Abstract
This research clarifies Korean elementary school and middle school science teachers' views about the aims of observation and experimental activities through factor analysis. One hundred and ninety-nine elementary school teachers and 105 middle school science teachers participated in the study. The 5-level Likert scale questionnaire with a total of 16-items was used. After the analyzing each item by the ceiling effect and the floor effect, the items were factor analyzed using principal axis factoring method (promax rotation). The results of factor analysis were as follows: (1) The factors about the aims of observation and experiment were 'attitude', 'concept acquisition through experiment' and 'design of experiment'. (2) The structure of factors was similar, but some items that were included in the three factors revealed difference in cases of the elementary school teachers and the middle school science teachers.
