• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.67-71
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• 2003

The present study examined the inquiry type, process, and context of activities presented in the matter field of the 7th grade science textbook based on the 7th curriculum. It was to investigate for educational suggestions in instruction and development of science textbook. Three units of ‘three states of matter', ‘motion of molecule', ‘the state change and energy' were analyzed. The result indicated that the types, processes and skills, and context of inquiry were not balanced, and learners should be educated with complementary inquiry activities. It is proposed that the inquiry activities presented in science textbooks be examined, and the framework to evaluate inquiry activities be reflected on the standard of science textbook authorization for development of the science textbook to accord with aims and objectives of curriculum.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.843-848
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• 2005

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to understand how the idea of data view and information graphics is used in the social studies high school textbooks. Data were collected through national curriculum documents and social studies middle school textbooks for the 10th grade students. We set up three questions for this study; what kinds of information graphics are used in the textbooks, how the graphics are organized in the social studies middle school, and how the 7th social studies curriculum is related with the 7th national mathematics curriculum. Through the data analysis, we found that 1) photographs, information tables, illustrations, etc., are used and frequencies of their usages are in descending order, 2) double lines graphs, and stripe graphs are often adopted for the comparison of populations, 3) the relation of the two subjects curricula is not well developed, especially in the curriculum steps of information maps, scatter diagrams, and comparison of populations. Finally we suggest that new web site of data view or information graphics be provided for two curricula, workshop of information graphics be needed for social studies teachers, and modification of the 7th probability and statistics curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.214-225
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the content relevance of the 7th national primary science curriculum and textbooks. To fulfill the purpose of the study, we 1) analyzed the 7th national science curriculum of Korea, Californian science standards, the national science curriculum of England and Japan, and current Korean and Japanese science textbooks, 2) conducted a nationwide survey to gather opinions from students, teachers, and professors of teachers colleges about the relevance of the science curriculum and textbooks. Main findings of this study are as follows: First, the science contents at each grade level should be determined by the students' characteristics, not by an equal portion rule among physics, chemistry, biology and earth science. Second, the excessive overlapping and repetition of contents due to the spiral curriculum should be avoid. Third, the number of topics at each grade level should be reduced, and the similar topics and themes should be integrated for students' deeper understanding. Fourth, the number of science concepts and activities should be reduced to an appropriate level considering the time allotment for science classes, teachers workload, laboratory conditions, etc. Fifth, differentiated curriculum, such as in-depth and supplementary course, should be described not in science contents, but in teaching and learning strategy.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.239-254
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• 2015

The aims of this research were to analyze and compare verbs in the contents of the 7th, 2007, and 2009 revised national curriculum for elementary and middle school science. After the investigation of 1383 verbs in description of achievement standards and inquiry, we found that 'to know'(15.0 %) in elementary school and 'to understand'(24.2 %) in middle school were the most frequently used ones, totally in these three curriculums. In the 7th national curriculum, frequently used verbs in elementary school were ones related with inquiry such as observation, investigation and so on though 'to understand' had the most common verbs. Secondly, 'to explain' ranked top among verbs in the 2007 revised national curriculum. It showed some possibility of influences of the discussion-oriented situation at that time. Finally, however, in 2009 revised national curriculum, 'to know' and 'to understand' occupied the first and second portion of the verb distribution. In addition, 'to understand' and 'to observe' were used evenly through three curriculums but the portions of 'to know' increased through curriculum revisions. Some implications and discussions were also added with suggestions for further researches.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2007

This study investigated how the contents of biology domains that were dealt with in the 7th national elementary-school science curriculum were in turn dealt with in the other subject matter areas. Through this, it was hoped that the place and identity of biology as a subject could be more clearly established and defined and additionally, more basic data for developing the new national science curriculum could be acquired at the same time. Subject matter areas that overlapped with biology in the 7th national elementary-school curriculum were practical arts, social studies and physical education. The structure and composition of specific components that were dealt with by these subject matter areas were very different from those of science, and the analysis showed that they failed to correspond across grades. Moreover, topics such as 'natural calamities and the environment' and 'human reproduction' that were dealt with by other subject matter areas, but not in science must be included for developing the new national science curriculum. Accordingly, when it comes to composing the contents of each subject matter area during creation of the new national curriculum, the relevant experts in related subject matter areas should be mobilized to conduct in-depth analysis of the following areas: viability, the most appropriate level of difficulty, and appropriateness of any hierarchy of relative importance between subjects. Additionally, efforts to reflect any improvements in the way the new national curriculum is developed which come about through this research are needed.

• 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 Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.213-226
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• 2002

The purpose of this research is to direct the 7th national primary science curriculum to be performed properly. The research is based on the questionnaire to investigate the primary teachers' appreciation of the curriculum. The questions are about the general aspect of the 7th curriculum and special treatises on science curriculum. Questionnaires were distributed to 1000 teachers, and 822 teachers answered them. According to the survey results the teachers' thoughts were as following: First, there must be enough time to develop a new curriculum. It is not desirable to change the old curriculum totally. There should be some continuity between the old and the new curriculum. Second, teachers appreciated that the learning resources and supplements were helpful, and interested students. Teachers thought that If equipment at class or school was not enough. Third, according to them the hierarchical structure of science curriculum was appropriate, but the contents need to be improved. Fourth, most teachers restructured the 7th science curriculum to adapt it to the class and school. They cooperated with one another in teaching science, and applied diverse teaching-learning methods according to the curricular contents and the grade levels. Teachers tried to evaluate all aspects of the students with various methods, but they felt it was hard. They were not active in developing evaluation tools as a team, and in objectifying the information about students. Fifth, teachers felt it was hard to implement the science curriculum according to different levels of the students. Based on the survey of teachers' thoughts, the following can be suggested for successful implementation and reorientation of the curriculum. First, teachers need learning opportunities to appreciate and adapt the 7th curriculum creatively. Second, they need guidances in implementing the different levels of the curriculum, and the information about the appropriate resources for it. Third, we need to control the relative difficulty of the curricular contents, and reduce the hours and quantity of the study. Fourth, we need to improve the school equipment and facilities. Networking and cooperation among education-related institutions are essential for better education. Fifth, it is desirable to develop concrete and diverse teaming models.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1065-1071
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• 2007

A partial amendment of probability and statistics education in Korea has carried out from January, 2007. We have compared between the patial amendment and 7th national mathematics curriculum. Some ideas are proposed to achieve goals of the revision; textbooks of mathematics are well supervised by well-trained statisticians and teachers are periodically trained for the statistical knowledge.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.32-42
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to provide meaningful basic materials for organizing a science curriculum in future by analyzing the status and changes of contents about astronomical phenomena in textbooks according to the changes of the science curriculum of elementary school. A main target of analysis is science textbooks of elementary school in curriculums from 1st to 7th. For the analysis, the analytic frame based on contents in astronomy textbooks of teachers colleges and colleges of education was used. The result of the analysis is as in the following. First, astronomy accounted for average about 7% of all pages of textbooks in all of science curriculums. The 1st educational curriculum had the most learning quantity of 10.40%, and the 6th curriculum had the least quantity of 4.39%. These results show that astronomy was not a small part and was considered important in each science curriculum of elementary school considering that earth science accounted for 17-26% of all pages in elementary school science curriculum. Second, the things that have been dealt with in common in all science curriculums from 1st to 7th of elementary school are the shape of the earth, the rotation and the revolution of the earth, the occurrence of the seasons, the apparent motion of the sun, the status and motion of the moon, the movement of a star, the brightness and distance of a star, constellations, the sun, planets and others. These contents are expected to be dealt with continuously as basic contents to organize astronomy regardless of the changes of curriculum. Third, in science curriculum of elementary school, astronomical phenomena based on life experiences regarding the earth, the moon and the sun are mainly dealt with in the first and the second grade. Contents requiring principles-understanding and research are dealt with in the fifth and sixth grade. These results show that elementary school science curriculum dealing with astronomy reflects the developmental stages of students and considers principle of learning possibility.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.414-426
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• 2004

This study analysed inquiry process and activities of the inquiry area in the chemistry field of middle school science textbooks by the inquiry elements based on the 7th science curriculum. The purpose of this study is to grasp a degree of reflecting the 7th science curriculum in the 9th grade science textbooks, and to find out educational implications for the various inquiry learning. Overall, for the analysis of inquiry elements, basic inquiry elements except classification were well reflected on the middle school science textbooks in 9th grade. However, for the integrated inquiry elements, interpreting data occupies almost half of them. This phenomenon is shown in the analysis of inquiry process and inquiry activities, as well. Especially, project and field trip introduced in the 7th science curriculum are hardly found in the textbooks. 9th grade is classified as an upper grade in the 7th science curriculum in terms of inquiry level. Integrated inquiry elements and inquiry activity types, however, are not thoroughly reflected in the 9th grade science textbooks. It is desirable that a variety of inquiry learning of 9th grade be implemented by reconstructing inquiry area based on the results of this study. Hence the degree and ratio of utilizing the integrated inquiry elements and inquiry activity types to the inquiry area of science textbook in 9th grade should be studied.