• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.430-441
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• 2011

We investigated the elementary students' epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement. The Views About Scientific Measurement (Ibrahim, 2005) was administered to 117 sixth graders. The analyses of the results indicated that there was an inconsistency in their epistemological views depending on the contexts of the measurement. They also had some difficulties in understanding a distribution of the data, which is needed to understand the necessity of repeating measurements, choosing a best representative value, and comparing data sets. They were found to have some naive views on scientific measurement which influenced negatively for fostering modern epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement. The results suggest that the nature of scientific measurement should be emphasized explicitly in the national curriculum, and an effective method which improves elementary students' epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement also be developed.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.63 no.6
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• pp.473-485
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• 2019

In this study, we investigated the differences of graph constructed by middle school students in daily-life and scientific contexts according to the views on the nature of scientific measurement. A test consisting of three similar data sets regarding daily-life and scientific contexts was developed, and administered to 151 ninth graders. They were expected to construct proportional, inverse-proportional, and increasing and become constant form of graphs for each data set. Graphs constructed were analyzed in the aspects of constructing a trend line (types of a trend line, interpolation/extrapolation), selecting axes variables, scaling axes, and plotting points. Analyses of the results revealed that the students with set paradigm tended to construct a curved trend line, while those with point paradigm constructed a broken trend line in inverse-proportional graph questions. In the aspects of interpolation/extrapolation, most students with set paradigm performed both interpolation and extrapolation better than those with point paradigm in scientific context. Most students with set paradigm performed both interpolation and extrapolation regardless of contexts, while the proportion of interpolation of those with point paradigm was higher in scientific context than in daily-life context. In selecting axes variables, scaling axes, and plotting dots, there were no statistically significant differences between set and point paradigms. On the bases of the results, educational implications for improving graph construction skills of middle school students are discussed.