• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.75-87
• /
• 1998

The problem solving processes of elementary school children who are talented in science have been seldom studied. Researchers often resort to thinking aloud method to collect data of problem solving processes. The major purpose of the study is investigating high ability elementary school students' problem solving processes through the analysis of written responses to science problems in everyday context. 67 elementary students were participated Chungcheongbuk-do Elementary Science Contest held on October, 1997. The written responses of the contest participants to science problems in everyday context were analyzed in terms of problem solving processes. The findings of the research are as follows. (1) High ability elementary students use various concepts about air and water in the process of problem solving. (2) High ability elementary students use content specific problem solving strategies. (3) The problem solving processes of the high ability elementary students consist of problem representation, problem solution, and answer stages. Problem representation stage is further divided into translation and integration phases. Problem solving stage is composed of deciding relevant knowledge, strategy, and info..ins phases. (4) High ability elementary students' problem solving processes could be categorized into 11 qualitatively different groups. (5) Students failures in problem solving are explained by many phases of problem solving processes. Deciding relevant knowledge and inferring phases play major roles in problem solving. (6) The analysis of students' written responses, although has some limitations, could provide plenty of information about high ability elementary students' problem solving precesses.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.133-143
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding on the primary school students' scientific creative problem solving ability, science process skills and attitude toward science class. To verify this research problem, the subject of this study was fifth-grade students selected from four classes of M elementary school located in Busan city. For four months, the experimental group of 51 students was taught using the "scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding". The control group also of 53 students was taught in normal classes which used a text-book. All students were given pre and post test to verify the effects of scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding on the primary school students' scientific creative problem solving ability, science process skills and attitude toward science class. The results from this study are as the following. First, the scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding were effective in scientific creative problem solving ability among the primary school students. It is possibly because in the process where one student compare his/her own thoughts with the others' ones and discuss them. Second, the scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding were effective in science process skills among the primary school students. Third, the scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding were effective in attitude toward science class. In conclusion, the scientific discussion classes focusing problem finding had positive effects on improvement of primary school students' scientific creative problem solving ability, science process skills and also could lead to a change in students' cognition about science class to a positive way. Therefore, the scientific discussion class focusing problem finding is hopefully to be provided as an effective instructive strategy of science class in school in the future.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.213-231
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate knowledge types which the elementary science gifted students would use when solving a science problem, and to examine characteristics and types that were shown in the science problem solving process. For this study, 39 fifth graders and 38 sixth graders from Institute of Education for the Gifted Science Class were sampled in one National University of Education. The results of this study were as follows. First, for science problem solving, the elementary science gifted students used procedural knowledge and declarative knowledge at the same time, and procedural knowledge was more frequently used than declarative knowledge. Second, as for the characteristics in the understanding step of solving science problems, students tend to exactly figure out questions' given conditions and what to seek. In planning and solving stage, most of them used 3~4 different problem solving methods and strategies for solving. In evaluating stage, they mostly re-examined problem solving process for once or twice. Also, they did not correct the answer and had high confidence in their answers. Third, good solvers had used more complete or partially applied procedural knowledge and proper declarative knowledge than poor solvers. In the problem solving process, good solvers had more accurate problem-understanding and successful problem solving strategies. From characteristics shown in the good solvers' problem solving process, it is confirmed that the education program for science gifted students needs both studying on process of acquiring declarative knowledge and studying procedural knowledge for interpreting new situation, solving problem and deducting. In addition, in problem-understanding stage, it is required to develop divided and gradual programs for interpreting and symbolizing the problem, and for increasing the understanding.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.382-389
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine the instructional effect of problem-based learning on creative problem-solving skills and academic achievement in elementary science classes. Based on the literature review, six stages for problem-based learning were applied: Orientation, Presenting problems and the process of learning, preliminary problem solving, problem solving, sharing results, and wrapping up/evaluating. The subjects were 74 students in two six-grade classes in Gyeonggi province. As a result, the following findings were given: First, the students who were engaged in problem-based learning showed better progress in creative problem-solving skills. Second, science academic achievement of experimental group were better than traditional group. Educational implications were discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.132-141
• /
• 2009

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of using digital science textbook on the scientific problem solving of elementary school students. For this research, an instrument to measure student's problem-solving skills was developed. The pretest and posttest scores of one hundred and six 5th grade students' problem-solving skills were analyzed and also the responses of three students who were selected by their levels in the problem-solving science digital textbook class were qualitatively analyzed. The results of this study were as follows; the scores of problem solving skills of science digital textbook groups were higher than that of traditional paper textbook group(p<.05). In the qualitative analysis of the students' reponses in a digital textbook class according to their achievement level, low-achievers' problem-solving skills were much more improved than high- and mid-achievers' skills. In conclusion, science digital textbook has a potential to improve students' scientific problem solving skills, and this possibility will be much higher when science digital textbook is used with teachers' intended instructional goals and strategies like problem-solving lessons.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.464-472
• /
• 2013

The purpose of this study was to analyze the science inquiry problem finding ability of gifted elementary students of science and general elementary students. For this purpose, this study analyzed the types of science inquiry problems in an ill-structured problem finding situation. Also, this study has compared science inquiry problem finding abilities of those two groups. From the results of this study, new ways of improving student' science inquiry problem finding ability and selection of gifted students of science were suggested. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, most of the inquiry problems generated by the scientifically gifted and the general students in an ill-structured problem situation could be categorized into seven types (measurement, method, cause, possibility, what, comparison, relationship) according to the inquiry objectives, and both group found more problems in scientific context than in everyday context. Regardless of the context of problem, scientifically gifted students found more problems and the type of problems generated by them were more various than those of general students. Second, there were differences in problem finding ability between scientifically gifted and general students. Scientifically gifted students found more problems and the quality of problems were higher than general students.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.286-294
• /
• 2007

This study investigated the relationship between elementary school students' creative problem solving skills in terms of science and cognitive strategies. Creative problem solving in science was measured by 4 variables; appropriateness, scientific ability, concreteness, and originality. Cognitive strategies were measured by 6 variables; surface(rehearsal), deep(elaboration and organization), and metacognitive strategies(planning, monitoring, and regulating). The KEDI Creative Problems Solving Test in Science(Cho et al., 1997) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire(Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990) were administered to 72 subjects. Data were analyzed by means of Pearson's correlation and multiple regression analysis. Our findings indicated a positive correlation between creative problem solving in science and cognitive strategies. The surface cognitive strategy (rehearsal) positively predicted the total score, the scientific ability's score, the concrete score, and the original score of creative problem solving in science. The deep cognitive strategy(organization) positively predicted the appropriate score and the metacognitive strategy(planning) positively predicted the original score of scientific creative problem solving skills.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.105-114
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to develop a teaching strategy focused on problem solving process and explore its effects on science creative problem solving ability, science process skills, science academic achievements and scientific attitudes of students after applying it. Teaching strategy focused on problem solving process employed brainstorming and PMI thinking strategies. The participants were the third grade students of both an experimental class(26 students) and a comparative class(25 students) at the S elementary school located in Goyang-City, Kyonggi Province. The developed strategy was applied to the experimental class for 9 periods of 'Separation of mixture' unit. The results of the tests on the science creative problem solving ability, the science process skills, scientific achievement and scientific attitude were statistically higher in the experimental class.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.147-153
• /
• 2002

Reasonable and reliable assessment method is one of the most important issues in science education, Partial credits method is an effective tool for assessing students' science inquiry problem solving. The purposes of this study were to classify the Problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking Process, and how much the related science concept and the science process skills were used in solving science inquiry problems, and to describe the possibility and rationality of the assessment method that gives partial credit 128 high school seniors were selected and their answers were analyzed to identify science concepts they used to solve each problem, and the result was used as the criterion in the scientific concept test development. Also, to study the science inquiry problem solving type, 152 high school seniors were selected, and protocols were made from audio-taped data of their problem solving process through a think-aloud method and retrospective interviews. In order to get a raw data needed in statistical comparison of reliability, discrimination and the difficulty of the test and the production of the regression equation that determines the ratio of partial credit, 640 students were selected and they were given a science inquiry problem test, a science process skills test, and a scientific concept test. Research result suggested it is more reasonable and reliable to switch to the assessment method that applies partial credit to different problem solving types based on the analysis of the thinking process in problem solving process, instead of the dichotomous credit method.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.624-633
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to compare problem finding ability, creative thinking ability, creative tendency, and science process skill between the scientifically gifted students and the general students. For this study, problem finding ability test, integrating creativity test, and science process skill test were conducted to the elementary gifted students (n=95) in science and the general students (n=149) at the same school district. The results of this study were as follows: The mean scores of problem finding, creative thinking, creative tendency, and science process skill of the gifted students were statistically higher than the general students. The problem finding ability had partially weak correlation with sub-domains of the creative thinking ability, creative tendency, and science process skill. Findings suggest that there are needs of further study about factors affecting problem finding and considering the degree of structure of problem situation.