| Popis: |
This study examines what “memory elements” are connected, and how and when preschoolers use those elements to understand nature. Nature and how preschoolers understand it are relevant to elementary school subjects, such as Living Environment Science and Natural Science. Relying on White’s theory of memory elements （1988）, this paper analyzes two case studies in which preschoolers brought various concepts of nature into their cognition and extracted relevant memory elements. The analysis clarifies how preschoolers cognize nature in and through their experiences. Findings from the study suggest that preschoolers’ original cognition settles into proto-experience when the obtained memory elements, such as images, motor skills, and episodes are enhanced by preschoolers’ relations with others, narratives of the situation, and their own emotional preference. The results also suggest the possibility that preschoolers’ improved cognition of nature helps them become capable of dealing with elementary school subjects as the structuring of their memory elements, and parts of their memory elements are verbalized and words are muttered, perhaps in the form of self-talk, and the memory elements are transformed into strings, propositions, and intellectual skills. |
