Formation and Development of 3-6 Year Old Children’s Beliefs about Knowledge and Knowing
Subject Areas :Zahra Tanha 1 , Parvin Kadivarnha 2 , Mohammad Hosein Abdollahi 3 , Jafar Hasani 4
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Keywords: personal epistemology theory of mind false belief culture,
Abstract :
Development of individual beliefs about nature of knowledge and knowing has been one of the important educational research topics in recent decades. The present study aimed to examine belief’s development with regard to the theory of mind at early ages. Hence, a sample of 75 children aged 3-6 years were selected from Tehran kindergartens. For each child, two False Belief Tasks and two Personal Epistemology Tasks were used. The results showed that there was a significant positive relationship between personal epistemology, theory of mind, and age. Results of regression analysis showed that personal epistemology was predictable by age and theory of mind. Accordingly, the older children got higher scores in personal epistemology, and approximately 31% of the variance in personal epistemology was explained by age. Also, children with higher scores in personal epistemology obtained higher scores in theory of mind, and age and theory of mind together explained 32.5% of the variance of personal epistemology. Moreover, the transition to dualism was not observed in the studied sample.
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