The Development of Scientific Concepts on the Day-Night Cycle of Young Children
Eun Jung Kim , Eun Soo Shin
Abstract
This study examines the scientific concept development of young children in terms of the day-night cycle. The subjects consisted of 180 three-, four-, and five-year-old children from two kindergartens and one children`s center located in Seoul and Jeju. Individual interviews were conducted to collect verbal and pictorial responses on the day-night cycle. The scientific concepts on the day-night cycle are classified five stages including：no recognition, egocentric concept, initial mental models, synthetic mental models, and scientific mental models. Using two-way ANOVA, scores for the types of concept on the day-night cycles were then analyzed according to both the ages and genders of the children. The results reveal the existence of significant differences in terms of the types of concept of young children according to age. Most three-year-olds children had no recognition. Most three, four, and five-year-old children revealed egocentric concepts. Four-year-old children revealed that were in the initial stages of experiencing the mental models and synthetic mental models of the day-night cycle. Five-year-old children revealed that they were in the early stages of experiencing the initial, synthetic, scientific mental models of the day-night cycle. The results suggest appropriate ways of science education for young children based on the development of scientific concepts of the day-night cycle.
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