自己主導적 科學探究活動이 中等學生의 메타認知, 科學의 本性 및 科學者에 대한 認識에 미치는 影響

Abstract

This study, through pre-to-post comparison, attempted to find out the effect of self-directed scientific research activities by team on schoolers' meta-recognition, nature of science and perception about scientists after they were instructed to develop and further those activities. The study investigated what effects self-directed scientific research activities would have on schoolers' meta-cognition. First, the pre-to-post test of all schoolers resulted in a statistically significant difference. Second, the same test of planning ability for meta-cognition did not result in a significant difference and thus it is thought that self-directed scientific research activities have no effect on the change of planning ability. Third, a significant difference between before and after the activities appeared in monitoring ability and thus it is thought that self-directed scientific research activities have a positive effect on the change of monitoring abilities. When middle and high schoolers, as well male and female schoolers, classified, middle schoolers and female schoolers showed a significant difference, but the rest of groups not. The study also investigated the nature of science by VOSTS questionnaire and conducted analysis to find out what effects self-directed scientific research activities have on the understanding of the nature. Among sub-factors concerning the nature of science, the score of a pre-test turned out from highest to lowest as follows: theoretical hypothesis, verification of scientific inference, scientific decision-making, scientific method, temporality of scientific knowledge, theory-dependency of observation, social construction of scientific theory, epistemological status of scientific knowledge, and scientific prediction; and the score of a post-test turned out from highest to lowest as follows: theoretical hypothesis, scientific decision-making, verification of scientific inference, temporality of scientific knowledge, scientific method, theory-dependency of observation, social construction of scientific theory, epistemological status of scientific knowledge, and scientific prediction. In the degrees of pre-to-post change, epistemological status of scientific knowledge increased by the greatest deal, followed by temporality of scientific knowledge, theoretical hypothesis, and scientific decision-making in order. In a while, verification of scientific inference was not changed between before and after the activities; and even reduction was found in scientific prediction and social construction of scientific theory. Furthermore, the study investigated schoolers' perception about scientists by multiple-choice questionnaire and Draw-A-Scientist Test Checklist(DAST-C). In the result of multiple-choice questionnaire, first, a pre-test resulted in positive perception about scientists in 11 questions among 12 questions, but a post-test did in all questions. Among total 12 questions, 7 questions including "scientists concern about others," "scientists respect others' opinion," "scientists are funny," "scientists have a sense of art," "scientists respect human-beings," "scientists have a sense of responsibility," and "scientists have religion," appeared statistically significant, and thus self-directed scientific research activities changed schoolers' perception about scientists positively. Second, male schoolers had positive perception about scientists for 11 and all of 12 questions in a pre-test and a post-test, respectively. Among total 12 questions, 5 questions, including "scientists concern about others," "scientists respect others' opinion," "scientists are funny," "scientists have a sense of art," and "scientists have a sense of responsibility" appeared statistically significant, and thus self-directed scientific research activities changed schoolers' perception about scientists positively. Third, female schoolers had positive perception about scientists for 11 and all of 12 questions in a pre-test and a post-test, respectively. Among total 12 questions, 2 questions including "scientists are funny" and "scientists respect human-beings" appeared statistically significant, and thus self-directed scientific research activities changed male schoolers' perception about scientists more than that of female schoolers. In the result of a DAST-C test, first, middle schoolers's degrees of fixed image about scientists showed a statistically significant difference. Self-directed scientific research activities were found to effectively decrease schoolers's degrees of fixed image about scientists. Second, the division of male and female middle schoolers resulted in a statistical significance in those both parties. Hence, self-directed scientific research activities were found to have a positive effect on changing male and female middle schoolers' image about scientists. Third, gender's effect on the change of image about scientists showed no significant difference between male and female schoolers in a pre-test, but a significant difference in a post-test; so, self-directed scientific research activities gave more effect on female schoolers' image change about scientists than on the counterpart of male schoolers. In conclusion, self-directed scientific research activities had a positive effect on schoolers' change in meta-cognition, especially on monitoring and control abilities among its sub-factors. Also, self-directed scientific research activities had some effects on schoolers' perceptual change in the nature of science, especially great effects on perception about scientists. Therefore, scientific research academies and creative science camps as self-directed scientific research activities are needed to launch, and it is especially very useful to employ them into school science clubs.