THE INFLUENCE OF EXPERIMENTAL TEACHING ON 5 - AND 7- YEAR OLD CHILDREN’S CONCEPTS OF THE EARTH AND GRAVITY

The investigation was aimed to study the influence of age and experimental teaching conditions on the learning of the concepts of the earth and gravity. 47 kindergarteners (age 60-69 months) and 56 first graders (age 85-95 months) were assigned into three groups: model-based, verbal-individual teaching and control groups. Three topics, aimed to treat children's preliminary notions and to change children's entrenched beliefs, were covered in teaching: the spherical shape of the earth; gravity; the relativity of up-down direction. The results showed that both 5- and 7-years-old children's astronomy knowledge was improved due to teaching, regarding of which teaching method was used; however, the condition x age interaction was not significant. Difficulties that occurred during learning and their sources are discussed and conclusions for education are drawn.