摘要：The purposes of the present study were to identify the stages of early concept development of the air in young Korean children and to compare the stages with those reported by Piaget. The subjects were 87 four,five,and six-year-old children from one kindergarten,two day care centers,and an elementary school,all located in Seoul. To collect the children`s ideas of the air,individual interviews were conducted based on Piaget`s Clinical Interview method. According to the results,the children formulated very unique concepts of the air,showing artificialism,anthropocentric finalism,animism,and dualism. Their concepts of the air showed a consistent developmental process which is very similar to the stages proposed by Piaget. This implies that young children`s misconcepts and idosyncratic ideas are very natural and can not be eliminate easily by artificial instruction. This also means that children`s internal ideas themselves should be the starting point of education.
关键词：concept of the air;constructivism;early childhood science education
