CHILDREN'S INTEREST IN THE NATURE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT (1) FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE ON THEIR EXPERIENCES WITH SMALL ANIMALS

Abstract

To investigate children's interest in small animals, the study was made by means of questionnaire to kindergartners with their parents and girl students. Children's experiences with a small animal were classified in three categories. The first was an experience in having seen it; the second, in being able to touch it; the last, in having captured it. Among these three experiences, the following equation seemed to be obtained, C=STY where S, T and C were respectively the ratio of children having the first to the last categories of experiences to total children. Y was the index of easiness to capture a small animal. C was statistically subject to parents' C only when their parents had similar experiences. Referring to boys and girls separately, the sets of S, T and Y values of animals were changed and others unchanged as children grew up. The experience with a dragonfly, for instance, boys changed the interest type from (S=T>Y) to (S=T=Y), while girls did it from (S>T>Y) to (S=T>Y). With an ant, the type of boys belonged to (S=T=Y) at any age. But the type of girls was changed from (S=T>Y) to (S=T=Y). These changes were assumed to represent the development of children's interest in small animals. Therefore, the processes of the development types acquired from 14 animal species could be shown in a diagram.