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과학교육학 학위논문 요약과 종합해설
Exploring Young Children's Ideas about Living Things
(Doctral Dissertation Abstract)
This qualitative study explored concepts of living things that five- and six-year-old Korean children held prior to formal instructional interventions and how their concepts were changed and developed over one semester in a kindergarten classroom. Six focal children in a class of 30 were interviewed in two phases and their hands-on classroom activities and teacher-children interactions were observed. The teacher’s journal was also used to gather data.
As the study was conducted, a number of alternative concepts related to the children’s perceptions of living things were identified and described. The researcher interviewed the children to determine their initial ideas, using an informal interview guide; they responded whether certain objects were living or not, and how they told if the particular objects were living or not. The classroom activities were also observed in large/small groups and individually. An assisting observer viewed the classroom activities and simultaneously recorded science-related teacher-children interactions and the children’s hands-on activities. Later the researcher made a transcription of the observer’s notes. The data were also collected from the teacher’s journal, in which she recorded everyday classroom activities and reflected on teaching and learning. Finally, after 8 weeks of the 16-week instructional intervention, the researcher interviewed the children, using a formal interview guide, as to how their concepts of living things had changed and developed. The researcher interviewed the children as to whether particular objects were plants or animals, neither or both, and the criteria they used to decide.
The study showed that the kindergarten children had solid and unique ideas based on their everyday experience with living and non-living things prior to the formal instructional inventions. In the classroom activities, the children showed that they rejected or changed several of their own concepts of living things. The instructional interventions facilitated the children in developing scientific ideas about certain living things. Several of the children’s ideas and concepts changed and corresponded to scientific viewpoints. However, others maintained their existing ideas, which were not scientifically based.
The study revealed the complexity of teaching kindergarten children a scientific understanding of living things and that teaching the interconnectedness among objects was essential to elaborate concepts. The results of the research suggested improvements for the conceptual change teaching methodology used in the classroom. The study provided insight into the effects of teacher-children interactions and teaching interventions. The study also indicated that the interview and observation research methodology used in this study was a useful vehicle to explore the children’s initial ideas and conceptual development in teaching and learning science.
The findings of the study suggest that teacher education for teachers of young children should include a complex of instructions because teaching and learning concepts of living things and other related science concepts are complex processes.
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Pennsylvania State University
2002
Advisor: Thomas M. Dana
첨부
권영래 학위논문 국문 요약.hwp
권영래, 방송통신대학교
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