Analysis of Invention Education Content in the Integrated Curriculum of the 2022 Revised National Curriculum

The purpose of this study is to examine the content of invention education included in the integrated curriculum for first- and second-grade elementary students. This analysis aims to establish a foundation for the extension of invention education to the third and fourth grades and for its broader implementation across all grades via the “Neulbom” education system. To achieve this purpose, three invention education experts analyzed 16 integrated textbooks for the first and second grades of elementary school and conducted additional discussions on any disagreements. The results of the study are as follows: Firstly, the analysis revealed that invention education content appeared 67 times in first-grade textbooks and 106 times in second-grade textbooks. The results showed that, although invention education is not explicitly addressed in the integrated curriculum, related content appears frequently. Secondly, regarding the analysis of the characteristics of invention education by grade, it was observed that the second grade exhibited a greater amount of content than the first grade. Specifically, 14 sub-elements of invention education content standards were identified in the first grade compared to 21 sub-elements in the second grade. These findings confirm that the content of invention education is systematically integrated in accordance with a hierarchical structure across different grade levels. To conclude, these findings show that the potential to implement invention education across all elementary school grades has increased, with the integrated curriculum for the first and second grades and the practical arts curriculum for the fifth and sixth grades serving as the two axes. Furthermore, the diverse invention education content within the integrated curriculum provides the opportunity for its further development in the future.