著者

加藤 尚裕 Takahiro Kato

雑誌

国際経営・文化研究 = Cross-cultural business and cultural studies (ISSN:13431412)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, no.1, pp.17-28, 2013-11-01

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This study purports to reveal incipient scientific thinking observed in children’s daily plays which bring forth their interest in things and phenomena, and lead them to pursuing their spontaneous approaches to problems and questions.The author let preschool five-year-old children take part in sandbox play, soap bubble play, playing in the water color and mud ball play. I came to the following conclusion after analyzing children’s utterances and conversations during these plays.(1) I observed a lot of “temporary expression utterances” in sandbox play, soap bubble play, and playing in the water color. They are suitable teaching materials for developing incipient scientific thinking. In mud ball play, children make more utterances for building good friendly relations and cooperation than the utterances which cultivate incipient scientific thinking. The play is appropriate for building children’s social skills.(2) In mud-box play and color-water play, “temporary expression utterances” are often made. These plays are appropriate for cultivating awareness which will make up a significant part of the basic incipient scientific thinking itself. In mud ball play, on the other hand, “fundamental scientific utterances” often are made. It is a suitable play for nourishing incipient scientific thinking, while in soap bubble play, children often make “temporary expression utterances” and “fundamental scientific utterances”.