본 연구의 목적은 2세 영아의 물리적 지식 세계에 대한 접근과 지식 형성의 과정에 대해 탐색해 봄으로써, 2세 영아의 과학적 탐구과정 및 그 의미를 밝히는데 있다. 연구 결과 2세 영아들의 과학적 탐구 과정은 ‘탐구로 들어서기, 기본적 탐구하기, 통합적 탐구하기’로 범주화할 수 있으며, 관찰, 비교, 분류, 측정, 예상, 추리, 변인인식, 가설설정 등의 과정기술을 수행하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 이들 과학적 탐구과정은 ‘귀납적 경험지식의 구성, 비연속적 순환, 비가시적 체계성’의 의미를 가짐을 알 수 있었다. 이상의 결과를 토대로 영아의 과학적 탐구를 지원하기 위해서는 ‘교사 인식, 시․공간, 교재교구, 규칙’ 등의 측면에서의 논의가 필요하다는 시사점을 도출할 수 있었다.

This qualitative research aimed to identify the procedures two-year-old toddlers demonstrate and the kind of reasoning they expressed both their form of inquiry (their procedure) and the meaning gleaned from them during scientific inquiry activities at a child care center. The participants of the study were four two-year-old toddlers in a child care center; two boys and two girls. The whole processes of their inquiry engagement were videotaped and participant observations were recorded from April to September, 2008. The major findings of video analysis of the toddler’s scientific activities are summarized here. Analyses of the procedures constituting the young children’s scientific inquiry revealed that the procedures could be placed into three interrelated categories applied to a particular object or problem: having-interest, basic-inquiry, and integrated inquiry. Each of these procedural categories were connected with each of the others. Moreover, 역they were repeatative and cyclical. The category “Having-interest” was expressed when the two-year-old toddlers generated questions to initiate their investigating activities. The categories of basic and integrated-inquiry comprised the actual inquiry process which employed a variety of scientific skills. The essence of the toddler’s scientific inquiry was characterized by the cyclical repetitiveness of the procedural categories of interest-to-inquiry as they constructed their own inquiry-guided scientific knowledge. The nature of the two-year-old toddlers’ scientific inquiry process, observed in this study, was inductive. As a result of these findings, some lesson materials were developed to enhance the natural scientific inquiry methods of two-year-old toddlers.

This qualitative research aimed to identify the procedures two-year-old toddlers demonstrate and the kind of reasoning they expressed both their form of inquiry (their procedure) and the meaning gleaned from them during scientific inquiry activities at a child care center. The participants of the study were four two-year-old toddlers in a child care center; two boys and two girls. The whole processes of their inquiry engagement were videotaped and participant observations were recorded from April to September, 2008. The major findings of video analysis of the toddler’s scientific activities are summarized here. Analyses of the procedures constituting the young children’s scientific inquiry revealed that the procedures could be placed into three interrelated categories applied to a particular object or problem: having-interest, basic-inquiry, and integrated inquiry. Each of these procedural categories were connected with each of the others. Moreover, 역they were repeatative and cyclical. The category “Having-interest” was expressed when the two-year-old toddlers generated questions to initiate their investigating activities. The categories of basic and integrated-inquiry comprised the actual inquiry process which employed a variety of scientific skills. The essence of the toddler’s scientific inquiry was characterized by the cyclical repetitiveness of the procedural categories of interest-to-inquiry as they constructed their own inquiry-guided scientific knowledge. The nature of the two-year-old toddlers’ scientific inquiry process, observed in this study, was inductive. As a result of these findings, some lesson materials were developed to enhance the natural scientific inquiry methods of two-year-old toddlers.

inquiry, two-year-oldtoddler, scienceprocessskills, knowledge