• The Korean Journal of Community Living Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.331-341
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• 2009

The purpose of this study is to develop a nature friendly education program that would support ecological literacy of preschool children and to examine the effects of the program on their ecological knowledge and positive attitudes toward nature. The subjects of the study were 59 children from two child-care centers located at Gyeonggi Province. 30 preschoolers from one center were allocated into an experimental group, while 29 preschoolers from the other center were regarded as the control group. The program was composed of 24 sessions, performed three times a week for 20-30 minutes from May to June 2009. The instrument included the knowledge and attitudes toward the environmental scale for preschool children. The following results were obtained. First, the experimental group was found to attain higher level of ecological knowledge and more positive attitudes about nature as a result of the program. Second, after the program was administrated, the experimental group showed higher level of the knowledge and more positive attitudes about nature than the control group. These results suggest a program which conducts within a integrated teaching frame of meeting and getting familiar with nature and taking care of animals and plants, can become an effective early childhood education tool which fosters positive attitudes and knowledge concerning the environment.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.118-125
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• 2014

This study purposes to historical approach the formation process of Nature-Study, and to re-evaluate its definition and direction at present. The idea of Nature-Study originated from Campanella, Ratke and Comenius, who emphasized real things. The idea developed through Object Lessons of Sheldon, the Natural History of Agassiz, and Progressivism of Parker. They acted as the main contributors who evolved the idea of Nature-Study and its core fields that involve: 'studying with real things' in Object Lessons which brought the methodical aspects to the idea, 'studying with nature' from Natural History that enhanced the content characteristics and 'learner-centered education' from Progressivism, which impacted the philosophical aspects. Straight (a fellow student of Agassiz) was a teacher for Sheldon Oswego normal school and Parker's Cook County normal school, who synthesized the fields together and paved the way for the formation of Nature-Study. Jackman of Cook Country normal school established Nature-Study as a school curriculum and Bailey and Comstock of Cornell University formed the American Nature-Study Society and as a result, Nature-Study started to gain popularity. However, many educators increasingly rejected Nature-Study as a unifying topic, and preferred the use of textbooks rather than firsthand experiences. This hindered the nature-study movement and it declined since the 1920s. But today, the Nature-study idea can play a huge role in developing science education, inclusive education centered nature, self-initiated retrieval, sympathy with nature and character building of students.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.95-115
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• 2003

This research examined he effects on preschool children's recognition of and attitude towards earth's nature of an early childhood environmental education program using children's literature. The subjects were 36 four-to six-year old children. The education program lasted for 8 weeks. Children were interviewed and surveyed about earth's nature, and the meanings of children's writings about nature were analyzed. The children who participated in this research showed a positive recognition of and attitudes towards the nature of the earth. Participants became keen observers of the world around them, examined the concept of change in nature, acquired knowledge about the earth through firsthand experiences, and developed caring attitudes for the natural world of the earth.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.396-404
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• 2010

This study aimed to investigate a perception of teachers engaged in special education for scientifically gifted regarding nature of science and identify attitudes toward teaching nature of science. The sample of this study consists of 122 science teachers who are teaching or taught students attending gifted classes of any primary school in Korea and any gifted education center of every District Office of Education. We made a partial amendment of a VOSE that was developed by Chen(2006) and then used. We tested their perception and attitudes in regard to nature of science. In terms of nature of science, we devide it into 7 sub-areas to analyse. For attitudes toward teaching nature of science, we investigate and analyse following 5 sub-areas; tentativeness of scientific knowledge, nature of observation, scientific methods, theories and laws and subjectivity and objectivity. The result showed that the generally teachers have a desirable recognitions about a nature of science. For attitudes toward teaching nature of science, the teachers showed that they have positive attitudes. However between degrees of teachers' recognition about a nature of science and attitudes toward teaching nature of science showed a low correlation. To increase their understanding of nature of science and develop attitudes toward teaching nature of science, there should be more training time for the teachers and training contents also should be changed. In addition, we hope that this study contribute to develop contents and direction of training for the teachers as a basic reference.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.215-226
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• 2002

This study examined the effects of the 'Friends of Nature' education program on multiple intelligence(MI) and emotional intelligence(EI or EQ). The 'Friends of Nature' activity was designed as an education program on the basis of the theories of multiple intelligence and emotional intelligence in order to develop MI and EI through real experiences in the nature. The subjects were 5-year-old kindergarten children, the education activities lasted for 7 months. Significant effects were found in the children's multiple and emotional intelligence between the control group and the activity group in some but not all areas of MI and EI. Consequently, the 'Friends of Nature' program can be said to have partially positive effects on the improvement of children's multiple and emotional intelligence.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.101-116
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• 2016

Objective: This study aimed to investigate how the eco-centered early childhood education by seasonal divisions influences the child's nature-friendly attitude and emotional intelligence. Methods: Forty 5-year-olds from 2 preschools in Gyeonggi were selected through convenience sampling and were divided into the experimental group (21) and the comparative group (19). The experimental group received eco-centered childhood education by seasonal divisions 2 or 3 times a week (33 in total). Pre-post data were collected on both groups and analyzed via t-test and ANCOVAs. Results: The key result was as follows: eco-centered childhood education by seasonal divisions influenced positively the nature-friendly attitude and emotional intelligence of children. Conclusion: Based on the result, it is recommended that eco-centered early childhood education be applied in childhood education and that relevant program be developed. Eco-centered education by seasonal divisions is meaningful in early childhood so that children can be harmonious with the nature. Furthermore, the study should be continued for the development of qualified eco-centered education.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.399-416
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between science teaching practices and beliefs about the nature of science. Defining teachers' beliefs as a broad construct, the researcher tried to examine not only the teachers' understanding about the nature of science, but also the effect and reflection in science teaching practices with regards to the nature of science. Guiding research questions were how the teachers' science teaching practices reflected their beliefs about the nature of science. The methodology of this study was qualitative approach that included interviews, classroom observations, and instructional materials. At an urban area of Korea, five beginning elementary teacher was chosen. The cross-case and grounded theory study design were adopted as data analysis process. The results of data analysis were checked by teachers for internal validity. This study identified the teachers' beliefs about the nature of science suggested by many researchers and revealed that these teachers' beliefs reflected a little in science teaching practices. On the occasion it was reflected, restricted merely within the narrow limits the way to teach the concepts and contents presented in science curriculum. In addition, some of the obstacles that these teachers' beliefs did not reflect the science teaching practices with regards to the nature of science were investigated in this study.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.257-272
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• 2014

This paper examines and presents descriptions of 12 prospective primary teachers' views on the nature of mathematics in USA. All the participants were elementary teacher candidates enrolled in the same mathematics method courses. Interview data show that the prospective primary teachers possess two kinds of views on the nature of mathematics: primarily traditional and even mix of traditional and nontraditional beliefs in terms of Raymond's (1997) belief criteria. Implications for teacher education were discussed at the end of the paper.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.159-171
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• 2004

Understanding the nature of science is being emphasized recently among the major goals of science education. The nature of science is concerned with aims of scientific work, the status and nature of scientific knowledge, and science as societal institution. This is a review on how to investigate the pupils' ideas about the nature of science, which was suggested by Driver et al. in their book 'Young people's images of science (1996)'. The purpose of this review is to consider the methodological problems of investigating the pupils' ideas about the nature of science, and to get the implications of developing the instruments about it. The instruments, developed by Driver et al., are described as a model and their suggestions are surveyed. Several hints are given this article to develop the similar instruments.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.553-568
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• 2013

Although many researchers and science educators agree that understanding of the nature of science is essential in order for students to be a scientific literate person, it is not easy to compromise exactly what kind of understanding of the nature of science is required to achieve this goal (Smith & Scharmann, 1999). This study discusses a theoretical background about the nature of science (NOS) including some consensus views of the NOS that several important U.S. educational reform documents and science researchers have presented over the past several decades. Finally, this study proposes an inclusive framework of the nature of science based on the four categories of scientific literacy, which are (1) science as a body of knowledge, (2) science as a way of investigating, (3) science as a way of thinking, and (4) the interaction of science, technology, and society. Each category of the framework includes several statements about the nature of science to describe each theme of the NOS. This framework is comprehensive and inclusive because it is suggested by examining several major U.S. national-level documents and in the publications of science education researchers presented about the nature of science. Significantly, many of the key ideas were added into category (4) and category (3), which indicates that the current literature stresses the relationship among science, technology, and society as well as the work of scientists.