• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.221-244
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• 2021

To examine the limitations of the the Blosser's (1973) 'Question Category System for Science', which is mainly applied to research in science education in Korea, we analyzed 30 hours of class conversation in a small group program (for first-year middle school students) with a researcher participating as a teacher. When classified according to Blosser's (1973) classification system, distinguishing between 'open and closed questions' was difficult. Questions with the same content were classified into different types depending on their context, whereas some questions could not be classified appropriately. Additionally, higher-level questions (open questions) were not more effective than lower-level questions (closed questions) in improving students' thinking ability or participation in class. The questionnaire's effect differed depending on the information provided by the teacher before questioning, and in many cases, previous question influenced the next questions. However, in the science education questionnaire research based on Blosser's (1973) classification, which is mainly conducted in Korea, each individual question is classified according to the cognitive level, disregarding the influence of context and prior and subsequent questions and the quality of instructions is evaluated by the frequency of higher level questioning. The results of this study indicate that the method of evaluating instruction quality based on the frequency of high-level questioning, which is currently conducted in domestic science education inquiry research, should be avoided.

• 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.