This study aimed to determine if the chemical area in common science textbooks for seventh- to tenth-graders complied according to the seventh curricular revision was efficiently constructed in proper association with learners' developmental stages. ...
This study aimed to determine if the chemical area in common science textbooks for seventh- to tenth-graders complied according to the seventh curricular revision was efficiently constructed in proper association with learners' developmental stages. It intented to determine what to supplement through the results from the analysis in order to contribute to more efficient and systematic learning instruction and management for a chemical unit.
It was found that there was good horizontal association in contents with no significant difference after implementing a comparative analysis of textbook compiled by several publishing companies for each school year. After the analysis for vertical association based on contents of one textbook, regardless of school year, there was 7 repetitions, 47 advances, 9 gaps, and thus 74.2% advancement in a total of 62 contents. That advancement is higher than repetition or gap in rate demonstrates that students can naturally understand a scientific concept without difficulties and that association is well maintained.
For an analysis for association in experiments, investigational activities were first classified for each textbook. As a result, the rate of experiments as compared with discussions or investigations ranged from 79 percent to 92 percent. On this ground, after analyzing investigational elements in experiments, basic investigational elements decreased with the increase in school year, such as 53.7→52.2→48.6→37.9%, while integrated ones increased, such as 46.1→47.5→52.5→61.7%. This indicates that association is well maintained in consideration of learners' level of cognitive development by carrying out experiments to apply integrated investigational elements including data analysis, data conversion, and conclusion-drawing based on basic investigational elements as school year is higher after experiments focused simply on such basic ones as observation and measurement are performed. In sum, it is judged that there is relatively good association between middle school science and high school common science in terms of objectives, contents, and experiments.
After the analysis with 32 science teachers in middle schools in Daegu, it was found that 84.38 percent were satisfied with units and contents construction while 87. 5 percent were satisfied with contents arrangement for association by school year emphasized by the seventh curriculum. 90.63 percent were satisfied with association maintained by school year in scientific experiments. As can be seen in the results from the contents analysis and the survey, association in the chemical areas as emphasized by the seventh science curriculum is well maintained in contents and experiments and incumbent teachers are generally satisfied with the association.