National Science Curriculum Research Articles

Aplikasi Game Edukasi Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam

Lesson natural science with the discussion of the transportation system and the respiratory system, excretory system, the sense of hearing and sonar systems, light and optical instruments, the solar system and life on Earth, is to see and understand in textbooks alone (LKS), books used is the book Natural Sciences Curriculum 2013. the problem that often arises is the textbook used easily torn or are not durable and lack of interest in learning the students independently and prices of books are more expensive. To overcome these problems, SMPN 4 Teluk Kuantan require a breakthrough in the process of learning to use the Lessons Educational Game App Natural Sciences. This educational game provides about the subject matter and the evaluation questions science curriculum in 2013 semesters 2. We make natural science educational game that is interactive, make students more interested in learning the lessons of natural science and can stimulate and trigger fascination dents students to learn science to support learning at school and at home.

Predicting item difficulty of science national curriculum tests: the case of key stage 2 assessments

ABSTRACTPredicting item difficulty is highly important in education for both teachers and item writers. Despite identifying a large number of explanatory variables, predicting item difficulty remains a challenge in educational assessment with empirical attempts rarely exceeding 25% of variance explained.This paper analyses 216 science items of key stage 2 tests which are national sampling assessments administered to 11 year olds in England. Potential predictors (topic, subtopic, concept, question type, nature of stimulus, depth of knowledge and linguistic variables) were considered in the analysis. Coding frameworks employed in similar studies were adapted and employed by two coders to independently rate items. Linguistic demands were gauged using a computational linguistic facility. The stepwise regression models predicted 23% of the variance with extended constructed questions and photos being the main predictors of item difficulty.While a substantial part of unexplained variance could be attributed to the unpredictable interaction of variables, we argue that progress in this area requires improvement in the theories and the methods employed. Future research needs to be centred on improving coding frameworks as well as developing systematic training protocols for coders. These technical advances would pave the way to improved task design and reduced development costs of assessments.

조류의 부리와 식충식물의 생김새에 대한 STEAM 프로그램의 개발 및 적용 효과

The aims of this study are to develop a STEAM program focused on the appearances of birds' beaks and insectivorous plants and to identify its influence on elementary students' basic scientific process skills, creative problem solving ability and affective domain. For these objectives, the STEAM program was developed by reorganizing contents of the appearances of animals and plants in the units of 'Life of Animals' and 'Life of Plants' from 2009 revised national science curriculum for 3th and 4th grades. The developed STEAM program was applied to twenty nine 3th grade students of J elementary school located in S city. As a result of applying the STEAM program, the experimental group in this study showed significant improvements of the creative problem solving ability, scientific process skills and affective domain compared to the control group's scores. Therefore, development studies on STEAM programs integrated different science fields using animals and plants could be meaningful works to encourage elementary students' skills and interest.

Indigenous Sky Stories: Reframing How we Introduce Primary School Students to Astronomy — a Type II Case Study of Implementation

The Indigenous Sky Stories Program may have the potential to deliver significant and long-lasting changes to the way science is taught to Year 5 and 6 primary school students. The context for this article is informed by research that shows that educational outcomes can be strengthened when Indigenous knowledge is given the space to co-exist with the hegemony of current western science concepts. This research presents a case study of one primary school involved in the Indigenous Sky Stories Program. It showcases how teachers and students worked in conjunction with their local community to implement the program. The results suggest that introducing cultural sky stories into the science program, engaged and primed Year 5 and 6 students to seek out additional sky stories and to investigate the astronomical content mapped to the National Science Curriculum. The involvement of Aboriginal elders and community enriched the experience for all involved. The integrated science program appears to generate positive engagement for both Indigenous students and their non-Indigenous peers. Additionally, the program provided a valuable template for teachers to emulate and which can act as a model for the requirement to include Indigenous perspectives in the new National Science Curriculum.

Educational Shift of Science and Technology Ethics in the National Science Curriculum of Korea from the 7th in 1997 to the 2015 Curriculum Revision

Educational Shift of Science and Technology Ethics in the National Science Curriculum of Korea from the 7th in 1997 to the 2015 Curriculum Revision

Comparison of marine debris data collected by researchers and citizen scientists: Is citizen science data worth the effort?

As part of a national research program studying the sources, distribution, and effects of litter entering the ocean, we established a national citizen science program engaging nearly 7000 primary and secondary students, teachers and corporate participants in collecting marine debris data around Australia's coastline. Citizen scientists undertook a one-day training program, which addressed data collection skills and academic topics in the national science curriculum. A subset of teachers and corporate sponsor staff participated in an intensive multi-day training program with researchers before venturing into the field.Data collected by citizen scientists were compared with data collected by researchers at nearby locations. We found the citizen science data were of equivalent quality to those collected by researchers, but there were differences among students. Primary school students detected more debris than did older secondary students. Students detected small items (<1cm2), and were as accurate as researchers in identifying debris type and size categories. However, sampling approach was important — students detected more debris during quadrat searches than during strip transects. Comparing researcher effort to volunteer-collected data, citizen scientists were often more efficient (per m2) than researchers at collecting marine debris, but the results varied among methods. Researchers made more surveys within a given day (0.8 surveys/person-day). However, participants of one day programs working with secondary students or adults were nearly as efficient (0.6 surveys/person-day). This study shows that engaging with citizen scientists can broaden the coverage and increase the sampling power of coastal litter and other ecological survey assessments without compromising the data.

Teaching Earth Sciences in Italian liceo high schools following the 2010 reform: a survey

Following the recent upper secondary school reform (2010) in almost every Italian liceo high school there is a Natural Sciences curriculum (including Earth Sciences, Biology and Chemistry) spread over five years. The Ministry of Education issued guidelines without chronological separation between the three different subjects.Given the novelty of the context, we decided to investigate how teachers are implementing the new Earth Sciences curriculum through the five teaching years by means of a survey. This has been administered as an anonymous on-line questionnaire between January and March 2014. The sample was chosen by randomisation from the population of science teachers working in Italian public liceo high school. Sample schools have been stratified according to geographical location and density of schools, 120 questionnaires from 76 schools (4.5% of the school population) have been collected.The sample shows that the compliance with Ministry guidelines on the prescribed topics is highest in the 1st biennium, lower in the 2nd biennium (> 90% vs 72 -77% - according to the topics) and very low in the 5° year (73, 17 and 20% - according to the topics), in which teachers' choices appear heterogeneous. The topics deemed indispensable by the sample were the ones already present in curricula before the reform. Teaching organization seems affected by the limited weekly teaching time, and practical activities such as laboratory and fieldwork appear extremely reduced.Regarding chosen textbooks, sample teachers generally indicate a few specific authors, while others are seldom chosen.When asked about their knowledge of Earth Sciences, teachers expressed an overall positive self-perception, accompanied by interest for in-service training offer, preferably in mixed format (in attendance and on-line)This survey suggests that, due to the lack of guidance, the new curricula are being implemented autonomously by teachers, substantially grounding upon old curricula. The heterogeneous choices for the final year could be affected by uncertainty about the first post-reform state exam.The study also indicates the need to start or enhance in-service teacher training. Novel strategies for implementing the new curricula are an opportunity to overcome old teaching practices largely based on a theoretical approach.

Sexual Health-Get Involved: A Kinesthetic Learning Experience of STI Transmission and Prevention.

OFSTED repeatedly finds the teaching of sexually transmitted infections in secondary schools ‘inadequate’ across the UK (3). This is thought to be due to a number of reasons, including the fact that staff teaching this topic feel inadequately prepared and not knowledgeable enough to do so (4). In 2010, over half of newly diagnosed sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in England were within patients aged 16-24 years (2). This could be the result of a lack of mandatory, quality sexual health education in schools, combined with larger scale social issues. Young females, in particular, reported feelings of shame when visiting sexual health clinics which on occasion may compel them to lie about their sexual history to a practitioner in order to protect a ‘fragile sexual reputation’(1). In response to the recommendations of FPA and the aforementioned public health statistics, this session was developed to improve student understanding of sexual health and of the risks associated with different sexual behaviors. Another aim was, by integrating information about the importance of regular sexual health check-ups into sexual health education in schools, to reduce the associated feelings of shame across the young female population. The activity was carried out with two classes of Year 12 students (16-17 years) in an independent school in the London borough of Lewisham. The session builds on education about STIs, which is part of the national science curriculum, and extends concepts about transmission to the most common STIs prevalent within the population aged 16-24.

용해와 용액 개념에 대한 학습발달과정 조사

In this study, we investigated a learning progression focusing on 5 th to 9 th graders’ performances with dissolution and solution concepts using the construct modeling approach. We designed a construct map describing hypothetical pathways of the concept development of dissolution and solution by analyzing both National Science Curricula and related studies. A conceptions test consisting of ordered multiple-choice items was developed and administered to 826 students. A revised construct map was derived from analyses of the results based on the partial credit model, a branch of polytomous item response theory. The sequence of dissolution and solution concepts presented in the current science curriculum was found to correspond with the learning progression of the students. However, the lower anchor, the concept of the homogeneity of particles in solution, and the factors affecting solubility were not consistent with the expected levels of the construct map. After revising the construct map, we proposed a learning progression for dissolution and solution concepts with five levels: Students of level 1 (the lower anchor) recognize the particles in the solution but misunderstand various concepts; Students of level 2 understand the homogeneity of particles in solution; Students of level 3 understand solubility and the conservation of particles during dissolution; Students of level 4 partially understand the interaction between particles; and Students of level 5 (the upper anchor) understand the interaction between particles and the factors affecting solubility.

The Green School: a sustainable approach towards environmental education: Case study

‘The Green School’ is an Environmental project which is being executed at a national level at every primary school in Suriname. This project was initiated in October 2013 and is being financed by the Suriname Conservation Foundation and the State Oil Foundation for Community Development. The SUWAMA foundation is the executor of this project. The main objective of the Green School is to create a community in which we approach our Biodiversity in a sustainable and safe way. This is achieved by positively influencing the behavior of children towards our environment, focusing on the subjects Biodiversity (school gardens and endangered species), Waste (reduce, reuse and recycle), Water and Energy. Via the project all schools are provided with the necessary training, information and materials. Of the 333 primary schools registered in Suriname, 286 have officially and successfully been nominated ‘Green Schools’. The approach of the Green Schools differs from the normal natural science curriculum of the schools in terms of more practical activities such as games and or ‘do it yourself’ activities. The focus of this project is to teach children about the environment in a positive and practical way, hereby stimulating interaction. Every school elects at least five environmental brigades every year and they are responsible for making sure everyone abides by the rules of a Green School. The advantages of this approach are that children learn to work together in groups and thus socialize. Their creativity is also stimulated and they gain practical knowledge. For example in the class they learn about measurements and different types of plants, but when putting in place a garden together with their teachers, they actually measure areas up and see the plants. This not only makes learning more fun, but is a proven way to improve learning. Also great improvement has been observed at the schools after monitoring, such as cleaner classes, cleaner schoolyards and a more sustainable approach towards water and energy usage. By August 2016 all the primary schools will officially be ‘Green Schools’. The next phase of the project is making the Green School an official part of the curriculum of the primary schools.

Foundation-phase children’s causal reasoning in astronomy, biology, chemistry and physics

This study aimed at finding out how young children express their thinking about some of the themes in the early-grades school science curriculum. Foundation-phase children at a primary school in Soweto, Johannesburg, were interviewed after they had watched classroom demonstrations of the production of carbon dioxide gas, absorption of water and the propulsion of an inflated balloon and after a discussion about living organisms had been introduced. Interviews were conducted in each of four classes, ranging from grade R to grade 3, asking questions about what they had just observed in the four different lessons. The findings show that the children expressed their own ideas, but that they were using the discourse structure of causality, albeit that the content of the reasoning came from their naïve or intuitive theories. The article recommends that teachers in the primary school consider (and utilise) children’s spontaneous reasoning and naïve or intuitive theories of natural phenomena when they teach the natural science curriculum. This study has shown that, although early-grades children may lack formal science concepts, their ability to reason is developed sufficiently to grasp the causal relationships in natural phenomena. The question this research asks, ultimately, is, ‘How can some basic science concepts be woven into the curriculum of the entire foundation phase curriculum, integrating it with language and literacy, and especially with mathematics?’. The author argues that firmer conceptual knowledge of science can be developed in younger children in the early grades, because the thinking mechanisms for understanding and reasoning seem to be in place at a young age.

The Development of Science Concept in Turkey and Effects of Constructivism on 2004 Primary Science Curriculum

The aim of this study is to examine the development of science concept in Turkey. It is seen that the historical process of science concept in Turkey has developed within two stages. The first setting is the later stages of the Ottoman State and the Republican Era, at which time positivism was prevalent as noted in the objectives of the national science curriculum. The second stage includes the period starting from 2004 to the present when the effects of postmodern epistemology started to partially be seen with the initiation of the new elementary curriculum based on a “constructivist approach”. Positivism entered into the Ottomans during the 19th century and it affected especially the school programs. During this process, at first the positivist/modernist paradigms and later on the postmodernist paradigms affected the curricula scientifically and epistemologically. This study was based on document analysis approach. The documents used in this study were selected to represent the science curriculum of 1913, 1924, 1926, 1930 and 2004 programs. The document analysis revealed that the remained effects of positivism is observed until 2004 program. Even though, there is no deviation from the basic paradigm regarding scientific understanding until the 2004 program, the 2004 program reflects a fundamental break from the traditional approach to constructivism.

The possible influence of curriculum statements and textbooks on misconceptions: The case of evolution

Curriculum statements and textbooks are considered to be vital support tools for teachers, particularly during times of curriculum innovation. A recent change in South Africa was the controversial inclusion of evolution in the school curriculum, raising serious concerns amongst biology teachers regarding the adequacy of their content and pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the topic. Widespread ‘misconceptions’ about evolution make teaching this topic difficult for biology teachers worldwide. Identifying the sources of errors is an essential step needed before addressing them. This study explored curriculum support materials as a possible source of misconceptions, using content analysis of the South African school Natural Sciences curriculum statement and six Grade 7–9 Natural Sciences textbooks from two different publishers, and investigated ‘curriculum slippages’ between the ‘formal’ and ‘perceived’ curricula. The aim was to determine the nature and extent of unscientific ideas about evolution, and to see how authors dealt with potential misconceptions. Errors were found in the curriculum statement and in the textbooks, where they escalated in frequency. Latent problems associated with ambiguous wording of statements posed further problems. Although this paper uses evolution as an example, lessons learned about curriculum materials as a possible influence on misconceptions are applicable to other subjects.

The representation of research in the national curriculum and secondary school pupils' perceptions of research, its function, usefulness and value to their lives.

Young people's views on research, how it's conducted and whether it's important, influences the decisions they make about their further studies and career choices. We investigate how research is represented within the English national curriculum and the examination boards because we recognise that what is being taught influences secondary pupil views on research. We use questionnaire data to focus particularly on pupil perceptions of research in the sciences and the scientific method. The questionnaire was a 25-item Likert Scale (1-5) distributed to seven collaborating schools. We received 2634 returns from pupils across key stages 3, 4 and 5. We also asked teachers to complete the questionnaire to reflect how they thought their pupils would respond. We received 54 teacher responses. Statistically significant differences in the responses were identified through achi-square test on SPSS and the interpretive part of our analysis considers how the term 'research' appears in the national curriculum for England and Wales and the three main English exam boards. The main theoretical construct that informs our analysis is Angela Brew's 4-tier descriptor of perceptions of research (domino, trading, layer, journey). We use this framework to map the national curriculum for Science in England to establish the when, what and how research is presented to school pupils in England and Wales. We highlight and discuss certain pupil views on: research as involving the identification of a research question; research as a means to confirm one's own opinion; research as involving the generation of new knowledge and the collection of new data, such as interviews and questionnaires as well as laboratory work, field trips and library searches. We also discuss pupils' statements of confidence in their ability to do research, school experiences of research, perceptions of difficulty and importance of research to future career choice.

There's More to Science than Research: A Team-Based Role Game to Develop School Students' Understanding of Science Careers in Pharmaceutical Quality Control.

School students lack information about STEM based careers, a subject that is not sufficiently embedded in the national science curriculum. As a result, students feel they receive insufficient advice to support their choice of subjects at GCSE level and beyond. Students struggle to envisage potential career pathways leading on from studying science at school, and especially for younger students it is difficult to convey typical science-based career pictures in a way that is easily accessible to them. To address this need, we developed an interactive team-based activity which uses role play to help students envisage typical work processes within a science-based career—microbial quality control in a pharmaceutical industrial environment. This activity addresses children’s curiosity about science-based careers, by enabling them to experience typical every day work processes in an industrial environment in a hands-on fashion. Additionally, the activity helps to convey abstract concepts, such as the abundance of microbes in the natural environment, microbial contamination and the importance of hygiene, which link to the science curriculum.

Climate Change Education

The study found out the role that some selected science curricula of the pre-tertiary level of education in Ghana played with respect to climate change education. Content analysis was used to analyze four science curricula of the pre-tertiary levels of education in Ghana, namely, the curriculum for primary, Grades 1 to 3 (age = 6-9 years); integrated science curriculum of primary, Grades 4 to 6 (age = 9-12 years); integrated science curriculum of the Junior High School (JHS; age = 12-13 years); and the integrated science curriculum of the Senior High School (SHS; age = 13-16 years). It was found that of the four curricula, it was only in the integrated science syllabuses of the SHS and that of the JHS that climate change as a topic for study had been stated categorically, but, even then, the teaching and learning methods needed to be improved on. It was practically non-existent in the natural science curriculum of Primary Grades 1 to 3. There were topics in some of the curricula such as “Ecosystems,” “Photosynthesis,” and “Energy” that can provide links to climate change education but were not linked to it. Some of the suggestions made to make these curricula play their roles in climate change education are that: (a) topics that lend themselves to climate change education in the various curricula could be linked to it in the teaching and learning situation to reinforce learning and (b) teaching and learning methods should be improved upon for effective attitudinal and behavioral changes to help mitigate climate change and its impact.

2015 문·이과 통합형 교육과정 개정에 관한 전문가 인식 연구

Abstract The purpose of this research is to analyze the recognition of the curriculum experts on 2015 integrated liberal arts and natural sciences curriculum revision. Research method is a delphi survey and the subjects are curriculum experts. The research results are as follows. Firstly, experts suggested common education for all students and students’ opportunities to choose subjects. Secondly, the direction of curriculum revision was different by school level. The elementary school needs to foster convergence thinking. The middle school needs to educate common basic literacy education and the high school needs both the common education and the free choice of subjects by students. Thirdly, the separation of the liberal arts and natural sciences was caused by the separate thinking of custom, tradition and study and the separate exam application on liberal arts and natural science of college scholastic ability test. The solution about separation problem of liberal arts and natural sciences have been proposed to improve mathematics education and teachers’ convergence education competency. Lastly, for the establishment of an 2015, integrated curriculum the reduction of the CSAT test area and the introduction of qualifying examination for English were required. Key words : Curriculum revision, Primary school curriculum, Middle school curriculum, High school curriculum, Delphi survey researchCorresponding author: 053-950-5875, meleejr@hanmail.net Kang, Hyeon-Suk et al.(2015) , .

Which values regarding nature and other species are we promoting in the Australian science curriculum?

Through a critical textual analysis of the content and structure of the new Australian science curriculum, in this paper I identify the values it encourages and those that are absent. I investigate whether the Australian science curriculum is likely to promote the attitudes needed to educate generations of children who act more responsibly with other species and the environment. Over the past decades, there has been an increasing awareness of the human impact on the environment and other species. Consistently, there is a growing awareness of the role of education in encouraging children to act in a more ethical, responsible, and caring way. However, it is still unclear as to whether national curricula can (or will aspire to) accomplish this. In Australia, a national science curriculum has been implemented. In this paper I argue that the Australian science curriculum is likely to miss the opportunity to cultivate values of care for nature and other species. Instead, it is likely to reinforce anthropocentric attitudes toward our natural environment. The importance of explicitly promoting values that encourage care and respect for all species and challenges anthropocentric views of other animals and nature are discussed.

Comparison of Verbs in the Contents of the National Curriculum for Elementary and Middle School Science: Focused on the 7th , 2007, and 2009 Revision

Comparison of Verbs in the Contents of the National Curriculum for Elementary and Middle School Science: Focused on the 7th , 2007, and 2009 Revision

국가수준 학업성취도 평가의 과학 문항 특성 분석 : 광학 내용을 중심으로

본 연구의 목적은 과학과 국가수준 학업성취도 평가에서 물리의 광학 영역 문항의 평가 결과를 분석하고 답지 반응률 분포 곡선을 활용하여 중학생들의 반응 특성을 분석하는 것이다. 이를 위해서 2010년부터 2013년까지 중학생들을 대상으로 시행된 과학과 국가수준 학업성취도 평가의 물리 문항 중 광학 영역에 해당되는 10개 문항을 분석하였다. 분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 학생들의 '광학' 영역의 성취수준은 다른 영역(역학, 전자기학)에 비해서는 높았다. 둘째, '빛' 영역에서 '상의 형성'과 관련되어 학생들이 낮은 성취수준을 보였으며, '파동' 영역에서는 '파동의 전파에서 위상의 변화'와 관련되어 낮은 성취수준을 나타내었다. 셋째, 학생들은 상황 의존적인 문제풀이 전략 및 결과를 보이고 있었다. 연구 결과를 바탕으로 광학 개념에 대한 교육과정 수준의 재검토, 기초학력 단계 학생들에 대한 추가적인 교수학습의 필요성, 실제적인 현상 및 상황 중심의 교수학습의 필요성 등의 제언을 논의하였다. The purpose of this study is to analyze the results of physics (optics) in nationwide standardized assessment and to investigate middle-school students' characteristics of achievement by using an option response rate distribution curve. For this purpose, we analyzed the 10 optics problems from the National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) items for middle school science subject conducted in 2010-2013. The results of this study are as follows; First, students showed a little higher achievement in optics than classical mechanics and electromagnetism. Second, students achieved significantly worse in 'formation of image' in 'light' part and 'variation of phase in propagation of wave' in 'wave' part. Third, students showed a context-dependent problem solving strategy and result. Additionally, we suggested some implications about the readjustment of some optics concepts level of national science curriculum, the need for teaching and learning strategies for basic level students, and the need for teaching and learning strategies focused on the realistic context.