초등학교 과학 교과서에서 사용되는 단위에 대한 아동들의 이해도

Children서s Understanding on Scientific Units in Elementary School Science Textbooks

This paper aims to find out how did elementary students understand scientific units in science textbooks. The subjects were 191 students of the 6th grade from 7 elementary schools in 3 different areas, consisting of 70 from 4 village schools of, 64 from 2 town schools of Gyeongnam province, and 57 from one city school in Ulsan Metro City. A test was developed based on the analysis of scientific units in the science textbooks and teacher's manuals constructed according to the 6th and 7th National Science Curriculum. The understanding of elementary students' on the scientific units(Temperature, Length, Weight, Volume, Speed, Plane Angle) were surveyed. The result are as follows: Regarding the temperature unit, the students generally well understand why to measure and how to read temperature, but had some problem in recording it, in confusion with the plane angle sign. As for the length unit, they obtained high scores in understanding the purpose of measuring length as well as recording and reading it. Which indicates that they are well aware of and use the unit appropriately. With respect to the weight unit, they got high scores in reading and recording weight, which means most students have no problem using the unit. However, it was found that they do not understand why to use the plate balance scale. The volume unit was one in which the students got relatively lower scores. They do not perceive the object of using a scale cylinder and confuse it with a device of length measurement. The unit of speed is the most difficult one for children's of science to understand, presumably, because it is an derived unit from two basic units. It is also assumed that the students got the highest score in the plane angle unit because they studied the unit immediately before the test. From the children's understanding of science units above the teacher's understanding and teaching methods presumed to play a major role for children to understand and use the science units properly.