과학영재들이 인식하는 과학자 연구활동의 특징

Abstract

The research aimed to investigate understanding of science gifted students’ perceptions about scientists' research activities who enrolled in a science gifted education center affiliated with university in 2019. The research subjects of 118 students were grouped into six major classes of math, physics, chemistry, biology, earth science and IT-integrated math. For the research method, an open questionnaire survey tool was employed to ask for perceptions of scientists' research activities. The responses from 106 students (male 70.8%; 7th graders 81.1%) were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. As results, first, science gifted students recognized 12 characteristics of scientist's research activities. They perceived mainly scientist's research activities as questioning, establishing hypothesis, designing and conducting experiments, collecting experimental results and drawing conclusions in sequences. They further recognized as observing nature, reflecting on theories and laws, collaborating with others, using math, reviewing results with others, writing research papers, and applying to other domains. For differences, science gifted students of all of six majors focused on designing and conducting experiments, whereas students of math, chemistry, and biology recognized observing nature more than other students, and students of physics and earth science stressed more about reflecting on theories and laws than others. It was found that science gifted students of physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and IT-integrated math were cognizant of collaborating or discussing with others, while students of math were not at all. They also differ in the level of perceptions of scientists' research activities among three groups of naive, transient, and balanced. The naive group with simple and biased perceptions mainly recognized designing and conducting experiments, and the transient group with partially balanced perceptions understood scientists’ research activities as integrated inquiry elements of establishing hypothesis, designing and conducting experiments, collecting results, and drawing conclusions. The balanced group with widely ranged perceptions recognized most of integrated inquiry elements as well as collaborating with others, writing research papers, and applying to other domains. and others. In consequences, it is concluded that science gifted education programs improving students’ perceptions of scientists’ research activities should be provided with elaboration of integrated inquiry elements into systematic research stages and expansions of perceptions associated with academic characteristics and professional cooperation.