Basic Research on the Composition Concept and Measurement Standard of the Idea of Life in Science Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify the development of a scale measuring idea of life by achieving a means to understand the development of the concept. Moreover, analysis of the results of previous studies within Japan and abroad showed that within idea of life there are two subdivisions: biological concepts and life concepts. These can be further sub-categorized into the concepts of mechanism, conjecture, objective knowledge, animism, personification, vitalism, value and life. Based on these subordinate concepts a subordinate scale was remade from the original and reliability and validity were presumed for sixth-grade elementary school students. It became clear that reliability can be assessed according to internal consistency and construct validity can be assessed according to factorial validity.