• 한국초등과학교육학회지:초등과학교육
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.491-509
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to compare and analyze the elementary science curriculum of Finland, which ranked at the first place in the science domain of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a comparative study on the academic achievements of OECD member nations, for three consecutive years and recorded a high national competitiveness index, and that of South Korea, thus providing information needed to develop curriculums and textbooks in the middle of occasional curriculum revisions and giving useful implications for the implementation of curriculum in the field of education in South Korea. The research findings were as follows: First, as for the science content areas based on the ratio of large area items according to the evaluation and analysis framework of TIMSS 2007, South Korea's ratio of life, chemistry, physics, and earth hardly showed fitness for TIMSS 2007 and exhibited equal distribution among the areas. In Finland, the ratio of life, chemistry, physical, and earth was similar to the fourth grade level of TIMSS 2007. The country showed differential distribution with life accounting for the highest percentage. Second, as for the cognitive domains, South Korea showed a high percentage in "Uses and Procedures of Tools" of "1. Knowing" and "Making Connections," "Comparison/Contrast/Classification," and "Uses of Models" of "2. Application." Finland recorded a high percentage in "Information Interpretation" of "2. Application." While South Korea focused on the uses and methods of scientific instruments during scientific activities, Finland made an approach with a focus on problems related to daily life such as the interpretation of information including reports and graphs from an interpretative perspective.

• 한국초등과학교육학회지:초등과학교육
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• 제33권3호
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• pp.453-463
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• 2014

Environmental education contents in science textbooks of South Korea and the United States were compared and analyzed in order to find how to develop environmental education in elementary science education. McGraw-Hill science textbooks for third to sixth grade and science textbooks of Korea based on the 2009 Revised National Curriculum and the 2007 Revised National Curriculum were analyzed and compared. The categories were educational goals, kinds of contents, distributions of contents and tense. The result showed that the environmental education goals in science textbook of Korea and United States were biased to knowledge area. The educational contents of the United States was higher 2.5 times then Korea and distributed in all areas. In quantitative distributions in Korea were biased some special areas. Tense of educational contents were almost present. Attitudes and recognition of students varies gradually over a long period of time, the contents of environmental education will be useful "evenly distributed" for all areas and school year.