• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.486-501
• /
• 2015

In the elementary school science curriculum, wind is one of the most important concept. In particular, land and sea breeze has been a key example to deliver how wind is driven, and thus its model experiments have been used to help students understand causes of wind. Here we compare causes and explanations for wind and land and sea breeze between textbooks in colleges and elementary schools to examine any potential improvement for the contents. In addition, we conducted survey to examine how pre-service teachers understand land and sea breeze, and convection box experiment used in elementary school textbooks is useful to understand land and sea breeze. Based on the comparison, we find that college level textbook explains the cause of wind as atmospheric pressure difference while elementary school textbooks explain them differently according to curriculums. In the textbooks, there are a difference in the way described for land and sea breeze. Analysis of questionnaire indicate that pre-service teachers understood land and sea breeze correctly, and they selected the convection box experiment in 2009 curriculum textbooks as the most suitable one. Explanations and experiments for land and sea breeze in the textbooks have been revised as the modification of elementary school curriculums. We expect this study helps to deliver more solid contents for wind and land and sea breeze in the upcoming new curriculum.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.44 no.3
• /
• pp.300-317
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to suggest improvements in the science concepts and inquiry activities presented in the earth science section in the 2015 revised curriculum elementary science textbooks. For this study, two science educator and three elementary school teachers developed a survey questionnaire to investigate science concepts, inquiry activities, and suggest improvements. The survey was conducted two times, and 30 elementary school teachers and three earth science professors (geology, meteorology, astronomy) participated in the survey. As a result, it was investigated that eight concepts in the solid section, three concepts in the fluid section, and one concept in universe and integration section contained misconceptions. It was investigated that the content of inquiry activity needs to be supplemented, with seven elements in solid section, three elements in fluid section, and one in the universe and integration section. According to the research results, if the textbook is revised, it is necessary to accurately confirm the science concepts or content of inquiry activities. Also in the case of science concepts presented in textbooks, it will be necessary to consider not only the scope and sequence of contents but also the process of learning progression.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.178-193
• /
• 2023

The aim of this study was to investigate differences in the achievement standards from the 2015 to the 2022 revised national science curriculum and to present the implications for science teaching under the revised curriculum. Achievement standards relevant to primary science education were therefore extracted from the national curriculum documents; conceptual domains in the two curricula were analyzed for differences; various kinds of centrality were computed; and the Louvain algorithm was used to identify clusters. These methods revealed that, in the revised compared with the preceding curriculum, the total number of nodes and links had increased, while the number of achievement standards had decreased by 10 percent. In the revised curriculum, keywords relevant to procedural skills and behavior received more emphasis and were connected to collaborative learning and digital literacy. Observation, survey, and explanation remained important, but varied in application across the fields of science. Clustering revealed that the number of categories in each field of science remained mostly unchanged in the revised compared with the previous curriculum, but that each category highlighted different skills or behaviors. Based on those findings, some implications for science instruction in the classroom are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.42 no.1
• /
• pp.47-63
• /
• 2023

In this study, we analyzed the PCK components in the materials units of the third and fourth grades of the Korean government-authorized teacher's guides for elementary school, developed in the 2015 revised national curriculum. The results showed that the PCK components were presented in a relatively balanced manner compared to the teacher's guides for middle school. Knowledge of the subject matter accounted for the highest proportion, and knowledge of instructional strategies in science accounted for a higher proportion than knowledge of the science curriculum. The knowledge of assessment in science showed the greatest deviation among publishers, and knowledge of students tended to show the lowest. By subcomponents, experiments and inquiries had a higher proportion than concepts and theories. The ratio of horizontal articulation was lower than that of vertical articulation or lesson objectives, and lesson objectives were presented in various ways, such as in core competencies and achievement standards for science. As questioning was emphasized, teaching strategies and questioning appeared at a similar rate. Motivation and interest, misconceptions were linked to teaching strategies and questioning. In some cases, assessment items and assessment criteria were presented at each level, and various PCK components were linked to these two components. Components with relatively large differences among publishers were supplementary or in-depth concepts, inquiry in textbooks, instruction sequence and method, subject-specific strategies, and assessment items. From the results, the implications for the development of teacher's guides were discussed.

• The Mathematical Education
• /
• v.63 no.4
• /
• pp.675-706
• /
• 2024

The purpose of this study is to examine the coherence between the content and timing of mathematics curriculum in social studies and science textbooks for elementary school grades 3-4 from both educational and substantive perspectives. For this study, we analyzed how mathematical concepts presented in social studies and science textbooks for grades 3-4, following the 2015 revised elementary school curriculum, are utilized across grade levels and semesters. We also examined differences in how these mathematical concepts, as they appear in social studies and science textbooks, are approached or deepened compared to their treatment in mathematics. The study revealed that concepts considered "reversal" in social studies and science textbooks often appear earlier than in mathematics curriculum. There were instances where concepts typically covered in middle school mathematics, such as 'negative numbers', were also utilized. Moreover, we identified concepts that are presented in a modified or advanced manner compared to their treatment in mathematics, and instances where concepts not typically covered in mathematics, such as radial graphs, were utilized. Based on these results, it was concluded that a clear definition of concepts is needed in the mathematics curriculum, and that close review and guidance on related concepts between subject curricula are needed when developing curriculum and textbooks.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.74-83
• /
• 2017

Objectives: This study aimed to develop dietary education textbooks for elementary school students by focusing on the three core values of environment, health and gratitude from the National Food Education Plan. Methods: The contents of textbooks and teacher's guidebooks were developed with brainstorming of the authors as well as consultation with experts and by considering not only the three core values of environment, health, and gratitude, but also the performance indicators of the 2nd National Food Education Plan and the key competencies and creative convergence approach of the 2015 revised national curriculum. Results: A total of 12 different dietary education textbooks named 'Good Dietary Life Guide' and the teachers' guidebooks from the first to the sixth grade of elementary school were developed. The textbooks were fundamentally developed connecting the three core values, the outcome indices of the 2nd National Food Education Plan and the key competences of the 2015 revised national curriculum. Various educational activities such as thinking, debate, writing, cooperative learning, experience, practice were included to promote students' participation. These books could be utilized in every field of dietary education targeting elementary students such as creative experiential activity, convergent classes (integrated subjects, Practical arts, Social studies, Science, Moral education and Korean), after school classes, rural experience, general agricultural education, after-school child care services and community child care centers. Conclusions: The continuous and repetitive use of the textbooks from the first to the sixth grade would contribute to the improvement of food habits and the personalities of elementary school students, and consequently make the students grow up as healthy citizens.

• Journal of Science Education
• /
• v.39 no.2
• /
• pp.221-238
• /
• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the introduced contents and the nature of science on the history of science in elementary school science textbooks according to the 2009 revised curriculum. For this purpose, first of all, the frequency of contents of history of science in 8 kinds of science textbooks in elementary school is analyzed by grade cluster and content part. Analysis framework for analyzing the introduced contents on the history of science was characterized with three-dimensional combination of the context, the role and the types(Park, Lee, & Lee, 2011). Analysis framework for the nature of science on the history of science was developed by Leite(2002) and revised by Choi (2005) and Kim(2010) and complemented under one expert in science education. The results of this study are as follows: First, the frequency of contents of history of science in textbook is 26 and it were not equally distributed into science textbooks in elementary school as a result of the analysis by grade cluster and content part. Second, with three-dimensional combination framework only 13 kinds were used in all 48 different types through analyzing the textbooks. It implies that ways of introducing contents of history of science into textbooks were limited to certain types. Third, the nature elements of science were not equally distributed on the history of science in elementary school science textbooks. In conclusion, in order to understand the nature of science through the history of science and to foster scientific literacy ultimately, it implicates that it is need to present various kinds of the history of science for one theme in consideration about the grade cluster and content part. Also more multilateral approach is need to introduce equally distributed into textbooks to reflect the elements of the nature of science.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.4
• /
• pp.426-441
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was getting the information for successful application to the national curriculum and students' core competencies enhancement, through investigation about competencies discussed in 2015 revised national curriculum development process and analysis about perception of 150 elementary school teachers in study. The results were as follows : Communication skill is considered to be the most important. Thinking ability what has been important traditionally is the middle of the rankings. Elementary school teachers think that a competency is specific to a subject. From this point of view, Creative/Scientific Problem-Solving Ability is the most important in science. They think that the enhancing of the ability of inquiry performance is highlighted in current science class. On elementary school teachers' awareness, inquiry model is the most effective in enhancing of scientific thinking and the ability of inquiry performance. And STS instruction model is in the other. PBL learning model and experimental inquiry model is the most effective in enhancing a competency has the highest feasibility like scientific thinking or the ability of inquiry performance.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.64 no.6
• /
• pp.371-378
• /
• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between the eight topics in TIMSS 2019 8th grade chemistry domains and the Korea 2009 Revised Science Curriculum and the 2015 Revised Science Curriculum. For this purpose, four elementary and four secondary teachers participated in physics, chemistry, biology and earth science majors, and two science education experts participated in analyzing in which grades the content elements of the TIMSS 2019 science framework are covered in the Korean science curriculum. The study also analyzed whether the content of the Korean science curriculum matches the 246 items of 8th grade in the TIMSS 2019 assessment and reflects in which grades the eight topics are covered. The results of this study are as follows. First, among the TIMSS 2019 evaluation topics, topics not covered at all in the Korean middle school curriculum were periodic table, matter and energy in chemical reactions, the role of electrons in chemical bonds. Second, the topic of "the periodic table as an organizing principle for the known elements" needs to be introduced in the Korean middle school curriculum, and topics such as "familiar exothermic and endothermic reactions" and "factors affecting the reaction rates" need to be discussed in consideration of the flow of international curricula. Third, the next science curriculum should be structured so that the sequence of chemistry contents and scope, especially core concepts to be included in the elementary, secondary, and higher education curriculum is linked to continuity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.257-266
• /
• 2021

This study investigated the understanding of pre-service teachers in relation to the 'fog experiment' in the 5th grade 'Weather and Our Daily Life' unit of the 2009 and 2015 revised elementary school science textbooks. Pre-service teachers who participated in this study were 100 students, who are attending the university of education and taking courses in teaching research. After pre-learning about the 2009 and 2015 revised elementary school science textbooks and guide book, pre-service teachers conducted the experiment in groups. After that, the pre-service teachers individually presented answers to three questions, and the results of analyzing the answers are as follows. First, there were 24 (24%) preservice teachers who explained the difference in fog generation in the 2009 and 2015 revised curriculum with related scientific concepts such as condensation and water vapor, and only 1 (1%) of them explained the difference using the concept of saturation. Second, there were 48 (48%) pre-service teachers who found out the reason for the change in the fog experiment method according to the change in the curriculum. Third, pre-service teachers valued the reproduction and success of experiments rather than the importance of scientific knowledge, and such pre-service teachers suggested the use of alternative experiments or website.