Research On The Structure, Developmental Characteristic And Influencing Factors Of Curiosity For 3 To 6 Years Old Children

Curiosity is one important element of personality. The development of preschool children' s curiosity plays an important role on creativity shaping. The purpose of the study was to construct the structure of preschooler' s curiosity, examine the developmental characteristics of preschoolers' curiosity, and explore the relationships between preschoolers' curiosity and Maternal Parenting Style, Maternal attitude and preschooler' s temperament. This study will provide the scientific foundation for developing children' s curiosity and establish the base of cultivating children' s curiosity.This dissertation consists of four parts: 1) Part I is a review of the literature. 2) Part II contains the statement of the problem, purpose of the study, questions, hypothesis, significance of the study, and whole design. 3) Part III is the demonstration part of this research. It contains seven studies. 4) Part IV consists of the discussions, conclusions, putting forward good ideas for preschooler education. The inadequacy and the research points in future are also lightened.In study one, curiosity characteristics of 480 preschool children were described by 80 preschool teachers. Based on a comprehensive literature review and the open questionnaires that Chinese teachers provided of their students' curiosity characteristics, the study constructed the structure of preschooler' s curiosity.In study two, based on study one, the paper designed a 60 items original Curiosity Questionnaire For Tree- to Six- Year- Olds for Teacher Rating, then 500 preschoolers were evaluated by their teachers. Based on the results of exploratory factor analysis for original questionnaire, formed a 33 items formal questionnaire. The formal questionnaire was administered to 1080 preschoolers. We analyzed and tested the formal questionnaire by means of confirmatory factor analysis. As results showed, the structure model of teacher rating for curiosity of preschoolers is a model which consisted of four first level factors (intention to ask, intention to manipulate, sensitivity, attention to unknown things) and four second level factors (reactivity, autonomy of exploratory, permanent exploratory and experience of curiosity) and one third level factor (curiosity). The questionnaire has good validity and reliability.In study three, the developmental characteristics of preschoolers' curiosity were explored based on the teacher-rating questionnaire. As results showed, as a whole, preschooler' s curiosity has no significant age difference, and the different curiosity trait has different developmental trend. There are some clear development trends exist: 1) autonomy of exploratory and reactivity for new stimulation showed a "V" curve trend; 2) permanent exploratory enhanced with children' s age; 3) experience of curiosity reduced with children' s age; and 4) sex difference of preschoolers' curiosity is salience. Boys have high-level activity of exploratory than girls' , but girls have higher-level permanent exploratory than boys' .In study four, development of objects for preschooler' s curiosity was investigated according to the opened survey. As the results showed,preschoolers become more interested in substantial property of things than to external property of things.In study five, relations among preschooler' s curiosity and maternal parenting style and interrelated factors were reviewed. Results showed that: The more inconsistent in parenting style of mother the lower curiosity her child has; Both direct effects of mother education and mother childbirth age to maternal parenting style and indirect effects of these factors to curiosity of children are insignificant.In study six, the influence of maternal attitude toward child' s curious was investigated by an observational experiment. The results showed Mother' s encouragement can facilitate expression of young children' s curiosity, exciting preschooler' s autonomy of exploratory, and building up permanence of exploratory. Mother' s encouragement to children' s curiosity behavior can improve children' s both exploratory frequency and time.In study seven, relation between preschooler' s curiosity and temperament were reviewed. As results showed, there' s significant correlation between preschooler' s curiosity and temperament. Intensity of Reaction, Activity Level and Attention Span and Persistent have significant prediction ability to preschooler' s curious behave.