Research on the Difficulties and Dealing with them of Elementary School Teachers in Teaching Science Observation

—Through Interview Surveys—

Abstract

This paper investigated the difficulties faced by elementary school teachers in teaching observations and how they deal with them through semi-structured interviews with elementary school teachers. The results revealed that the difficulties and the ways of dealing differ depending on the teachers’ years of experience and whether they have science teacher certification licenses. Particularly, there were difficulties about balancing children’s activities and teachers’ instruction according to content of science when working on tasks such as sketching observations, deriving questions, and handling the processes of problem-solving/inquiry, and these difficulties were not adequately dealt with. The paper argues that to resolve these difficulties, it is necessary to discuss the actual state of children’s free activities in observations and setting objectives from scientific and educational perspectives that focus on the developmental stage of elementary school.