The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of third-year elementary schoolchildren on the concept of 'changes', based on considering the significance of learning of 'changes' in history education and analyzing the concept of 'changes' pre...
The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of third-year elementary schoolchildren on the concept of 'changes', based on considering the significance of learning of 'changes' in history education and analyzing the concept of 'changes' presented as a factor in the education process.
The author selected the contents related to the concept 'changes' and prepared analysis standards to draw up questionnaires, which were offered to 192 elementary schoolchildren in five classes. Interviews with the children were accompanied in order to overcome the limits in answering to the questions in writing and to obtain precise results.
The results showed that there were seven types of children on understanding the concept of changes. Many of the subjects were type ③ and ④, and about 47% showed a lack in understanding 'time expression concept' when they tried to grasp the concept of changes. Therefore, around half of the children were proved to fail to consider time in understanding changes. However, the rest could understand 'changes' as a historical concept based on 'time expression concept', and about 3% of them had an elevated ability to think, understanding the concept 'changes' in the context to figure out its influences.
In consequence, the characteristics shown in schoolchildren when they perceive the aspects of changes and the educational suggestions from them may be summarized as follows:
Firstly, when perceiving changes, most children think from their current experiences or environments. Secondly, understanding 'time concept' is important to perceive the changes as a historical concept. Thirdly, most children understand a single cause in the causal relationship when they try to grasp the aspects of changes. Fourthly, children tend to perceive changes only as developing.
In conclusion, when coping with the 'changes' as an essential concept in history education, teachers should be able to find out effective teaching methods for children on the basis of the above-mentioned traits shown in the perception of the schoolchildren.