• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2012

The Purpose of this study was to analyze STS contents in elementary school science textbooks according to 6th, 7th and revision 2007 national curriculum. The contents of STS were analyzed by the STS elements of Yager and the STS topics of Piel's standard. Major findings from the analyses are as follows: (1) The STS contents in the science textbooks of the 6th curriculum took up 13.7% and increased to 18.3% in the 7th and 19.0% in the revision 2007, which showed that the textbooks followed the goal of the national curriculum faithfully. (2) Based on the STS elements by Yager's standard, most of STS content is focused on 'Application of science', 'Social problems and issues' and 'Local and community relevance'. (3) Based on the STS topics by Piel's standard, most of STS contents are focused on 'Effect of technological development' and 'Society of science'. These results indicate that recent STS education trends are reflected on the 6th, 7th and revision 2007 textbooks well. However, it is suggested that some improvement is needed, such as diversification of topic.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate about current status of science field study in elementary schools. A total of 72 elementary teachers in Busan and Gyungnam districts were involved and the data from questionnaire was gathered. The questionnaire was comprised two parts: items on general level include the epistemological aspect and actual condition and items on concrete level according to chapters of elementary school science curriculum. The major findings are as follows: 1. Many teachers cognize the requirement of science field study in 7th Korean elementary school science curriculum is larger than 6th one. But they respond the actual number of science field study in 7th curriculum is nearly equal to 6th. 2. In analysis to grades, the actual number of field study decrease as grade is high. 3. In the science content aspects, the requirement of field study is the largest on biology domain and earth science domain. 4. Many teachers have pointed out “the difficulty of administration for field study” and “inappropriated surrounding of their school” as the problems of science field study in elementary school.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2003

The purposes of this study are to analyze the elementary school science textbooks (chemistry part) developed under the 7th national curriculum and to compare with those under the 6th national curriculum. The lesson hour, the number of pages, contents at each grade, deleted or newly introduced contents were analyzed. Some features of the 'Separation of mixtures' chapter were also analyzed. Educational implications were discussed in the aspect of whether the intention of revised curriculum was reflected, especially whether the amount of teaming was decreased.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.32-42
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to provide meaningful basic materials for organizing a science curriculum in future by analyzing the status and changes of contents about astronomical phenomena in textbooks according to the changes of the science curriculum of elementary school. A main target of analysis is science textbooks of elementary school in curriculums from 1st to 7th. For the analysis, the analytic frame based on contents in astronomy textbooks of teachers colleges and colleges of education was used. The result of the analysis is as in the following. First, astronomy accounted for average about 7% of all pages of textbooks in all of science curriculums. The 1st educational curriculum had the most learning quantity of 10.40%, and the 6th curriculum had the least quantity of 4.39%. These results show that astronomy was not a small part and was considered important in each science curriculum of elementary school considering that earth science accounted for 17-26% of all pages in elementary school science curriculum. Second, the things that have been dealt with in common in all science curriculums from 1st to 7th of elementary school are the shape of the earth, the rotation and the revolution of the earth, the occurrence of the seasons, the apparent motion of the sun, the status and motion of the moon, the movement of a star, the brightness and distance of a star, constellations, the sun, planets and others. These contents are expected to be dealt with continuously as basic contents to organize astronomy regardless of the changes of curriculum. Third, in science curriculum of elementary school, astronomical phenomena based on life experiences regarding the earth, the moon and the sun are mainly dealt with in the first and the second grade. Contents requiring principles-understanding and research are dealt with in the fifth and sixth grade. These results show that elementary school science curriculum dealing with astronomy reflects the developmental stages of students and considers principle of learning possibility.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.102-113
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• 2001

In order to compare with the 6th and 7th science curricular for the inquiry skill elements in the elementary and secondary school, we divided skill domains into five classes which were process skill, step skill for inquiry instruction, inquiry activity skill, manipulative skill and breeding-farming skill. And then we investigated the kinds and frequencies for the inquiry skill elements of the 6th and 7th curricular in the elementary and secondary school. The results were as follows: 1. The total kinds of inquiry skill element showed 17 kinds in the 6th curriculum and 23 kinds in the 7th. Therefore, the 7th curriculum was higher 1.4 times than the 6th curriculum in the kinds of skill elements. 2. The total frequencies for the inquiry skill elements of the 6th curriculum were 408 and those of the 7th were 729. Therefore, the 7th curriculum was about 1.8 times as many as the 6th. 3. In the kinds of inquiry skill elements according to the school levels, the course of the elementary school showed 14 kinds in the 6th curriculum and 18 kinds in the 7th. The course of middle school showed 7 kinds in 6th and 16 kinds in 7th. The integrated science course of high school was 10 kinds in the 6th and 10 kinds in the 7th. The skill elements in four science curricular of the high school course showed total 11 kinds in the 6th and 21 kinds in the 7th. And then the kinds of inquiry skill elements of the 7th curriculum in the middle and high school course showed about 2 times as many as the 6th curriculum. In the school level, the increase of skill elements showed the highest in the middle school course, and then in the high school course. 4. The total skill elements from the elementary school to the high school in the 6th science curriculum showed 17 kinds and in the order from the highest to the lowest rates, such as experimenting 20%, observing 15%, interpreting and analyzing data 13%, investigating 9%, measuring 7%, drawing a conclusion and assessment 7%, discussion 6%, communicating 5%, classifying 4%, recognizing problems and formulating hypothesis 4%, predicting 3%, designing and carrying out an experiment 3%, collecting and treating data 2%, manipulating skill 1%, modeling 0.5%, breeding and farming 0.3% and inferring 0.2%. 5. The total skill elements from the elementary school to the high school in the 7th curriculum appeared 23 kinds and in the order from the highest to the lowest rates, such as drawing a conclusion and assessment 31%, investigating 14%, collecting and treating data 8%, observing 7%, experimenting 7%, recognizing problems and formulating hypothesis 6%, interpreting and analyzing data 4%, measuring 3%, discussion 3%, manipulating skill 3%, modeling 3%, classifying 2%, project 2%, educational visits 1%, controlling variables 1%, predicting 1%, inferring 1%, operational definition 1%, communicating 1%, designing and carrying out an experiment 0.3%, breeding and farming 0.3%, applicating a number 0.2% and relating with time and space 0.2%. In the conclusion, the 7th curriculum was added 6 kinds of skill elements to the 6th curriculum, such as operational definition, applicating a number, relating with time and space, controlling variables, educational visits and project.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.239-254
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• 2015

The aims of this research were to analyze and compare verbs in the contents of the 7th, 2007, and 2009 revised national curriculum for elementary and middle school science. After the investigation of 1383 verbs in description of achievement standards and inquiry, we found that 'to know'(15.0 %) in elementary school and 'to understand'(24.2 %) in middle school were the most frequently used ones, totally in these three curriculums. In the 7th national curriculum, frequently used verbs in elementary school were ones related with inquiry such as observation, investigation and so on though 'to understand' had the most common verbs. Secondly, 'to explain' ranked top among verbs in the 2007 revised national curriculum. It showed some possibility of influences of the discussion-oriented situation at that time. Finally, however, in 2009 revised national curriculum, 'to know' and 'to understand' occupied the first and second portion of the verb distribution. In addition, 'to understand' and 'to observe' were used evenly through three curriculums but the portions of 'to know' increased through curriculum revisions. Some implications and discussions were also added with suggestions for further researches.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.63-75
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• 2007

This study investigated how the contents of biology domains that were dealt with in the 7th national elementary-school science curriculum were in turn dealt with in the other subject matter areas. Through this, it was hoped that the place and identity of biology as a subject could be more clearly established and defined and additionally, more basic data for developing the new national science curriculum could be acquired at the same time. Subject matter areas that overlapped with biology in the 7th national elementary-school curriculum were practical arts, social studies and physical education. The structure and composition of specific components that were dealt with by these subject matter areas were very different from those of science, and the analysis showed that they failed to correspond across grades. Moreover, topics such as 'natural calamities and the environment' and 'human reproduction' that were dealt with by other subject matter areas, but not in science must be included for developing the new national science curriculum. Accordingly, when it comes to composing the contents of each subject matter area during creation of the new national curriculum, the relevant experts in related subject matter areas should be mobilized to conduct in-depth analysis of the following areas: viability, the most appropriate level of difficulty, and appropriateness of any hierarchy of relative importance between subjects. Additionally, efforts to reflect any improvements in the way the new national curriculum is developed which come about through this research are needed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.203-213
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• 2005

In this study, the biological units of elementary school science were classified to the lower categories of Dimensions of Learning out of the 1 st to the 7th National Curriculum using the Dimensions of Learning Project developed by ASCD in USA. Also they were investigated which lower categories of Dimensions of Learning were used to the Curriculum. The results were as follows; First, the average percentages of using the lower categories of Dimensions of learning increased gradually from lower to higher grade regardless of any versions of Curriculum. For example, the percentages of using the lower categories according to grade 3 to 6 were increased by $56.1\%,\;61.4\%.\;67.1\%,\;86.8\%$ in the 7th Curriculum (r = .942). Second, as a result of investigating the percentages of using lower categories of Dimensions of Learning according to the change of curriculum, the average percentages appeared to be $37.9\%,\;42.9\%,\;41.1\%,\;47.6\%,\;47.6\%,\;50.5\%,\;67.9\%$ from the 1st to the 7th National Curriculum, respectively. In addition, the average percentages were increased gradually from the 1st to the 7th National Curriculum (r = .878). Third, the average percentages of using the lower categories of Dimensions of Learning decreased approximately from 1 st to 5th Dimension. The results are considered to be a desirable organization considering the physiological, cognitive development of elementary students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.1028-1038
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• 2004

This study investigated how the 7th national elementary school science curriculum was implemented at science classrooms. Data from surveys with 140 elementary schools, 18 science classroom observations, and in-depth interviews with teachers were used to examine the characteristics of elementary school science instruction. Based on the data, I explored (1)how science curriculum is operated in terms of objectives, contents, methods and evaluation of school science, and (2)how student-centeredness and localization themes are reflected on the reconstructed school science curriculum. It was found that the degree of the reorganization of the national curriculum at the teacher level was minimal. And most of the elementary teachers followed the directions and contents of the science textbook and teacher's guidebook regardless of their own local situations. For most teachers, restructuring science curriculum meant reordering the sequences of the contents, and adding or deleting some units or topics. I also examined why elementary teachers have difficulty in reconstructing science curriculum at the classroom level. The necessity of curriculum reconstruction at the teacher level is also discussed.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.305-317
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• 2004

The learning materials in elementary school science textbooks should include all kinds of materials being used by both teachers and students in the science teaching. The major purpose of this research is to analysis textbooks and teacher's guidebooks prepared for the science teaching of 3-6 grade students. To clarify this research, we listed whole of the learning materials of science teaching for each grade and counted numbers being used for whole of the lessons of science. And according to the characteristics and the methods of its preparation of materials, the types of learning materials can be divided into 10 categories such as teaching equipments for science, test materials, consumables, audio-visual aids, teaching equipments in general, collecting' recycling materials, field studies' collected data, breeding' cultivation materials, manufacture materials, and etc. At the result of this research, the 7th national science curriculum needs total 844 items of learning materials for science education. They could be separated into ten types of categories such as 159 items of teaching equipments for science, 65 items of test materials, 116 items of consumables, 198 items of audio-visual aids, 64 items teaching equipments in general, 31 items of collecting' recycling materials, 38 items of field studies (collecting) materials, 17 items of breeding-cultivation materials, 58 items of manufacturing materials, 105 items of other materials. And we found out that there were 332 items of materials for the 3rd grade, 303 items for the 4th grade, 324 items for the 5th grade, and 254 items for the 6th grade. The result of this research could be useful for classroom activities for science teaching.