• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.83-92
• /
• 2011

The purpose of this study was to develop the learning program using sharing nature that can be utilized in Korean elementary science classes and explore the its effects of science academic achievement, inquiry ability, scientific attitude of students after applying it. Sharing Nature used a playful and inspirational teaching strategy and was named after Flow Learning based on universal principles of how people learn. To examine the effects of Sharing Nature Learning Program this learning materials were applied to elementary science curriculum, and an experimental group and a control group were selected from 4th graders at a elementary school located in Icheon City, Gyeong-gi province. The results of this study found significant difference in the student's enhancement of the science academic achievement, inquiry ability, scientific attitude. In conclusion, Sharing Nature Learning Program is useful to develop the elementary school student's science academic achievement, inquiry ability, scientific attitude and had better be widely applied to science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.22 no.2
• /
• pp.336-344
• /
• 2002

The purpose of this study was to analyse achievement of 'Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science' in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R), which was performed in 1999 with 38 nations participating. Korean 8th grade students' achievement of 'Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science' was compared to that of other countries and other content areas in science. Average percent correct of items in each subcategory - Scientific Method, Experimental Design, Scientific Measurements, Describing and Interpreting Data - was also analysed. Although 'Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science' topics were not included in intended curriculum in Korea, Korean students' average scale score of 'Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science' was significantly higher than international average and, in comparison with other science content areas, achievement of that area was relatively high. The reasons could be that the most students studied topics related to 'Scientific Inquiry and the Nature of Science' through the implemented curriculum and that the Korean teachers recognized the importance of inquiry. According to the results to analyze subcategories, the average percent correct of Korea were higher than 50% except the 'Scientific Measurements' subcategory. However, the international average percent correct were lower than 50%. Especially, the average percent correct of Korea was the highest in 'Describing and Interpreting Data' subcategory despite there were many students who were confused at observation, hypothesis and conclusion.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.57 no.1
• /
• pp.115-126
• /
• 2013

In this study, we developed a explicit and reflective scientific inquiry learning program about nature of scientific inquiry, and compared its instructional influences with those of implicit scientific inquiry learning. We also compared students' perceptions of the program. Eighth graders at a middle school were assigned to the treatment and the control groups. The students of the treatment group participated in the program, while those of the control group participated in general scientific inquiry instruction. The analyses of the results revealed that the program was more effective in improving students' epistemological views on scientific inquiry than general scientific inquiry learning. However, there were no statistically significant differences in both test scores of science achievement and enjoyment of science lessons. The students of the treatment group perceived that group discussion on the nature of scientific inquiry was an advantage of the program. However, they still had difficulties in performing group discussion, understanding the nature of scientific inquiry, and writing and presenting their thoughts. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.282-295
• /
• 2011

Prior research has reported that student epistemological beliefs might affect their participation in learning and the process of conceptual change. The purposes of this study were to investigate the characteristics of sixth grade students epistemological beliefs about science and the relation between their epistemological beliefs about science and factors related their learning. For this research questions, 245 sixth grade students participated and various test instruments were used in this study. Students answered two types of questionnaires on epistemological beliefs about science and three test instruments on factors related students' learning(achievement in science, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels). The results of this study were as follows. First, a large number of elementary school students believed that the purpose of science to perform activities like simple experiments. A lot of students believed that scientific knowledge was changeable according to the nature of scientific knowledge and that scientific knowledge could be learnt on their own. Also, many students believed experiment results to be basis on which to form personal scientific conceptions. Second, students who believed in more modern epistemology about science represented higher levels of science learning achievement, science inquiry skills, and cognitive levels. Therefore, when developing science curriculum, science educators need to consider how to develop student modern epistemological beliefs about science.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.401-414
• /
• 2021

The purpose of this study is to explore the cognitive achievement characteristics by group of achievement levels in the PISA 2018 science domain compared to the results of the PISA 2015, and to compare and analyze the 'epistemic' knowledge in the revised curriculum 2009 and in the revised curriculum 2007. The average correctness rates in PISA 2015 and PISA 2018 were analyzed by sub category of the evaluation frame in the PISA scientific domain. In the competencies domain, especially, the average correct answer rates of 'evaluating and designing scientific inquiry' were the lowest in medium and lower groups, but the rates rose in all achievement groups compared to PISA 2015, which is encouraging. Although the answer rates were low for both 'living system' knowledge and 'epistemic' knowledge in the knowledge domain, the average answer rates of the upper and middle groups increased in 'epistemic' knowledge compared to PISA 2015. The changes in the curriculum experienced by students participating in PISA were analyzed in relation to the 'evaluating and designing scientific inquiry' competency and 'epistemic' knowledge, which increased in average correct answer rates. In terms of understanding science, the "What is science?" unit that explicitly presents epistemic knowledge, and nature of model in inquiry activities, were explicitly presented in the revised curriculum 2009. In terms of understanding the process of justifying scientific knowledge, the number of inquiry activities increased, scientific explanations based on experimental results strengthened, and the "Science and Human Civilization" unit was introduced to help students to understand STS while simultaneously conducting arguments. These findings confirm the educational performance of groups by achievement level in the PISA 2018 scientific domain and suggest that the direction of education relates to epistemic knowledge in Korea's Science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.35 no.2
• /
• pp.253-264
• /
• 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate implications of self-directed learning experiments in elementary science education through understanding elementary school students' awareness of their experiences in self-directed learning experiments. Twenty students joined the school science club voluntarily and conducted self-directed learning experiments. We collected data through observation of the experiments, interviews, and questionnaires. The students who participated in the club showed high satisfaction with self-directed learning experiments. The participants were aware that their scientific interest and knowledge, and the confidence in conducting experiments were increased. The students felt positive about the inquiry process of conducting self-directed learning experiments with their own subjects. They also felt a sense of achievement in attempting their experiments in defiance of several failures. The participants realized that the self-directed inquires led to increased declarative and procedural knowledge of science. The students stated that they had some difficulties in coping with the different results contrary to expectations and preparing laboratory materials and instruments. Nonetheless, they showed the promotion of their scientific literacy during overcoming those difficulties. We suggest that self-directed learning experiments can be a more effective way in science learning to make students experience the nature of science than existing school experiments. This can be implemented through a creative experience activities such as science clubs.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.1-22
• /
• 1988

The educational policy of a nation should be based on the results of nation-wide studies and their analyses. This study is the third one in a series of research on "development of improvement plan and monitoring system for secondary school science", focusing on the three major areas, such as students' achievements, science instruction and conditions for science education in vocational high schools. In general, the results showed that science achievements in vocational high schools were significantly lower than those of general high schools. While the achievement level in physics was lower by one percent, the achievement levels in chemistry and biology were significantly lower by more than 5 percents. In the case of scientific inquiry, the results showed much lower scores compared to those of general high schools. Concerning the inquiry abilities, most of the students did not possess the formal operational thinking skills such as controlling variables and combinatorial thinking. The ability of experimental skills seemed to be closely related to the students' majors. Students in industrial arts schools could measure electric resistance very well, while students in agricultural high school students failed completely. In the area of students' attitude toward science, the greater part of the students had the experiences of using scientific equipments (68.6 %), experimentation (54.3 %), and extracurricular science activities (56.9 %). They also showed positive attitude towards the nature of science (59.8%). The results of the survey on science instruction and school conditions for science education showed the needs for improvement In general, the priority of science education in vocational high schools was very low compared to their major subjects. The teachers as well as students thought science text books nor to be difficult These responses and the low achievement levels seemed to be contradictory to each other. The facilities for science experiments were better equipped and installed to general high schools. However. the lack of budget was a major problem for performing experiments uning the facilities. Therefore. science education in vocational high school have many things to be improved For the improvement of science education in vocational high schools, financial support as well as the intention for the improvement must be the essential factors.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.1235-1244
• /
• 2004

The purpose of the study was to produce resources to help develop instructional methods and programs for school science to reduce gender differences in science achievement by analyzing TIMSS-R results according to item type, benchmark, and content category. Korean male students performed higher than Korean female students and gender differences of Korean students were higher than international means in all item types including multiple-choice, short answer, and extended response type. GDI(Gender Difference Index) of Korean students was lower than international mean in top 10% benchmark but higher than international means in other benchmarks. Korean male students also exhibited higher performance than Korean female students in all content categories except scientific inquiry and the nature of science category. Regarding items that GDIs were higher than 10, the number of items belonged to life science and earth science category was relatively larger and a high percentage of them was not included in school science curriculum. In addition, the items were equally distributed in each performance category. In sum, the study showed various gender differences according to item type, benchmark, and content category. The results could be used to find appropriate instructional methods to reduce gender differences in science achievement.