned, is applied to only 1 by 8th grade. Second, South Korea needs to adjust the time when certain content is learned. This is because there is a disparity between when content is learned in comparison to North Korea, and the timing of learning of about 50% of the TIMSS standards have not been followed. Third, it is necessary to reflect the content present within the TIMSS that have not been learned. This can be a way to increase the nations' educational competitiveness in the international community. This paper proposed a comparative analysis of South korean and North Korean approaches to the earth science curriculum and conducted practical research to facilitate the construction of an integrated curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.591-604
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• 2023

This study investigated the impact of elementary science classes using metaverse on the academic achievement, positive experience in science, and digital literacy of elementary school students. In addition, we examined their perceptions. The respondents were derived from two classes in the sixth grade at an elementary school in Gyeonggi-do, who were selected designated as the experimental (n=29 students) and comparative (n=29) groups, respectively. Across five lessons under the "Plant Structure and Function" unit, the experimental group conducted science classes using the metaverse, whereas the comparative group conducted general textbook-based classes. To investigate instructional effects, the study performed ANCOVA using the pre-test score as a covariate, a survey on the perception of students about science classes using metaverse, and conducted interviews with a number of subjects. The result demonstrated that science classes using metaverse exerted no significant effect on scientific academic achievement and digital literacy. However, the study observed a statistically significant effect on science learning emotion which is a sub-element of positive experiences in science. The students were positively aware of science classes using metaverse in terms of interesting and diverse activities, and free expression of inquiry results and perceived the instability of smart devices and network connections as regrettable. Finally, the study posed the implications of the use of metaverse in science classes.