Analysis of the level of cognitive demands about concepts of the changes of state and kinetic theory on 'Science 1' textbooks in junior high school (III)

Change of state; Diffusion; Evaporation; Press and volume of gas; Volume and temperature of ga

Development of teaching strategy using inter-disciplinary analogy to enhance students' creative problem solving skills and examination of its effectiveness (II)

The purposes of this study were to develop teaching strategy enhancing creative problem solving skills and to examine the instructional influences on studints' creative thinking skills, critical thinking skills, creative personality and academic self-regulation. In this study, a model using inter-disciplinary analogies(PDCA model) was designed and applied to the existing 'Teaching model for the enhancement of the creative problem solving skills'. And it was implemented to preservice science teachers for the one semester. Results indicated that the experimental group presented statistically meaningful improvement in creative thinking skills, especially in the originality of identifying a problem, making hypothesis, and controlling variables (p>.05). In addition, the strategy contributed to improving critical thinking skills, especially in inquiry process of recognizing problems, making hypothesis, interpreting and transforming of data (p>.05). This strategy also helped students' academic self-regulation (p>.05). But there was no significant improvement in creative personality(p>.05). Copyright © 2005 KCSNET

Analysis of the Level of Cognitive Demands about Concepts of Ionic Compounds and Molecule on Science 2 Textbooks in Junior High School (II)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the cognitive demands level of the description about 'pure substance and mixture compound', 'ionic compound', 'molecule' on the 'science2' textbooks by the 2007 revised curriculum. The three types of Curriculum Analysis Taxonomy have been used to analyze the cognitive demands level of those contents on the 6 kinds of 'science2' textbooks. The first, the cognitive demand level about 'pure substance and mixture compound' on many textbooks is a late concrete operational stage because of class inclusion and hierarchical classification. And the descriptions as 'pure substance is conserved even when mixed with other pure substance' is a early formal operational stage. The second, the cognitive demand level about 'ionic compound' and 'molecule' is a early formal operational stage, because of "Formal modeling is the indirect interpretation of reality by deductive comparison from a postulated system with its own rules" and "Atoms have a structure". The third, the terms as 'ionic bonding', 'ionic compound', 'chemical formula', 'covalent bonding', 'covalent compound', and 'molecular formula' have been used on many 'science2' textbooks. Those terms would be used later on 'chemistry I' and 'chemistry II' in senior high school but not even 'science3' and 'science'

Elementary and secondary school teachers' perceptions on inter-disciplinary science education (IV)

This is a survey research which investigated perceptions of 85 elementary and secondary school science teachers on inter-disciplinary teaching in general. It is expected that the results of this survey will help to find out the necessity, the appropriate time, the proper approach and the obstacles of inter-disciplinary education. Results indicated that 49.5% of the teachers were aware of inter-disciplinary teaching and 61.2% of the teachers agreed with the necessity of implementing inter-disciplinary strategy. However, considering difficulties in objective assessment and burdens of college entrance exam preparation, they responded that inter-disciplinary teaching could be more appropriate and feasible to be implemented for lower graders at elementary schools than secondary school students. Of the answers to the integrated approaches, 57.6% of teachers chose the theme-based approach, and 16.5% chose the problem-based approach. When they chose the theme-based approach, they stated the reason of educational readiness. On the other hand, when they chose the problem-based approach, they stated the reason of educational obligation which assumes that a problem solving needs inter-disciplinary approach. The teachers also selected 'lack of knowledge on other subjects' and 'lack of time to prepare teaching materials' as major predicaments in implementing inter-disciplinary approach. This suggests that there needs a clear and specific teaching strategy along with a guidance to teaching materials for inter-disciplinary teaching

The enhancement of creative thinking skill through the writing activity about the basic inquiry and the integrated inquiry elements

Creative thinking skill; Flexibility; Fluency; Originality; Science writin

The development of a learning program for enhancing the skills of control variables and the effects of its applications

The main purpose of this study was to develop a teaching program, especially designed to improve the skills of control variables. The secondary purpose was to investigate the effect of the program on enhancing students' scientific reasoning and understanding. The program was designed based on the 3-step learning model: i.e. students recognize the necessity of controlling the variables (step 1), perform their own experiments (step 2), and reflect on their variables control process (step 3). The program included 9 topics of increasing difficulty. In results, Lawson's SRT scores increased in both experimental and control groups after application of the program, but the difference was not statistically significant. After the application, there was an increase in type A and type B which implied that students' skills of control variables was improved. In addition, responses of students in the experimental group to the open-ended items showed that it was challenging for them to think scientifically and critically when controling variables, but they ended up feeling proud of their achievement after the program

The effect of inquiry teaching strategy enhancing the logical thinking skill through the science teaching about the 1st year students of the junior high school

Combinational reasoning; Conservational reasoning; Logical thinking skill; Variable-controlling reasonin

The development of inquiry teaching strategy for the enhancement of divergent and convergent thinking skills and the effects of its applications

Convergent thinking; Creative thinking; Critical thinking; Divergent thinkin