The Tendency of Children's Response on Scientific Evidence Materials

과학적 증거 자료에 대한 아동들의 반응유형 경향성

This study was designed to investigate children's response types, which are always consistent when they meet with different evidence materials. The participants in this study were 119 students of 6th grade in elementary school, who were acquainted with evidence materials presented and able to state logically. Evidence materials were constructed on the main subjects of a cause of the dinosaur extermination and a purpose of the astronomical observatory establishment. The criteria, 'whether or not believe evidence materials presented', 'whether or not believe evidence materials newly presented', 'where or not decrease their belief in the preinstructional evidence materials', and 'whether or not change their belief' were used to classify the type of their responses. So the students' responses to the evidence materials were classified into low types: rejection, reinterpretation, belief decrease, and valuation by evidences. Only about a third of them was also consistent with response types, but the others showed individually different responses to new evidence materials. The types of belief decrease and valuation by evidences were relatively below, while those of the rejection and reinterpretation were likely to represent them again, and these results did not reflect a meaningful difference between male and female. These results show that children's response type are not always coherent, and that they respond variously according to the evidence materials except for an individual cognitive view and a background in estimating evidence materials, and most of them are contents dependent in evaluating evidences. Therefore we are expected to apply it to studies on a thought process of the student as data on the basis of them and develop more various evidence materials responded by basis on evidence.