• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.699-715
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• 1996

This paper examines the cross-sectional development of children's conception of place. Previous research by Piaget and Weil, Jahoda, Daggs has questioned how young children develop the ablity to comprehend place. Oral interview and graphic test were made vy the children at the age of 5-14, in order to attain information on their knowledge, understanding and feeling about place. These data were used ti indentify developmental stages through cluster analysis. The results suggest that young children's conception of place develops with an identifiable 4 stages. There is no significant difference in development of conception of place between the 2nd year of kindergarten and the 1st year of elementary school, or the between the 5th, 6th year of elementary school and 1st, 2nd year of middle school. Rather, the 4th year of elementary school is an important and crucial truning point in the development of children's conception of place. It is concluded that children's conception of place develops in line with Piaget's general cognitive developmental theory in which the pre-conceptual stage ends at age 7 and the concrete-operation stage starts at age 11 to 12.