• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.200-210
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• 2003

This study is focused to characteristics of earth region vocabularies used in 7th curricula science textbooks for 3rd to 6th grades of elementary school. The numbers of earth region vocabularies are generally increased from the lower to the higher grade textbooks, ‘science’ and ‘experiments and observation’. In ‘science’ textbooks, numbers and use frequencies of earth region vocabularies are predominant in astronomy and atmospheric science vocabularies. Meanwhile, in ‘experiment and observation’, domains related with astronomy have relatively more numbers of the vocabularies but domains related with geology have higher use frequencies of those vocabularies relative to domains related with another areas. ‘Strata’ and ‘fossil’ of geology vocabularies, ‘air temperature’ of atmospheric science vocabularies and ‘sun’ and ‘planet’ of astronomy vocabularies are commonly the highest frequent in the use for science textbooks and experiment and observation. In the both books, earth region vocabularies are derived from 70% to 80% words of Chinese, below 10% of pure Korean, and rest of other languages. Additionally, cases of pure Korean vocabularies unpacked from professional nomenclatures, ones without previous explanations and multiple vocabulary applications to same phenomena are observed in the both books. Synthesizing above results, it is suggested that the reconsideration of domains related with each area of earth science and vocabulary uses assigned to above cases is necessary, in possible.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.501-510
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• 2005

An analysis was done on the “inquiry sections” of Earth Science chapters of 10th grade science textbooks. The Inquiry sections were classified into different types and the frequencies of basic process skills, integrated process skills, and inquiry activities were measured in section to find out whether they sufficiently satisfy the requirements based on the 7th National Curriculum. The number of selected science textbooks that have been used in high school for this study were eleven. The number of inquiry tasks were on an average of 24.0. The types of inquiry sections and the elements of basic and integrated process skills were different in every textbooks. The number of inquiry activities were also different and analyzed more than those presented. They were not integrated activities but presented as scientific process skills. The basic process skills and integrated process skills presented in textbooks were $16\%\;and\;77.2\%$, respectively. However, the distribution of two kinds of process skills were analyzed to be $45.6\%\;and\;55.4\%$, respectively. In the process skills, the frequencies of inferring $(49.5\%)$ and data interpretation (68.7%) were the highest; however, the other process skills including recognizing problem, formulating hypothesis and generalization were not even presented in any of the text books. Due to the lack of the definitions of Science process skills and inquiry activities in the 7th National Curriculum, each text book defined these terms differently. It suggests that the meaning of inquiry, science process skills, and inquiry activities should be operationally defined in the national curriculum and the criteria for construction of inquiry activities are required.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.349-357
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to consider the implications of science experiment in class and to seek a direction for its improvement. For this purpose, Science textbooks, teachers' cognitions, and classroom activities have been analyzed to find out how many and what kind of levels of inquiry elements are included in those. In this study, 22 teachers have participated in the questionnaire to investigate their perception about experiment class, and the two instruction cases in two classes of 9th grade have also been analyzed. Results show that most of the textbooks have included questioning, evidence collecting, explanation of phenomena, and connection with existing scientific knowledge. But the elements of communication and justification have been few. Most levels of the inquiry are teacher-led. Although the teachers thought communication and justification are important, their classroom activities does not coalesce with their thoughts. The students mostly spend their time with connecting evidence, they hardly explain the phenomenon based on the proofs as the results of experiment, and the activities of connection with the existing scientific knowledge, and communication and justification.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.383-393
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• 2015

This study analyzed the 6th grade elementary science textbook 'Science stories' reading process of students by utilizing eye movement tracking techniques. Participants read 3 articles in the new experimental science textbooks and solved 9 problems about each article. By understanding and academic achievement results, participants were divided into high-groups, middle-groups, and low-groups. The results of eye movement characteristics of the high-groups and low-groups had the following differences. Number of fixations and number of regressions were higher in high-groups. Average fixation duration and average regressive fixation duration were longer in low-groups. Fixation time for the key sentence of the article was longer in high-groups. Analysis of a scan path and post-interview, high-groups had frequent regression between sentences and they knew where the core of the article is and paid much attention there. In contrast low-groups are sequentially read most articles and some of them had a leap of abnormal range. Problem-solving approach is also different between groups. In conclusion reading style is associated with the science stories comprehension and students who had more regressions, much core search process, effective attention distribution, high concentration showed better understanding results. Also words or sentences used in textbooks are associated with science stories comprehension.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.299-313
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• 2002

A web-based instruction program for the enriched course under the 7th Revised National Curriculum of Biology in Korea was developed and the application effects to learners were analyzed. For the development of the web-based instruction program, five topics of biology from the enriched courses through 7th to 10th grades in the middle and high school science textbooks were selected and modulated with interrogative sentences. Each topic of programs was divided into four activity sections according to the learners' activity procedures supplemented with explanations and evaluations. Each activity was hyper-linked to multi-layers and animations. Further, a virtual experiment was also developed and an evaluation section designed by Java Script was attached. Among five topics, one topic of 'Reproduction and development' at 9th grade level was selected to examine the effects on students' learning. Among 247 9th grade students in the research subject school, only 67 students were able to accessible to ultra-thin Internet cables with their computers at home and they became an experimental group. A control group was assigned to those who are similar level of school science achievement to the experiment group and did not use the web-based program. It was found that most of 9th grade students are able to use Internet at home, however, they do not prefer to use Internet for homework or task project. Rather, most of students used Internet for e-mail or information navigation. Students used internet to solve problems of science and perceived the benefits of Internet for science learning. However, there are not many students to utilize Internet for science homework or task project. Students expressed that they do not prefer to use a web-based learning program for science learning due to lack of interests in science. The effects on students who studied with this program appeared to be significantly high compared to those who did not study with this program. Students who studied with this program positively evaluated this program, in particular, they enjoyed animation effect and virtual experiments. It was concluded that a web-based program for science learning should be developed and distributed through Internet in an attractive and interesting format for students. It was also concluded that various web-based programs for science learning with animation effect and virtual experiments should be developed to increase students' interests in science as well as to improve students' science achievements.