Basic Research on Layered Structure and Correlation of each composition concept of the Idea of Life

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the structure between the subordinate position concepts of biological concepts and life concepts to compose the idea of life and the relation between them by using the scale measuring the idea of life that Yamaya et al. developed and improved. The measurement standard was executed within the wide domestic range for the child student of sixth-grade elementary school and second-grade lower secondary school. As a result of the cluster analysis, it was shown that conjecture and objective knowledge first formed the cluster and mechanism related to it next in biological concepts. In life concepts, it was shown that value, life, and personification and vitalism previously formed the cluster next, and animism related it to the one that these clusters united mutually. The layered structure of the idea of life based on the idea that existed inside the child student became clear. To examine a spatial position, the multidimensional scaling was done. As a result, the biological concepts and the life concepts were arranged in another dimension on the boundary of the coordinate axis. It turned out the mechanism and animism as each subordinate conception of the biological concepts and the life concepts to be arranged in another dimension on the boundary of the coordinate axis. As for conjecture, when the school year went up as a result of the correlation analysis between the subordinate position concepts, it was shown that other concepts and the correlations became strong, and the correlation of mechanism and animism, value and life also became strong similarly. It was shown that value and life applied them whenever the personification, vitalism, conjecture, and the correlation strengthened respectively, and the acquired knowledge increased, and caught the living thing in the affect. Therefore, the relation between biological concepts and the life concepts increased in second-grade lower secondary school. In a word, it became clear that the two concepts become both circles and the idea of life is formed.