• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.461-468
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the abilities of 6th grade students to assess the relationship between spatial capability, concept of celestial motion, and science process skills, which can help find a better teaching strategy for students in understanding the concept of celestial motion. The results are as follows. First, in terms of level of accomplishment of these three skills, male students show higher level of accomplishment than female students, but significant differences are found. Second, according to the analysis of the effect of spatial capability and concept of the movement of heavenly bodies, the former has a stronger influence on the students' cognition of celestial motion. Minor elements of spatial capability that influence the conception of celestial motion are device analogy, calculation of wood cut, and revolving light. Third, spatial capability is very influential on the level of accomplishment in science process skills. Among the minor elements of spatial capability that is influential to science process skills, calculation of wood cut is the highest, especially when various elements are interactively related to each other.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.267-275
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate student's Acquisition about the conception of the Earth Rotation between difference of their Spatial Sensibility. In this study, four students were selected out of 83 9th graders in Gwangju, Korea. The spatial sensibility test instrument was developed by the Korean Testing Center, and the test instruments of 'the movement of celestial bodies' were developed by Kim (1997). The results were as follows: Students with higher spatial sensibility understood precisely about the Earth's rotation in stereoscopic space. However, those with lower spatial sensibility failed to grasp the Earth's rotation and memorized it as fragmentary concepts. As for gender effect, male student with higher spatial sensibility explained the concepts clearly, while that with lower spatial sensibility has difficulty with the Earth's rotation in relation to the diurnal motion of celestial bodies. On the other hand, female student with higher spatial sensibility explained the concepts correctly in detail, while that with lower spatial sensibility had difficulty explaining the concepts in stereoscopic space. Therefore, students with higher spatial sensibility should be presented with problems in which they form their own solution. Those with lower spatial sensibility should be allowed to understand the phenomena intuitively. In developing teaching methods, female students should interact with the concepts in stereoscopic space directly, while male students should consider the celestial objects from various viewpoints. Then spatial sensibility in relation to the movement of celestial bodies would be expected to improve.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.489-500
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• 2005

The objective of this study is to examine the cognitive process that undergoes a middle student’s conceptual change about the universe by the cognitive conflict, using science history materials as a teaching strategy. Four eighth graders were selected and classified by three cognitive level. Students were interviewed and conducted to an inquiry activities regarding their viewpoint about the universe after each class, and their conceptual change patterns were analysed from pre-test and post-test. This study showed that each student held dissimilar astronomical preconceptions and various misconceptions about celestial motion. Students at the formal operational stage and transitional stage experienced the conceptual change from geocentricism to heliocentricism by instructional model upon the science history materials. Student at the concrete operational stage had either unscientific conception, no conception, or could not have a conceptual change even when being presented with an environment that arouses cognitive conflict ($R^2$: Phase change of Venus and its Rise and set time). They ended up having a cognitive change from geocentricism to heliocentricism by solving another problem ($R^2$: Relation between visible diameter and position of Mars). After the instruction, a conceptual achievement progress was reported with a $10\%$ improvement. Therefore, the instruction model based upon science history was effective on student’s scientific conceptual change.