• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2004

The purpose of this study is to provide implications for developing science textbooks and curriculum. The textbooks of elementary and secondary school Science were analyzed for their animal-related learning contents. Among learning materials, 165 kinds of animals were presented in Science of elementary school textbooks (37 kinds in Inquiry life, 162 kinds in Science), 167 kinds in Science of middle school, 486 kinds of high school (172 kinds in Science of high school, 180 kinds in Biology I, 366 kinds in Biology II). There are most kinds of animals in Biology II textbooks than in other textbooks. It was appeared that animal species were diverse in order of Class Insecta, Mammalia, Aves in the elementary school Science textbooks, Mammalia, Insecta, Aves in the middle school, Mammalia, Aves, Pisces in the high school.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.476-486
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• 2005

The purpose of this study was to compare the biology parts of the elementary school science textbooks of South and North Korea. For this purpose the contents and the names of organism introduced in the textbooks are compared and analyzed. As results of this study, there are a lot of differences in the content and names of organism in the textbooks. Life science in the elemenatry school science of North Korea ($46.9\%$ in 3th grade, $32.7\%$ in 4th grade) is treated more seriously than South Korea. The most part of North Korea textbooks are occupied with the names and values of various organisms, and the using method of them. The common contents of both textbooks are only $8.54\%$ of total contents of elementary school science of South Korea. Also only 39 names of organism are introduced in the both textbooks of South and North Korea. For the science curriculums establishment after unification, it should be the most important efforts to understand the cause of these differences, and to analyze those differences in contents and organisms introduced in the textbooks of South and North Korea.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.453-464
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• 2019

In this study, the types of inquiry activities in the $5^{th}$ & $6^{th}$ grade science textbooks according to the 2015 revised science national curriculum were analyzed and compared according to grade level and science area. Science textbooks for elementary school $5^{th}$ & $6^{th}$ graders contain quite diverse types of inquiry activities, which are student-centered inquiry activities. There were comparatively higher proportions of inquiry types such as experiment & observation and simulation, but relatively lower of inquiry types of investigation-discourse & presentation, discussion, expression. Elementary science textbooks are expected to cultivate science key competencies for elementary school students. Considering the science area, the motion & energy, substances, earth & space, and integration areas had the most experiment & observation among activity types, while the life area had the most simulation activities. Even in some area of the 6th grade science textbook, there was little or no data interpretation, discussion, and simulation activities. In order to achieve the goal of elementary science education, science textbooks should be developed considering the revision of future elementary science curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.356-366
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether the required cognitive levels of the current 6th graders' science textbooks conform to the children's cognitive levels and to examine the students' sensed psychological difficulty of the current science textbooks. The eighty five students (boy: 39, girl: 46) from one elementary school were participated in this study. The results of the study are as follows. First, the 2/3 out of the contents in the six graders' science textbooks require concrete level of operation and the 1/3 out of the contents in the textbooks requires the formal level of operation. So the 70% students at the concrete operational level are likely to undergo difficulties with the 1/3 contents in the textbooks. Second, the students' psychological difficulty on the science textbooks is relatively low (approximately two out of five points) and there is not any special pattern between the cognitive level of the textbooks and the students' psychological difficulty of the textbooks.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.452-464
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• 2005

Since the national curriculum and textbooks are essential to understand the country's educational system, the importance of the textbook analysis should be emphasized to understand the education in North Korea. In this study, the science textbooks of North Korean elementary schools published since the year 2000 were analysed in depth and compared with those of 1990's, then the change in North Korean elementary science education was investigated. As for the external format, the total pages of 3rd grade textbooks of 2000's decreased notably. The 4th grade textbooks show an emphasis on the integrating feature of season-related chapters. The analysis of each category using a content framework of TIMSS shows that the content proportion relating to Earth Science and Physical Science was increased, while the proportion relating to Biological Science was decreased. Besides, changes of proportion of each subcategories were analysed and discussed.

• Hwankyungkyoyuk
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.89-101
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to analysis natural disasters which can be applied environmental education for elementary students. For this study, the elementary society and science textbooks were selected. The results of this study are as follows. the society textbooks contain 2 units of the natural disaster in the 4th and 5th grades. In the science textbooks, 5 units of the natural disaster were showed in 3rd, 5th and 6th grades. The learning quantities were 4 hours in society textbooks and 7 hours in science textbooks. In society textbooks, the contents relating meteorological disasters were dominance. But the science textbooks were showed both meteorological and geological disasters. In aims of learning, while the society textbooks were focused as damages, prevention, counter-plan and restoring plan of the natural disaster, the science textbooks were emphasized damages. the photos in society textbooks, meteorological disasters were superiority in number; especially the flood and heavy rain were 76%. In science textbooks, the photos about earthquake were prominent as 40%. For activating environmental education in elementary school based on these results, it can be suggested that the effects of natural damage as tsunami and global warming should add to elementary textbooks. And the elementary teachers need to understand contents and photos relating environment problem in the elementary textbooks.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.486-501
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• 2015

In the elementary school science curriculum, wind is one of the most important concept. In particular, land and sea breeze has been a key example to deliver how wind is driven, and thus its model experiments have been used to help students understand causes of wind. Here we compare causes and explanations for wind and land and sea breeze between textbooks in colleges and elementary schools to examine any potential improvement for the contents. In addition, we conducted survey to examine how pre-service teachers understand land and sea breeze, and convection box experiment used in elementary school textbooks is useful to understand land and sea breeze. Based on the comparison, we find that college level textbook explains the cause of wind as atmospheric pressure difference while elementary school textbooks explain them differently according to curriculums. In the textbooks, there are a difference in the way described for land and sea breeze. Analysis of questionnaire indicate that pre-service teachers understood land and sea breeze correctly, and they selected the convection box experiment in 2009 curriculum textbooks as the most suitable one. Explanations and experiments for land and sea breeze in the textbooks have been revised as the modification of elementary school curriculums. We expect this study helps to deliver more solid contents for wind and land and sea breeze in the upcoming new curriculum.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.288-296
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• 2015

This study aimed to analysis of concepts and inquiry activities related to the 'Earth Science' area in the South Korean elementary school textbooks to the current and to seek the improvement of future textbook. For the study, we were collected South Korean elementary school textbooks to the current. After the collection had been made, we were analyzed related to the 'Earth' area in the South Korean elementary school textbooks and were extracted central concepts and inquiry activities. The result of this study: First, there were 'A change in the land', 'Strata and Fossil', 'Volcanoes and Earthquakes', 'Earth and Moon', 'The weather', 'The Solar system and the Star', and 'Seasonal Change' in the central concepts related to the 'Earth' area in the South Korean elementary school textbooks to the current. Second, central concepts were almost the same but the curriculum was changed. Third, inquiry activities also were confirmed to be maintained with little change. This result was believed that it can provide a variety of suggestions at this point in changing the curriculum.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.32-42
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to provide meaningful basic materials for organizing a science curriculum in future by analyzing the status and changes of contents about astronomical phenomena in textbooks according to the changes of the science curriculum of elementary school. A main target of analysis is science textbooks of elementary school in curriculums from 1st to 7th. For the analysis, the analytic frame based on contents in astronomy textbooks of teachers colleges and colleges of education was used. The result of the analysis is as in the following. First, astronomy accounted for average about 7% of all pages of textbooks in all of science curriculums. The 1st educational curriculum had the most learning quantity of 10.40%, and the 6th curriculum had the least quantity of 4.39%. These results show that astronomy was not a small part and was considered important in each science curriculum of elementary school considering that earth science accounted for 17-26% of all pages in elementary school science curriculum. Second, the things that have been dealt with in common in all science curriculums from 1st to 7th of elementary school are the shape of the earth, the rotation and the revolution of the earth, the occurrence of the seasons, the apparent motion of the sun, the status and motion of the moon, the movement of a star, the brightness and distance of a star, constellations, the sun, planets and others. These contents are expected to be dealt with continuously as basic contents to organize astronomy regardless of the changes of curriculum. Third, in science curriculum of elementary school, astronomical phenomena based on life experiences regarding the earth, the moon and the sun are mainly dealt with in the first and the second grade. Contents requiring principles-understanding and research are dealt with in the fifth and sixth grade. These results show that elementary school science curriculum dealing with astronomy reflects the developmental stages of students and considers principle of learning possibility.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.166-185
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• 2010

Astronomy areas in the elementary science textbooks of Korea and the U.S.A. have been compared to find advantages and disadvantages of Korean textbooks. The analysis objects are the 7th national curriculum science textbooks for Korea and the Macmillan McGraw-Hill(MMH) science textbooks for the U.S.A. The results are as follows: First, in contexts, Korean science textbooks contain mostly inquiry activities and partly reading materials. However, MMH ones contain mostly explanations including photographs, related activities, and various reading materials. Second, in the contents and order, the observation activities of constellations are emphasized in Korean science textbooks, while the MMH ones explain solar system up to the universe in details. In addition, Korean science textbooks deal with one subject only once during the whole elementary course while MMH ones deal with one subject repeatedly in several grades. Third, in the frameworks of the international mathematics and science study (TIMSS) 2007, Korean science textbooks do not introduce some contents presented in TIMSS 2007, whereas MMH textbooks introduce every one of them in time. Fourth, the major subjects such as change of moon phases, constellations, the solar system, and change of seasons are handled independently in Korean science textbooks without strong correlation, while they are systematically done related with the rotation and the revolution of the earth in MMH ones.