El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) - an analysis of earth science I textbooks aligned with the 2015 revised curriculum

Oct 29, 2026

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By analyzing five Earth Science I textbooks developed based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum, this study examines content related to the “El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),”a core concept in Earth Science. The analysis focuses on four key areas: the description of ENSO mechanisms, potential misconceptions caused by ENSO schematic diagrams, the depiction of ENSO’s global impacts, and inquiry activities related to ENSO. To address factors contributing to misconceptions in existing textbooks, an improved ENSO diagram is proposed, offering a comprehensive view of ENSO as a dynamically coupled ocean-atmosphere interactive system.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

El Niño and ENSO overview

Educational significance and hazards

Visual representations and misconceptions

Authors’ contributions

eISSN 3091-6402 Original Article J. Hazard Lit. 2025;1(2):e12 [https://doi.org/10.63737/jhl.25.0024](https://doi.org/10.63737/jhl.25.0024) Received: Aug 2, 2025 Revised: Aug 21, 2025 Accepted: Aug 30, 2025 *Corresponding author Hyemi Kim Department of Science Education, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea Tel: +82-2-3277-2114 E-mail: [hyemi.kim@ewha.ac.kr](hyemi.kim@ewha.ac.kr) Copyright © 2025 Hazard Literacy Center, Ewha Womans University. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ([http://creativecommons.org/](http://creativecommons.org/)[ ](http://creativecommons.org/)[licenses/by-nc/4.0/](licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) [which](which) permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ORCID Jueun Lee [https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3190-4519](https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3190-4519)[ ](https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3190-4519)Hyemi Kim [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4713-4658](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4713-4658)[ ](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4713-4658)Jong-Seong Kug [https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2251-2579](https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2251-2579) Conflict of interest No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported. Funding sources H. Kim was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (NRF-RS-2023-00278113) . Acknowledgements Not applicable. Availability of data and material Upon reasonable request, the datasets Improving El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) representations: an analysis of earth science I textbooks aligned with the 2015 revised curriculum Jueun Lee1 , Hyemi Kim2,* , Jong-Seong Kug3 1Gorim High School, Yongin, Korea 2Department of Science Education, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea 3School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea Abstract By analyzing five Earth Science I textbooks developed based on the 2015 Revised National Curriculum, this study examines content related to the “El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO),”a core concept in Earth Science. The analysis focuses on four key areas: the description of ENSO mechanisms, potential misconceptions caused by ENSO schematic diagrams, the depiction of ENSO’s global impacts, and inquiry activities related to ENSO. To address factors contributing to misconceptions in existing textbooks, an improved ENSO diagram is proposed, offering a comprehensive view of ENSO as a dynamically coupled ocean-atmosphere interactive system. Keywords: Earth Science I, El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), diagram, textbook misconceptions analysis Introduction El Niño is an ocean-atmosphere interaction phenomenon characterized by sustained aboveaverage sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropical eastern and central Pacific (CP) Ocean for several months. Typically, it begins to develop during the boreal spring or summer, reaches its peak intensity during the winter, and subsequently dissipates or transitions into its opposite phase, La Niña, by the following year. Both El Niño and La Niña represent interannual climate variability modes that exert significant influence on global weather and climate patterns through teleconnections [1]. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is closely linked not only to changes in SST but also to variations in atmospheric pressure, as represented by the Southern Oscillation. ENSO is known to trigger a wide range of meteorological hazards worldwide, including heatwaves, droughts, heavy rainfall, floods, and wildfires, often resulting in significant loss of life and socioeconomic damages. Given its close association with global disasters, ENSO is frequently addressed as a core instructional element in the Earth Science section of the Korean College Scholastic Ability Test [2]. Despite its educational significance, this study identified not

FAQs

What ENSO-related textbook content does the study analyze?

The study analyzes ENSO mechanisms descriptions, potential misconceptions from ENSO schematic diagrams, representations of ENSO global impacts, and related inquiry activities.

Why do ENSO schematics in textbooks risk causing misconceptions?

Differences in depicted elements and even indicated directions of winds and currents can lead learners to misinterpret ENSO diagrams, and some books illustrate atmosphere and ocean separately, obscuring the coupled nature.

What improvement does the study propose to reduce misconceptions?

An improved ENSO diagram is proposed to provide a more comprehensive view of ENSO as a dynamically coupled ocean-atmosphere interactive system.

Oct 29, 2026

Upload by Finn