New Perspectives in Science Education

The purpose of this study is to identify general capacity of solving the biology problems by proficiency levels of 9 grade Korean students. For this purpose, the response results of biology items of The National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA) were analyzed for the past three years (2010-2012). It will be play a crucial role in monitoring the quality of the national curriculum, improving teaching and learning method, and establishing educational policies. This study was performed to make out the features of solving the biology problems of middle school students according to their proficiency level, being Basic, Proficient, and Superior. The findings revealed valuable information regarding the achievement standards or educational contents that students, according to their proficiency level, either fully understood or lacked understanding. Basic level students could interpret materials when direct information was given, recall basic terminologies related in daily life and biological concepts repetitively learned in various subjects. Proficient level students could understand the related concept between photosynthesis and respiration in plant and interpret data of typical experiments which most basic level students could not solve. Advanced level students could understand most concepts and principles. And they could solve the biology problems based on very small information and have various process skills to solve many biology problems. The findings indicated how educational contents and achievement standards could be re-arranged by proficiency levels or school levels.