Yong Jae Joung

Children’s Typically‐Perceived‐Situations of Force and No Force in the Context of Australia and Korea

Typically‐Perceived‐Situation (TPS) refers to the situation rising spontaneously in an individual’s mind when she/he first thinks of a phenomenon or concept. The purpose of this study is to go well beyond the many studies that describe conceptions of force and explore children’s TPS of “force is acting on a thing” and “force is not acting on a thing”, and to do this in the differing contexts of Australia and Korea. Data were collected by drawings and written explanations from 145 Grade 6 Australian children and 150 Grade 6 Korean children. These data showed some significant differences between the Australian children’s and Korean children’s TPSs. For example, considering the whole context of children’s TPS, the contexts of “someone pushes or pulls something” and “someone/something is floating in the air or not moving because there is no gravity” were the most frequent ones, as a “force” and as a “no force” situation respectively, in the case of Australian children, while “a sort of energy is provided into someone/something and they can be active/working” and “a sort of energy is not provided into someone/something and they cannot be active/working”, were most frequent in the case of Korean children. These differences are very likely the consequence of different everyday meanings for the word “force” in the two cultures. In addition, it appears that these children’s TPS affect their judgement of “force” and “no force”.

Trends in HPS/NOS Research in Korean Science Education

The recent National Science Curriculum of Korea highlights the promotion of students’ scientific literacy, which requires an understanding of HPS and NOS, for rational and scientific decision-making in everyday contexts. This chapter reports the results of the analyses of the current situation and recent changes of HPS and NOS in the practice of science education, such as school science curriculum, science textbooks, preservice, and in-service teacher education for primary and secondary school science in Korea. In addition, based on the results, this chapter describes the features of HPS- and NOS-related science education and gives some implications for future research and practice of Korean science education.

Stories of Teaching Hypothesis-Verification Process in Elementary Science Classrooms

Hypothesis-verification process requires students to predict reasons and explanations for certain phenomena and to test their ideas in order to verify the hypothesis. As it is regarded as an effective way of enhancing children’s inquiry mind and skills, hypothesis-based inquiry teaching is adapted in elementary science classrooms in Korea. However, without understanding the nature of hypothesis, teachers often utilize this method as a simple process of predict-check without the depth of scientific reasoning and explanation. To understand how preservice teachers could understand and adapt the method of hypothesis-verification process in their elementary science teaching, we conducted a study with 16 fourth-year university students in elementary teacher education program in Korea. We observed their teaching practice on hypothesis-verification process and examined their difficulties of teaching with this method. We videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed their classroom teaching and reflective discussion. Based on the data collected, this study examines preservice teachers’ difficulties in teaching hypothesis construction, test, and data interpretation in hypothesis-based inquiry approach.