• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.9-20
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• 2003

In this study, elementary school students' views about nature were searched. The participants were 18 students of fifth grade and sixth grade. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews involving a set of elicitation devices used to encourage students to talk about their views about nature, The results showed as follows; (1) Elementary school students had diverse views and common views about nature, (2) Their views about nature were affected by various factors, such as religion, aesthetical aspect, science, society, and so on. So when science educators construct science curriculum, they must consider these factors. (3) It is necessary to be concerned about the relations between science curriculum and others.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.104-115
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• 1995

Teachers' conception about the nature of science is considered to be an important factor to improve the students' conceptions of that. It is assumed that teachers' conception of the nature of science may be influenced by their views of learning. The first purpose of this study was to investigate the exploratory relationships between teachers' conceptions about the nature of science and their views of learning. The second one was to compare the their conceptions and views of learning before and after science education lectures during 1 semester. We administered the questionnaires for the nature of science and for constructivist's learning, respectively, consisted of 5 dimensions (relativism-positivism; inductivism- deductivism; decontextualism-contextualism; content-process; instrumentalism-realism) and of 6 aspects (student; learning; instruction; teacher; curriculum; evaluations) were administered to 57 pre-service elementary teachers (female=44; male=13) before and after lectures. In pre-test it was revealed that respondents had not the consistent conceptions about the nature of science. The conception of relativism was more dominant than those of positivism, deductivism than inductivism, decontextualism than contextualism, process than content and instrumentalism than realism. They had more constructivist views in the respect of process of learning than in other respects, that is, students, instruction, teacher, curriculum and evaluation. But no significant correlations between the dimensions of the nature of science and the aspects of the views of learning suggest that constructivst views of learning was not deeply related with their conceptions of the nature of science. In post-test we had similar results with those of the pre-test, but the process-content dimensions of the nature of science was correlated with the constuctivist views of learning. Therefore we concluded that elementary pre-service teachers had the constructivist views of learning which was isolated with their conceptions of the nature of science although they had science educations course. We need to develop the course to make the conceptions of the nature of science relate view of learning.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.1158-1172
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• 2004

This study searched secondary school students' epistemological views and ontological views about nature and the root causes of such their views. The subjects were 156 secondary school students and data were gathered by the questionnaire developed based on preceding researches. As a result, many secondary school students had epistemological views of unknowable nature. There were various root causes of their epistemological views such as regularity and harmony of nature, predictable and circular natural phenomenon, causation, the relation between human and nature. On the other hand, a lot of secondary school students had ontological view of supernatural nature. Their religious beliefs were very powerful influence their supernatural ontological views. The nature is the object of science and the physical world. Because those views supply science educators basic backgrounds how leaners understand science class, secondary school students' epistemological views and ontological views are precious information. From now on, it is necessary to study relations between students' epistemological views and ontological views and their science class processes.

• Journal of Gifted/Talented Education
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.511-530
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• 2011

This study aims to find out science talented students' percentage of cognition about the views of nature of science and science inquiry which are essential for having a good understanding with science concepts. Each group of 40 science gifted students and 35 ordinary students was tested with a test of views of nature of science and science inquiry which consisted of 19 items with index of content validity 97% and reliability index 0.86, then its results being compared and analyzed. A group of science gifted students' percentage of cognition about the views of nature of science ranges from 20% to 97.5% -although it differs according to detailed views-showing its mean of 67% (50% in a group of ordinary students). Especially, the percentage of cognition about the sub view that there can be different opinions among scientists was high among woman science gifted students. A group of science gifted students' percentage of cognition about the views of science inquiry ranges from 27.5% to 77.5% -although it differs according to detailed views- showing 53% in their mean (41.8% in a group of ordinary students). Especially, the percentage of cognition about the sub view that scientists can have different research methods was high among woman science gifted students. The percentage of mistaken cognition by science gifted students about views of nature of science and about views of science inquiry was 33%, 47% respectively.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.243-251
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between elementary school teachers' points of view about the organization of the science curriculum and their views on the nature of science (NOS). We surveyed 132 elementary school teachers' view points about these two kinds of views, analyzed the data by their variables, and compared the two viewpoints with their personal details. The elementary school teachers thought the science curriculum should be emphasized through the process more than contents. They thought the contents of the science curriculum should be integrated rather than separated. As teachers' career progressed, they focused on the contents more than the process. On the other hands, because elementary school teachers showed the NOS views as relativism, deductivism, decontextualism, content, and instrumentalism, when we plotted sub-viewpoints of NOS in process-content dimension, we thought it would be similar distributions with point of views on the organization of science curriculum. However, there was no meaningful relation. This showed that teachers' views on the organization of the curriculum and the NOS are totally different. These findings suggest further research is needed to find how factors influence elementary school teachers' views on the organization of the science curriculum and what inclinations can occur in science classes with their different views.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.430-441
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• 2011

We investigated the elementary students' epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement. The Views About Scientific Measurement (Ibrahim, 2005) was administered to 117 sixth graders. The analyses of the results indicated that there was an inconsistency in their epistemological views depending on the contexts of the measurement. They also had some difficulties in understanding a distribution of the data, which is needed to understand the necessity of repeating measurements, choosing a best representative value, and comparing data sets. They were found to have some naive views on scientific measurement which influenced negatively for fostering modern epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement. The results suggest that the nature of scientific measurement should be emphasized explicitly in the national curriculum, and an effective method which improves elementary students' epistemological views on the nature of scientific measurement also be developed.

• Research in Mathematical Education
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.257-272
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• 2014

This paper examines and presents descriptions of 12 prospective primary teachers' views on the nature of mathematics in USA. All the participants were elementary teacher candidates enrolled in the same mathematics method courses. Interview data show that the prospective primary teachers possess two kinds of views on the nature of mathematics: primarily traditional and even mix of traditional and nontraditional beliefs in terms of Raymond's (1997) belief criteria. Implications for teacher education were discussed at the end of the paper.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.558-570
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• 2005

The importance of teaching the nature of science (NOS) has been always emphasized in science education. However, the NOS is hardly taught in elementary science class. We are lacking in the strategies and materials for teaching NOS. So we designed the science drama teaching, and investigated the effects on pupils' perceptions about NOS. The subjects of this study were 185 third graders from a elementary school. The treatment group was provided with science drama lessons and the control group was provided with traditional lecture-type lessons. Their perceptions about NOS were investigated before/after the science lessons and after 3 months following them, and both of two groups were compared. The pretest results revealed that the pupils of both groups were found to have similar views on NOS. Dey had traditional views of the most items except for social construction of theories, mathematical knowledge and decision-making. After science lessons, they tended to change their views toward modem views, but the pupils of the treatment group showed more modem views than those of the control group on the observation, model, social construction of theories, predictions. After 3 months, the pupils of the control group tended to come back to their traditional views, but those of the treatment group showed tendencies that their changed views were kept up on the observation, scientific model, scientific knowledge, scientific methods, decision-making, social construction of theories, mathematical knowledge. Therefore this study suggests that science drama teaching could be one of the effective ways for teaching NOS.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.169-179
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• 2007

We investigated the effects of hypothetical deductive experiment on students' views about the nature of science (NOS). Participants were 212 eighth graders from a middle school and they were assigned to a control group and an experimental group. Students of the control group did guided experiment in small group and students of the experimental group did hypothetical deductive experiment in small group. The results revealed that both students of the control group and the experimental group possessed similar views about NOS in a pretest. But the experimental group exhibited more sophisticated views about the theory of dependance of observation, scientific reasoning and hypothesis in the posttest. Students who used mainly surface learning strategy within the experimental group exhibited more sophisticated views about hypothesis in the posttest. On the other hand, students who used mainly deep learning strategy within the experimental group exhibited more sophisticated views about the theory of dependance of observation, scientific reasoning and hypothesis in the posttest.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.553-568
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• 2013

Although many researchers and science educators agree that understanding of the nature of science is essential in order for students to be a scientific literate person, it is not easy to compromise exactly what kind of understanding of the nature of science is required to achieve this goal (Smith & Scharmann, 1999). This study discusses a theoretical background about the nature of science (NOS) including some consensus views of the NOS that several important U.S. educational reform documents and science researchers have presented over the past several decades. Finally, this study proposes an inclusive framework of the nature of science based on the four categories of scientific literacy, which are (1) science as a body of knowledge, (2) science as a way of investigating, (3) science as a way of thinking, and (4) the interaction of science, technology, and society. Each category of the framework includes several statements about the nature of science to describe each theme of the NOS. This framework is comprehensive and inclusive because it is suggested by examining several major U.S. national-level documents and in the publications of science education researchers presented about the nature of science. Significantly, many of the key ideas were added into category (4) and category (3), which indicates that the current literature stresses the relationship among science, technology, and society as well as the work of scientists.