An Analysis of Types of Science Museum Worksheets developed by Elementary Pre-service Teachers and Their Perspectives on the Requirements and Necessity

Abstract

This study aims to analyze types of science museum worksheets developed by elementary pre-service teachers and their perspectives on the requirements and necessity of science museum worksheets. As analysis subjects, this study selected 38 kinds of worksheets and reports developed by 114 elementary pre-service teachers who were in the third year of university of education. In this study, the science museum selected for elementary pre-service teachers to develop worksheets was a national science museum, composed of 'Nature and Discovery Museum', 'Science Technology and Industry Museum' and 'Children's Museum', which was located in a metropolitan city and opened in 2013. The results of this study can be summarized as follows; Firstly, as a result of analyzing the science museum worksheets developed by elementary pre-service teachers, this study found out that the experience type with hands-on and observation techniques applied was most, and as an approach method, direct manipulation, look-in observation and close observation were most. However, although these science museum worksheets were experience-oriented, many of them were survey-oriented ones that suggested too many questions through various exhibits. Secondly, as a result of analyzing requirements of science museum worksheets elementary pre-service teachers thought and described through the word tree of NVivo 10, this study extracted 10 kinds of main themes, out of which the requirement, 'A limited amount of activity should be required', showed the highest frequency. Thirdly, as a result of analyzing the necessity of science museum worksheets elementary pre-service teachers thought and described through the word tree of NVivo 10, this study extracted 9 kinds of main themes, out of which the opinion, 'It is required to help students check an exhibit which may be passed by', was most.