• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.207-216
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• 2014

Understanding the nature of science (NOS) has been a major component of scientific literacy and an important learning goal in science education (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1990, 1993; Millar & Osborne, 1998; National Research Council, 1996, 2013). To achieve this goal, it is necessary to include appropriate views of the nature of science in science curriculum such as a textbook. The aim of this study was to conduct a content analysis of the elementary science textbooks to examine the presentation of the nature of science (NOS) using the four themes of scientific literacy, which are (1) nature of scientific knowledge, (2) nature of scientific inquiry, (3) nature of scientific thinking, and (4) nature of interactions among science, technology, and society (STS). Findings show while $3^{rd}$ and $4^{th}$ grade levels of science textbooks heavily emphasize on the Theme I, nature of scientific knowledge and the Theme II, the nature of scientific inquiry, the upper grade levels such as $5^{th}$ and $6^{th}$ grades of science textbooks are well balanced with the four themes of the nature of science. In addition, most of elementary science textbooks little focus on the Theme IV, nature of interactions among science, technology, and society (STS) among the four themes of the nature of science. It might be a shortcoming because the understanding the nature of interacions among science, technology and society (STS) is one of the key components in order for students to be a scientific literate person.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2014

The national reform document, Science for All Americans (AAAS, 1990), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NRC, 2012) emphasize the importance of the nature of science in guiding science educators in accurately portraying science to students. Therefore, it is important that textbook materials convey an accurate conception of the nature of science. This study employs content analysis to examine the content of textbooks in US and Korea elementary science textbooks with regard to the four aspects of the nature of science: (a) nature of scientific knowledge; (b) nature of scientific inquiry; (c) nature of scientific thinking; and (d) nature of interactions among science, technology, and society (Chiappetta, Fillman, & Sethna, 2004). Intercoder reliability was determined by calculating Cohen's kappa (Cohen, 1960). Findings show that while US elementary science textbooks are not balanced in presenting the four aspects of the nature of science regardless of the publishing companies, the presentation of the nature of science in Korean elementary science textbooks have better balanced treatment of the four themes across the grade levels. On the other hand, both US and Korean elementary science textbooks are attempting to convey an idea of what science is by emphasizing scientific knowledge and investigation.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2015

This research aims to study on educational methods of Nature-Study extracted through a wide body of literatures and meaning of Nature-Study toward today's science education. For this, viewpoints of Nature-Study were drown by previous historical study about Nature-Study. And educational methods of Nature-Study based on viewpoints of Nature-Study were abstracted by collecting and analyzing of literatures. Meaning of Nature-Study toward today's science education was considered. The research resulted in the following; First, Nature-Study emphasize the sympathy with nature, aim for integrated subject study and include non-formal study from a viewpoint of 'studying with nature'. Second, Nature-Study aim for outdoor activities, emphasize experiences than texts, value fundamental observation from a viewpoint of 'study through first-hand experiences'. Third, Nature-Study value interest of students, support the study for all students, emphasize the teachers' role as a helper from a viewpoint of 'learner-centered education'. Nature-Study is suggested to change view of point over to science education through nature toward today's science education.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to suggest the modification of activities to introduce the nature of science in earth science classrooms. A small modification can turn ordinary textbook activities into the nature of science activities. Since earth science could provide a good basis for the tentative, creative, and socially and culturally embedded nature of science, as well as appropriate understanding about scientific methods, careful modification of earth science activities could be effective for students to understand the nature of science. Considering which aspects of the nature of science are appropriate, along with the possible change in the activity, teachers will be able to modify textbook activities effectively. An example modification of H-R diagram activity was also suggested.

• 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.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.581-589
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• 2016

This research aims to find directions for character education in science education and to analyze Nature-Study theoretically as one of the ways to implement character education in science education. In order to accomplish this, references for character education were collected and analyzed to derive the directions for character education in science education, and then the results were verified by expert workshops composed of 2 science education experts and 4 PhD students. Through the consideration of references for Nature-Study in terms of character education, we supposed to confirm that Nature-Study is an efficient way to implement character education in science education. The research resulted in the following: First, science education should establish it's own role in character education by expanding the domains of value and realizing practice-centered character education. Accordingly, 'Expanded model of character education (The domains of the value)' was developed on the basis of 'formation of relationships' with 'nature & environment, spiritual object' and 'The practice-centered character manifested mechanism' empathized 'formation of relationships' and 'practice' was also diagramed. Second, Nature-Study empathized 'Science Education through Nature' can be one of the efficient ways to implement character education in science education. Nature-Study corresponds with the directions of character education in science education because Nature-Study aims for character education in it's educational purpose and emphasizes 'formation of relationships' with 'nature & environment' and 'practice' in the real world. In conclusion, science education should establish it's own role in character education by expanding the domains of value and realizing the practice-centered character education and Nature-Study is efficient ways to implement character education in science education.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.153-167
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• 2007

In this study, it is assumed that understanding the nature of science (NOS) would enhance students' performance of scientific inquiry in more authentic ways. The ultimate goal of this study is to suggest new models for developing scientific inquiry activities through understanding the NOS by linking the NOS with scientific inquiry. First, the various definitions and statements of the NOS are summarized, then the features of the developmental nature of scientific knowledge and the nature of scientific thinking based on the philosophy of science are reviewed, and finally a synthetic list of the elements of the NOS is proposed, consisting of three categories: the nature of scientific knowledge, the nature of scientific inquiry, and the nature of scientific thinking. This suggested synthetic list of the NOS is used to suggest a model of scientific inquiry through the understanding of the NOS. This list was designed to provide basic standards regarding the NOS as well as practical guidance for designing activities to improve students' understanding of the NOS.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.360-379
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to investigate beginning elementary teachers' beliefs about the nature of science. Defining teachers' beliefs as a broad construct, we tried to examine the teachers' understandings about the nature of science. The methodology of this study was a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews. In an urban area of Korea, five beginning elementary teachers were chosen. The cross-case and grounded theory study design were adopted for the data analysis. The results of data analysis were checked by teachers for internal validity. This study identified the teachers' beliefs about the nature of science suggested by many researchers. The results of this study showed that: 1) beginning elementary teachers did not well understand and were unfamiliar with the meanings of various terms about the nature of science; 2) their beliefs abut the nature of science were broad and various; 3) they understood some parts of the nature of science; 4) there were differences within their understandings about subconcepts of the nature of science.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.159-171
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• 2004

Understanding the nature of science is being emphasized recently among the major goals of science education. The nature of science is concerned with aims of scientific work, the status and nature of scientific knowledge, and science as societal institution. This is a review on how to investigate the pupils' ideas about the nature of science, which was suggested by Driver et al. in their book 'Young people's images of science (1996)'. The purpose of this review is to consider the methodological problems of investigating the pupils' ideas about the nature of science, and to get the implications of developing the instruments about it. The instruments, developed by Driver et al., are described as a model and their suggestions are surveyed. Several hints are given this article to develop the similar instruments.

• 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.