High School Teachers' and Students' Perceptions on the Purpose of Science Learning based on the Semantic Network Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how high school teachers and students perceive the purpose of science learning. Participants were high school science teachers and students from one hundred and sixty high schools nationwide, which were selected through proportional stratified sampling method. Teachers and students responded on open-ended questionnaires about the purpose of science learning. The data were analyzed using the semantic network analysis method. Our study illustrates three major finding: First, teachers recognized the intrinsic value related to cognitive domain as the more important purpose of science learning, while students recognized the extrinsic value related to personal usefulness domain as more important. Second, teachers' responses were significantly different depending on the teaching career. Beginning teachers believed both intrinsic and extrinsic values were equally important, while experienced teachers believed the cognitive domain about understanding of scientific knowledge was more important than intrinsic values. In other words, the differences in perception of the purpose of science between teachers and students, the experienced teachers is greater than the beginning teachers. Finally, students' responses were different depending on their academic track. Humanity major students recognized that learning science made their everyday-life easier while science major students recognized that learning science should be related to their future careers. In conclusion, the results of this study is expected to be of use as the basic data to identify the characteristic of teachers and students related to science.

Indonesian High School Students’ Perception of Scientific Experiment Using Network Analysis: Differences between Science and Humanities Group

“…The previous study by Park et al (2014) examined Korean high school students and teachers' perception of the purpose of science learning using open-ended questionnaires and semantic network analysis method. Another study by Lee et al (2015) had discovered Korean students' perception of the meaning of experiment in science and biology.…”

Network Analysis on Associative Words and Definitions of 'Electricity' Terminology of Education University Students

“…전기 에너지와 같이 전기 현상과 관련된 여러 물리량을 나타내는 데 에 사용하며 (Choi & Jeon, 2009), 교과서에서도 '전기'와 관련된 여러 비슷한 용어인 전하, 전류, 전압, 저항 등을 동시에 다루므로 학생들은 각 용어들을 정확히 구별하는 데에 어려움을 느끼게 된다 (Kim & Oh, 2004 (Goffman, 1974), 활성화된 자원들은 한 곳에 일정하게 네트워크를 이룬다 (Hammer et al, 2005 (Lee, Shin & Ha, 2015), 과학학습의 목적에 대한 인식 (Park et al, 2014), 생각하는 과학의 의미 (Kim, 2013), STEAM 교육의 연구 논문 주제 (Kim & Kim, 2014) (Gussarsky & Gorodetsky, 1988;Park, Choi & Kim, 2004 (Choi & Jeon, 2009). 또한 과학 교과서에서 '전기' 의 의미를 설명하지 않으며 (Kim & Oh, 2004)…”