The purpose of this study is to explore the educational effects of NOS education program developed to raise the perception level of elementary school science gifted students on NOS. Also, Prior to the development of NOS training programs, the NOS inst...
The purpose of this study is to explore the educational effects of NOS education program developed to raise the perception level of elementary school science gifted students on NOS. Also, Prior to the development of NOS training programs, the NOS instrument for elementary school students in the form of open questionnaires was developed to specifically reveal elementary school students’ perceptions of the nature of science (NOS), and its validity and effectiveness were investigated.
First, In order to develop a NOS instrument for elementary school students, problems that may occur when applying the existing NOS instruments to elementary school students were analyzed, and based on this, the development direction of the NOS instrument was established. In addition, after selecting 7 NOS types suitable for the level of elementary school students, the preliminary instrument was produced by modifying and supplementing the items in the existing instruments for each type or by developing new items. Finally, the NOS instrument consisting of eight questions was developed by adding one question asking for a comprehensive understanding of science to seven questions related to each type of NOS after content validity test of the science education expert group.
In order to verify the practical effect of the developed instrument, pre- and post-tests were conducted on 50 students in two classes of 6th grade at two elementary schools in Seoul: ‘existing instrument → development instrument’ in one clsss, and ‘development instrument → existing instrument’ in the other class. The collected data were then compared and evaluated through summary content analysis and analyzed by executing Wilcoxon signed rank test.
As a result of comparing and analyzing students’ responses to the existing NOS instrument and the developed NOS instrument, students’ perspectives on NOS were more diverse when using the developed instrument, and the error in the response caused by misinterpreting the intention of the question was reduced. In addition, when using the developed instrument, the responses of the majority of students at a statistically significant level changed more specifically.
Meanwhile, To develop NOS education programs for elementary science gifted students, 7 NOS types suitable for the level of science gifted students were selected and an online NOS education program (On-NOS) was developed for a total of 7 sessions, one for each type.
Afterwards, the On-NOS education program was applied to 32 science gifted students belonging to the university-affiliated science education institute for gifted, and using the previously developed 'NOS instrument for elementary school students' pre- and post-tests were conducted to examine the educational effects of the program. Changes in students’ perceptions of NOS types were compared through Wrightmap produced by analyzing with Rasch model, and specific changes were examined by summarizing the changes in the level of perception by NOS types in a diagram.
As a result of the study, the On-NOS education program has been effective in raising the overall perception level of elementary school science gifted students about NOS. In particular, students’ perception of the empirical evidence-based characteristics of scientific knowledge and the diversity of scientific methods in the NOS type showed a clear transition to a high level.
Based on these results, this study discussed the implications for the development of NOS instruments suitable for elementary school students and ways to increase the perception level of elementary science gifted students on NOS and to activate NOS education.