KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study aims to explore the educational impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) on elementary social studies instruction and, based on these insights, to develop an AI-enhanced instructional program for elementary social studies. To this end, prior research on the use of AI in education—particularly within social studies education—was reviewed, and a five-stage (eight-lesson) program was designed in accordance with the 2022 revised social studies curriculum achievement standards. The program addresses a real-world issue, “regional extinction and food desert,” as its central theme. Throughout the instructional design process, various AI and digital tools were integrated to support students in understanding the problem, exploring and analyzing data, deriving problem-solving solutions, and creating and sharing final products. In particular, by restructuring the sequence so that data exploration is followed immediately by visualization and by expanding students’ thinking through AI-based feedback, the program seeks to balance human reasoning with AI support. As a result, this study presents new possibilities for fostering learners’ data-driven problem-solving abilities, spatial thinking skills, and social action competencies.

This study employed narrative inquiry to explore a first-year youth counselor’s experiences in delivering suicide prevention education in elementary, middle, and high schools, focusing on identity transformation, relational practice, emotional labor, and existential reflection. The participant was a part-time novice counselor with less than one year of experience, who narrated her emotional tension, practical challenges, and emerging professional identity as she taught a highly sensitive topic for the first time. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed using Clandinin and Connelly’s three-dimensional inquiry framework—temporality, sociality, and place. Four narrative threads were identified: (1) a shift from information deliverer to relational helper, (2) recognition of lecture-based education as an expanded form of counseling practice, (3) experience of the classroom as a relational space of care and recovery, and (4) confrontation with emotional labor and the need for self-care. The findings suggest that suicide prevention education is a relational and existential practice that requires counselors’ emotional attunement, reflective engagement, and contextual sensitivity across school levels. This study underscores the necessity for mentoring and emotional support systems for novice counselors, age-responsive instructional models, institutional measures to prevent emotional exhaustion, and narrative-based professional development within counselor education programs.

This study analyzed the inquiry activities of the Observation of the Night Sky unit -approved elementary science textbooks developed under the 2022 Revised Elementary Science Curriculum, focusing on the fourth-grade level. Based on the achievement standards of the revised curriculum, the content was categorized into three topics Moon, Solar System, and Stars & Constellations and examined in terms of inquiry topics, methods, use of tools, learner participation, and the integration of digital literacy. The inquiry activities were further analyzed from the perspectives of knowledge and understanding, process and skills, and values and attitudes. The findings revealed that in the Moon topic, the use of digital tools was generally incorporated. In the Solar System topic, many creative STEAM-based activities were presented; however, some inquiry activities involved designing planetary models without reflecting the actual size and distance ratios of planets. In the Stars & Constellations topic, inquiry activities aimed at understanding the concept of a star appeared in only a few textbooks, and the diversity of observation and production activities varied among textbooks. Overall, the results indicated that the intent and direction of the 2022 Revised Science Curriculum emphasizing digital literacy and learner engagement were generally reflected. Nevertheless, differences were found among textbooks in terms of the depth of concept presentation, specificity of provided materials, and completeness of the inquiry process.