Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions on the Scientific Cultural Properties Focusing Cheomseongdae and Chukugi

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school teachers ¡®perceptions on the Korean scientific cultural properties, i.e., Chomseongdae and Chukugi. Participants were 39 teachers who were in the in-service program of elementary school science in 1998 and additional 31 teachers in the train ing workshop of elementary gifted science education in 2007. The survey examined participants¡¯ per ceptions on the following three domains: knowledge, evaluation and teaching experience about Chomseongdae and Chukugi. In addition, 8 teachers were randomly selected and interviewed by e-mail regrading their ideas about how to utilize the two items of scientific cultural assets in educational settings. The results of the study revealed three major findings: First, the majority of the participating teachers had a low score on the value of the scientific cultural properties. Second, the participating teachers had little experience of teaching about Chomseongdae and Chukugi. The study showed that the teachers even had little been asked by their students about the cultural relics in class. Third, most of the ele mentary teachers had a desire to teach about the cultural properties. However, they knew little about how to utilize them for elementary science because of their little teaching experience and little knowl edge about Chomseongdae and Chukugi.